Finding the largest SQLite files on a Mac#

This runs using Spotlight so it’s really fast:

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mdfind "kMDItemDisplayName == *.sqlite" -0 | xargs -0 stat "-f%z %N" | sort -nr | head -n 20

I have a lot of files in my Dropbox so I excluded those like this:

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~ % mdfind "kMDItemDisplayName == *.sqlite" -0 | xargs -0 stat "-f%z %N" | sort -nr | grep -v Dropbox | head -n 20
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852422656 /Users/simon/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/Photos.sqlite
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301924352 /Users/simon/Library/Reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-A8BA15F3-C80E-43B3-9E21-F7D1CD42AB6A.sqlite
4
51343360 /Users/simon/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/search/psi.sqlite
5
47349760 /Users/simon/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/ljj897b8.default-release/webappsstore.sqlite
6
47185920 /Users/simon/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/ljj897b8.default-release/places.sqlite
7
33779712 /Users/simon/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite

Figured out via this comment by why_only_15 on Hacker News.

SQLite files in a specific directory#

The -onlyin directory/ option searches just within a specified folder.

Here’s how to see all of the SQLite files that have been created by Firefox (which is a lot, because it is used as a disk format for websites that use localStorage):

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mdfind "kMDItemDisplayName == *.sqlite" -onlyin ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox