Possible fix for 'endless calculating' and storage total way off

[brinkeguthrie]

2024 M3 MBA, Sequoia 15.3.1.

So I look at Launchpad and I notice the Siri icon had changed. Now it's orange and turquoise. I checked, and golly be, Apple Intelligence was turned on.

I most certainly did not enable it.

Then I looked at the storage amount- 90GB. Which is pretty much what it was before all this started. And oh look- system calculating totaled and stopped.

So I turned OFF Apple Intelligence- and guess what. Yep. Storage had dropped back to 25GB or so, (I have 31GB of music alone) and system data was back to endless calculation.

So I turned Apple Intel back on- and, give it just minute or two, and back to 90GB, and calculating stops cold.

I think this is the culprit.

Now if I can get that Siri window top right corner to stop showing up, and we're set.

 

[Sciuriware]

2024 M3 MBA, Sequoia 15.3.1.

So I look at Launchpad and I notice the Siri icon had changed. Now it's orange and turquoise. I checked, and golly be, Apple Intelligence was turned on.

I most certainly did not enable it.

Then I looked at the storage amount- 90GB. Which is pretty much what it was before all this started. And oh look- system calculating totaled and stopped.

So I turned OFF Apple Intelligence- and guess what. Yep. Storage had dropped back to 25GB or so, (I have 31GB of music alone) and system data was back to endless calculation.

So I turned Apple Intel back on- and, give it just minute or two, and back to 90GB, and calculating stops cold.

I think this is the culprit.

Now if I can get that Siri window top right corner to stop showing up, and we're set.

View attachment 2484400

welcome to the 'club'.
;JOOP!

 

[nmt1900]

I enabled Apple Intelligence and yes... System Data calculation result finallly appeared. I just waited for a while because it changed after that for some time as Image Playground and other stuff was downloading.

After that ended I disabled Apple Intelligence and System Data is still able to calculate itself. Let's see if this will be "permanent"...

P. S. There seems to be one trick to avoid Apple Intelligence from being turned on - Siri language has to be set different from system language (i.e. English US vs English UK)

 

[nmt1900]

Well was too fast on that as system data calculating got screwed again and purgeable data amount jumped up by same amount which was under system data - so both system data and purgeable storage space are both wrong when Apple Intelligence is disabled.

Difference in reported available space between Finder and Path Finder (which shows the same as df -h) is now bigger than ever.

It looks like only way out is to wait for 15.4 (?)

 

[Macdafak]

I had the same exact problem when i installed macOS Sequoia, and tbh enabling apple AI seemed to fix the problem. Even tho i downgraded back to macOS Sonoma, i was wondering is the problem fixed in Sequoia 15.5? I am not planning to stay on Sonoma forever...😅

 

[brinkeguthrie]

it is for me, running Sequoia 15.5.

 

[Macdafak]

it is for me, running Sequoia 15.5.

Oh no...so the option to not use the apple AI is really not a option?

 

[brinkeguthrie]

Oh no...so the option to not use the apple AI is really not a option?

don't know; I turned it on and left it. It's inevitable, it getting shoved down our throats, why fight it.

 

[Macdafak]

don't know; I turned it on and left it. It's inevitable, it getting shoved down our throats, why fight it.

Absolutely! If i upgrade again to Sequoia and the bug reappears i will just leave the AI do its thing and live with it. I just hope that my 16GB RAM is enough to keep it running and not completely ruin everything else for me lol

 

[nmt1900]

I did some digging around and while having about 100 GB difference in "available space" between Finder and all other utilities it looks like the source of over 80 GB of it is here and all is related to handling of all different cloud storage services - as I have 2 Microsoft/OneDrive accounts, 2 accounts on Google Drive and one Dropbox account syncing in addition to iCloud drive. Only Finder is able to see that "on disk" amount properly and bases its' reporting on that value. Any other utility sees only "full size" of all these folders and therefore reports available size based on that information.

Why enabling Apple Intelligence brings Finder reporting in line with "any other utility" might be a separate story alltogether and maybe it is just related to crappy way Apple Intelligence was born...

 

[nmt1900]

One correction - it looks like size calculation on CloudStorage folder was incomplete as it changed later to about 56 GB (while still being only 1 GB "on disk"). Combining this with previous findings we seem to have covered all of this 100'ish GB of difference in available space.

Interestingly the variation of purgeable space between Apple Intelligence enabled/disabled is about the same. It might be just pure coincidence or cause behind this problem has been found...