More > JRiver Media Center 27 for Mac
Thumbnails taking up a lot of disk space
zybex:
This is a feature of the OS/Filesystem and there's nothing the app can do to disable it - at least I found no flag in the documentation that an app could use to opt-out of it (there's INODE_SNAPSHOT_COW_EXEMPTION, but I found no way for an app to set it)
The APFS snapshots are like automatic backups; each time an app modifies an existing file, the current version of the file is preserved (the "copy-on-write") in case the user wants to revert to it. Time Machine uses these local-backups to generate a full snapshot for external backup.
When MC is creating the thumbnails file it necessarily does so in batches - open file, add some thumbnails, close. Each time you get an additional copy of the previous file stored by the filesystem. Any app constantly rewriting its own files in this matter will trigger the issue, but it's hardly the app's fault. The OS should provide a flag to opt-out of the behavior, for instance by allowing to tag the file as a Cache/Temp file (maybe there's a way, I just couldn't find it on a quick search).
The good news is that you really should not care about this - the OS should automatically recover this purgeable space when you actually need it (at least in theory).
This thread adds some details and lists a couple of commands you can use to list and cleanup these backups:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38874150
Another option - why not replace your 256GB SSD/M2 for a 1TB one? They're cheap now (don't buy from Apple!), but will likely increase in price this year.
EnglishTiger:
--- Quote from: zybex on January 26, 2024, 07:33:49 am ---Another option - why not replace your 256GB SSD/M2 for a 1TB one? They're cheap now (don't buy from Apple!), but will likely increase in price this year.
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately this may not be possible on a Mac with a M1 or M2 chip.
Although Apple are very good at letting prospective purchasers know the M1, M2 & M3 can handle SSD's up to 8TB, its only when they go to compare them or purchase one that they discover that Apple only build and sell M1 and M2 equipped devices with either a 256 or 512 mb system disc; and there is only 1 high-end model from the M3 range that is available with a 1TB system disc.
zybex:
"Apple has soldered the SSD (solid state drive) storage onto the Mac mini's logic board, meaning that you can't remove it and plug in a new one."
1TB SSD storage + $400.00
... of course they did :-X
Meanwhile in the PC world:
Crucial P3 1TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe -- $63.99
Captain_Bitter:
I am still plagued by this thumbnails size issue. I upgraded to MC32 for Mac, but the problem persists. I understand that this is likely to be due to an Apple/MacOS bug. But here's where I find myself now:
Thumbnails (medium).jmd shows in Finder as 1.17GB.....but also shows it takes 59.02GB on disk!! I can see the file bloat here, but even if this excess 58GB is purgeable, MC32 doesn't act like it is. I get all sorts of issues, when I try to reopen MC32, it re-opens only in read-only mode....reflective of the fact that MC32 *THINKS* there is no hard drive space left. It's one thing if finder is incorrect, but it does impact how the app works. Or, in my case, doesn't work.
So I've found where the problem is manifesting, it is either 'Thumbnails (medium).jmd' or (sometimes) 'Thumbnails (large).jmd'. The only way I have found to recover the space is to reboot, which means every time I want to edit some file metadata, I have to do a little and then reboot. This is not viable long-term solution.
Question: is there any way to "right-size" this thumbnails file without rebooting? Is that my only option? I had been using Onyx to free up space, but I have yet to find a maintenance setting that frees up this space without requiring a reboot. So not much help from Onyx, either. Looking for a solution that doesn't require a reboot.
Thanks for your help, -dGB
JimH:
You can delete thumbnails and MC will rebuild them.
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