Sequoia 15.3.1 showing incorrect free disk space

[thebart]

Noticed on 15.3. 15.3.1 did not resolve

Finder shows 300GB free space on internal SSD. df -h shows 214Gi. Disk space analyzer says 230GB. Pretty sure Finder is wrong because Finder itself showed around 220GB before and I didn't do anything to free up huge amount of disk space

BTW, AI gets re-enabled after an update so be sure to disable it again if you don't want it

 

[Flyview]

Honestly it seems like Apple is doing a lot of shady **** with AI. Just the fact that they're shoving it down our throats is shady. Of course they want you to think you have more "free" space than you actually do. There's probably tons of hidden files taking up space it considers "free" space in case you really need it. I came across a thread last night that mentioned a folder where AI stuff is kept (/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels). I found it's taking up 5GB on my disk even though I have Apple Intelligence off and I turn it off as soon as it turns itself on *facepalm*.

Sadly it's only people like us on these forums who seem to give a ****. Everyone else just gobbles up how much AI is "helping" them make ****** content while literally being mass surveilled.

 

[kagharaht]

I turned that thing off. Freed up almost 6gb of space on the internal drive. It's just not something I need anyway and why Apple enabled it automatically was kinda sneaky for Apple.

 

[Flyview]

I turned that thing off. Freed up almost 6gb of space on the internal drive. It's just not something I need anyway and why Apple enabled it automatically was kinda sneaky for Apple.

Do you still have this folder? How much space does it take up?
/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

 

[Sciuriware]

Do you still have this folder? How much space does it take up?
/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

Inaccessible on my Mac.
;JOOP!

 

[Sciuriware]

Noticed on 15.3. 15.3.1 did not resolve

Finder shows 300GB free space on internal SSD. df -h shows 214Gi. Disk space analyzer says 230GB. Pretty sure Finder is wrong because Finder itself showed around 220GB before and I didn't do anything to free up huge amount of disk space

BTW, AI gets re-enabled after an update so be sure to disable it again if you don't want it

1) AI was NOT enabled by updating my 3 Mac's to 15.3.1
2) If in doubt, there is a 55 year old utility that is always correct:
- go to Terminal
- practise: df -h
If you want more, practise: man df
Success.
;JOOP!

 

[diego.caraballo]

Noticed on 15.3. 15.3.1 did not resolve

Finder shows 300GB free space on internal SSD. df -h shows 214Gi. Disk space analyzer says 230GB. Pretty sure Finder is wrong because Finder itself showed around 220GB before and I didn't do anything to free up huge amount of disk space

BTW, AI gets re-enabled after an update so be sure to disable it again if you don't want it

I noticed issues since 15.1
Opening Settings > General > Storage shows way up more free space than before (about 25GB)
But Disk Utility tells another tale.

Settings:

Disk Utility:

 

[kagharaht]

Do you still have this folder? How much space does it take up?
/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

Yeah I still have that folder. Taking up 4.79 GB. I swear when I turned off AI, it took a couple of days for the Mac to say 1.63 TB Free to 1.69TB Free. I wonder is System Data shrunk as part of turning off AI.

 

[thebart]

1) AI was NOT enabled by updating my 3 Mac's to 15.3.1
2) If in doubt, there is a 55 year old utility that is always correct:
- go to Terminal
- practise: df -h
If you want more, practise: man df
Success.
;JOOP!

1) AI was re-enabled for me. First thing I checked. 2) I did use df -h. Mentioned in original post

 

[Sciuriware]

1) AI was re-enabled for me. First thing I checked. 2) I did use df -h. Mentioned in original post

Sorry, overlooked it.
;JOOP!

 

[Flyview]

Yeah I still have that folder. Taking up 4.79 GB. I swear when I turned off AI, it took a couple of days for the Mac to say 1.63 TB Free to 1.69TB Free. I wonder is System Data shrunk as part of turning off AI.

It's funny, that's how much an entire OS would take up not that long ago. I will be looking into how to debloat all this trash when I have some time. I don't even need the space, I have 4TB, but it's the principle.

If you go to Settings -> Storage -> System (23.16GB) and click the little info button, it actually opens up a dialog and says "Apple Intelligence 5.45GB" .

To help OP, here are my free space diagnostics:

Settings: 710GB / 4 TB used = ~3.3TB free depending on how they define a TB
Finder: 3.29TB free
Disk utility: 3.21TB free
Disk Space Analyzer: 3.21TB free
Disk Inventory X: 3.2GB free

Oh I completely forgot to ask, how is your swap file usage? I wonder if Finder considers that free space and the other utilities do not. Either way, there's no way it's 70GB.

 

[GabrielRaphael]

Well well look at this, I looked at this thread and suddenly I have the disease lol

Why is this happening now? you guys think its AI?

The image above is the pref pane

Disk Utility

Finder info

Should I start my own thread or can we figure this out together here cause Apple AI is not so intelligent with math?

 

[nmt1900]

Do you have Apple Intelligence enabled when this wrong information is shown or not? I have similar issue always when Apple Intelligence is disabled. Enabling it causes all readings to "normalize".

Some say that there's no easy cure for this...

 

[GabrielRaphael]

Do you have Apple Intelligence enabled when this wrong information is shown or not? I have similar issue always when Apple Intelligence is disabled. Enabling it causes all readings to "normalize".

Some say that there's no easy cure for this...

