cancelNov 16, 2023

At this point, becoming suspicious that Apple intentionally puts things into macOS to fill up your disk over time and make you want to upgrade.

This machine lost 800mb over the last two days, even though I didn't create anything or update any software.

I went looking for stuff that might have been generated. Here's one. A directory of…copies of the desktop background images (which already ship with the OS in another directory.)

macOS creates new copies at random times. Forever. What.

Show threadmikiNov 16, 2023
@cancel Where's this? I checked in Library and Library/ApplicationSupport (both the user and global directories) and I couldn't find it. Sorry if the full path is in the original image, it's definitely not in the alt.
Show threadcancelNov 16, 2023
@miki it will have a random path on your machine. mine is at /private/var/folders/y1/wcqps87j1p74y3b6f95lk_ch0000gn/C/com.apple.desktoppicture
Show threadSteve PurcellNov 17, 2023
@cancel @miki That looks a temporary directory that will get removed at boot time
Show threadcancelNov 17, 2023
@sanityinc @miki Read the time stamps my dude
Show threadSteve Purcell
@cancel @miki Whoah, okay, I'm in for this mystery now!
Nov 17, 2023 at 7:03amWeb
Show threadSteve PurcellNov 17, 2023
@cancel @miki I've a similar folder, less out-of-control though. The hash-named parent of these dirs (total ~0.5GB) was created Aug 22, so it has survived many reboots and several OS updates.
Show threadSteve PurcellNov 17, 2023
@cancel @miki The 'com.apple.desktoppicture' folder for me has only a couple of images, unlike yours.
Show threadSteve PurcellNov 17, 2023

@cancel @miki For me, the parent path corresponds to this:

getconf DARWIN_USER_TEMP_DIR
=> /var/folders/hc/w17tmcyn47j16fs8h4rb3_6w0000gn/T/

(see "man confstr", also "getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR")

So it's a system-level cache dir that persists indefinitely, but I believe can be removed when safe-booted. What you're seeing looks like careless use of that dir by Apple devs, but I'd apply Hanlon's razor in this case.

Show threadcancelNov 17, 2023
@sanityinc @miki Yeah but there are multiple of these kinds of things happening in the OS, not just this one. I don’t think this is something they plotted to do, but they have no incentive to fix it or avoid it, either. They’re incentivized to just ignore it and let it keep happening.
Show threadSteve PurcellNov 17, 2023
@cancel @miki Yes, perverse incentives indeed.