Good to know, thanks for the update and info. That makes sense, even if it’s not ideal. Good luck with the research. Hopefully 13.1 will keep it below 56G now! That plus an out-of-control log file (39G) made for some issues but were easy to clean up and restart and otherwise Docker for Mac has been great. Thanks.
Mine is at 72GB, and qemu-img convert managed to create a 60GB file before dying due to lack of disk space 
What do I lose by deleting Docker.qcow2 ?
While using a single container to convert a 15second mp4 to a gif (using the screengif docker image) my Docker.qcow2 file kept growing. I had to kill it at 9.8GB before running out of diskspace.
I’ve removed the container, image, volumes, etc. Disk usage is still 9.8GB. I’ve had to remove the file to make my system responsive again. (I’m on an older 2011 MacBook Air with 128GB disk).
Any progress on this? Docker-for-Mac is unusable for me like this.
Having the same issue. The qcow2 file inexplicably becomes enormous until I run out of disk space. Around 20gb in my case.
Maybe I missed something, but is there any way to login to the “docker-machine” to get at the file system to delete individual files &c? Like, I’d like to wipe out my clogged up mysql directory on the base file system.
I just want docker-machine ssh…
S
nevermind, reading wrong topic
it would be indeed helpul if we could just set the location of the vm in preferences, like an external Volume location such as non sdd external disc.
+1 Yes! This is a MUST without at LEAST that docker is unusable and keeps ‘breaking’ an otherwise running Mac.
What would be even better if the files/images inside the container would be visible from the Mac, so one can do ‘emergency’ maintenance and remove a file or two when it refuses to start up again and has run the mac to a grinding halt.
I can’t believe this beta has run for so long and not addressed that very basic stability necessity?
Those files should really be mounted into the docker machine from the mac os x host filesystem, just like a shared directory.
+1 for being able to specify the location of images and containers. I will for sure point that to a large external drive.
It would be great if the Docker.qcow2 file could be cleaned up / shrinked regularly or even automatically. For now i’ll have to move the file to another disk (and link back to ~/Library/…) which will not be great for performance…
Also unlike before with the vbox virtual machine or on Linux i don’t have access to Data stored inside Images which makes it way harder to recover files when made a mistake in docker usage.
11G Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/com.docker.driver.amd64-linux/Docker.qcow2
This is 10% of my SSD main harddrive i just started with Docker 1.12 with qemu a week ago…
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Any news regarding this issue ?
Same here, any news? Sort of amazed an issue like this still exists.
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I assume docker toolbox doesn’t have these issues. Till this is fixed seems docker for mac is quite broken. Its left me with nearly no space at all.
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I’m surprised no one is complaining much about this, it’s quite annoying
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I just reset docker which basically sets even back to initial install state. Really wish the repository location could be a distinct mount so I could move it perhaps host on a fast external drive like the transcend USB-c which is 1,000 gbps