Are you saying that we have toters on Apple intelligence for the computer to calculate correctly now, isn't it gonna take space, made decisions with out your consent, share data about your private activities with marketing researchers and take even more space doing all this? cause I tried reading the agreement which states all this.

 

[nmt1900]

The difference you are observing between Finder and all other file management/storage reporting tools is most probably related to purgeable space - this difference should be similar to amount of storage marked as purgeable.

My problem is that when I disable Apple Intelligence, amount of storage marked (by system) as purgeable increases by about 100 GB and decreases by about the same amount when Apple Intelligence is turned on again. Finder reports "increase" of available space by that same amount. Actual storage use do not change much between these two states but this is a big problem because there's no way to know what part of aactually used storage ends up being in this 100 GB. Fact is that that I do not have 100 GB of anything that could be marked as purgeable by any logical reason (other than a bug) - which means that my actual files can be in this 100 GB.

This is obviously not normal behaviour and might lead to actual data loss when system moves anything (belonging into this 100 GB) from purgeable to free space. I am not able to find this again from the depths of the internet but I remember that someone has claimed having been in contact with Apple about it and Apple has admitted this issue - but allegedly commented that only way out (for now) is wiping and reinstalling all from scratch.

I suspect that this purgeable space problem and all other wonky things related to storage calculations are related to each other - so even if your purgeable data amount does not change, root cause might be the same.

Worst irony is that bug does not appear if Apple Intelligence is enabled. Quite perverse way to "incentivize" enabling this beta feature...

 

[GabrielRaphael]

ok, im not trying to be sarcastic or anything but your saying that turning on Apple intelligence fixes problems it caused when it was installed? how can I dump it is what I would like to know, cause its beta, and that alone is a red flag for anyone using a computer for professional work.

 

[gilby101]

Finder shows 300GB free space on internal SSD. df -h shows 214Gi. Disk space analyzer says 230GB. Pretty sure Finder is wrong because Finder itself showed around 220GB before and I didn't do anything to free up huge amount of disk space

You refers to things that might be "wrong". How do you define what is "right"? Different things measure space in different ways according their own rules - so everything is "right".

I define "most right" by going to Disk Utility (with View > Show All Devices) and look at the size of the APFS container and its volumes. Then discover how other things measure disk space and relate them to Disk Utility's values.

For example, df -h is tricky. It is showing the size of file systems without any understanding of the structure of APFS containers and volumes.

 

[nmt1900]

Available space shown by Finder is 'free + purgeable'. Disk Utility is able to show amount of purgeable data as well (just like "Get Info" in Finder). Other utilities can only show free space as available - thus the discrepancy. "Base2 vs base10" can cause its' own difference in amounts as well.

Complaining about some GB of files in AssetsV2 folder instead of problem with purgeable data is failing to see forest for the trees. Files in AssetsV2 folder do not harm your system - while your actual data marked as purgeable can make your data disappear.

This problem caused me to actually use Feedback Assistant to file a bug report - for first time in 15 years...

 

[GabrielRaphael]

Again, I had less problems with beta system installs and I imagine most users who turn to apple for simplicity are baffled by all this., we are forced to use apple intelligence, which is beta, and with zero transparency, but aside all this we cant fix something we have limited access to, so your correct about feedback assistant lol

Hope all this is solved soon, would not want files disappearing.

 

[nmt1900]

I did initial bug report when I was on 15.3.2. Then this variance in purgeable data was 60 GB. Now after 2 updates (being on 15.4.1) it has grown to 100 GB. It is just a matter of time until this variance will increase to amount of all actual used storage - and then maybe it will increase to amount of all available storage - and then exceed even that.

I think I will be updating my report with every next OS update until this will actually get resolved. It is obvious that there is a serious bug in this mechanism which decides what can be purgeable and what can not...

 

[Sciuriware]

Again, I had less problems with beta system installs and I imagine most users who turn to apple for simplicity are baffled by all this., we are forced to use apple intelligence, which is beta, and with zero transparency, but aside all this we cant fix something we have limited access to, so your correct about feedback assistant lol

Hope all this is solved soon, would not want files disappearing.

I still wonder why I have never seen problems like these.
All I did was updating to the latest, avoiding strange applications and tools,
never meddling with files that not were mine,
never changing setting I did not understand.
That made MacOS like a Mercedes for me, without a care in the world.
Btw.: I suffered too many years from Microsoft Windows (3.0 - 7)
;JOOP!

 

[nmt1900]

If this would be widely appearing bug then it might be more probable than it could be fixed - but this does not appear to be the case here. They might have produced a kludge so messed up that it is too complicated for them to resolve - we unfortunately know how more widely known and reproducible bugs have taken years to resolve and sometimes Apple even have ended up reverting some under-the-hood parts of the system - like ditching discoveryd and reverting to mDNSResponder.

Then again some deeper bugs can go unnoticed by majority of users and therefore just ignored by Apple.

 

[GabrielRaphael]

the issues that it is causing everyone from what I see is that they fear data loss, and of course the other nuisances like not been able to save anything cause the finder is reporting false space free on the internal drives.

Just as of an hour ago, a friend who also has a 250GB SSD iMac and she said it was showing her drive had 175GB free, which is impossible, so she turned on Apple intelligence like some suggested here and now it shows 889GB! lol

and disc utilities reported 56Gb free

 

[nmt1900]

Anybody can see that math does not add up - but as we see with others it might get much worse than in this case here. Who knows when this will be fixed - macOS 16, 17, 18? Your guess is as good as mine...

 

[GabrielRaphael]

this is not new, looks guys!