Not Enough Space To Install Big Sur

[Huntn]

Got a message that I needed 30Gb to install Big Sur on my wife’s MacBook Air. Any way around this other than cleaning data off your computer?

 

[0128672]

Got a message that I needed 30Gb to install Big Sur on my wife’s MacBook Air. Any way around this other than cleaning data off your computer?

You could asking pretty please with a cherry on top, but that's probably not going to have any effect. Yes, you need to make space to do the install.

 

[mikzn]

Have you tried “about this mac” < Storage < click the manage button ?

try the “reduce clutter“ for a review of large files ? Movies? Videos etc? a few of those may make the difference? Duplicates?

 

[Huntn]

You could asking pretty please with a cherry on top, but that's probably not going to have any effect. Yes, you need to make space to do the install.

It’s too bad you could not use external storage as part of the install storage management.

 

[Huntn]

Have you tried “about this mac” < Storage < click the manage button ?

try the “reduce clutter“ for a review of large files ? Movies? Videos etc? a few of those may make the difference? Duplicates?

View attachment 1859362

View attachment 1859365

I’ll do this. I was thinking that just pulling applications off the hard drive, leaves a lot of clutter associated with those applications in libraries and such he my thread about Mac cleanup utilities.

 

[mikzn]

I’ll do this. I was thinking that just pulling applications off the hard drive, leaves a lot of clutter associated with those applications in libraries and such he my thread about Mac cleanup utilities.

FWIW - I had to split my Photos library into smaller separate libraries - had almost 120g just the photos library - Now I keep a small Photos library on my MBP and the larger libraries on an external drive

 

[smirking]

If she's using Photos, check the size of the Photos application. If it's amazingly large, right click on it and "Show package contents". If that app was carried forward from an original iPhotos installation, it may still have a dead iPhotos library inside it eating up a lot of space.

Of course, make a backup first, and then remove the iPhoto Library.

I also really like using OmniDiskSweeper to help me find hidden pockets of obsolete storage in my Library folders.