That does not explain the purgeable data calculation problem and its' relation to Apple Intelligence. This screenshot seems to be quite old posting from somewhere.
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Sequoia 15.3.1 showing incorrect free disk space
- Thread starter thebart
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Well there is at least some progress to this purgeable data problem - update to 15.5 did not increase this amount while every previous one did...
smirking
macrumors 601
Sequoia's disk space measurements are a hot mess. My 2TB SSD was starting to get tight on space. It was down to around 150GB left so I started doing some spring cleaning. The only problem is that despite purging a lot of old files, my storage space just kept going down.
It was down to 30GB earlier today so I took some aggressive measures and nothing happened. Well, it turns out that the key issue was that I had some problems with my Time Machine snapshots.
If you use Time Machine and it seems like you only lose more disk space the more you tidy up, you may have had the same issue too. Here's some info about that:
It was down to 30GB earlier today so I took some aggressive measures and nothing happened. Well, it turns out that the key issue was that I had some problems with my Time Machine snapshots.
If you use Time Machine and it seems like you only lose more disk space the more you tidy up, you may have had the same issue too. Here's some info about that:
GabrielRaphael
macrumors member
Its getting worse then I thought, several Macs here, all m1, all Sequoia, latest update, now even after removing 50GB of space on the internal SSD Disk Utilities shows zero change, its like the Mac decides what space is available, no math, no counting, as if its designed to purposely over write files with out your awareness or consent and your responsible not Apple or the OS, why would Apple allow such thing to go so long?
smirking
macrumors 601
GabrielRaphael
macrumors member
no, not at all, gave up on TM a while back cause I have a machine which uses a external SSD with a second home user folder for space.
smirking
macrumors 601
Try using something like OmniDiskSweeper to do a live accounting of your disk space. I’ve found that tool to be handy many times over to help me discover where the files are piling up.
It’s not always MacOS’s fault. I once forgot that I left a logging utility running and after 1 year, the log file was around 350GB!
Something went sideways as of Sequoia. I really don’t trust whatever free space number is being reported. I just assume that it’s about 10% off and act accordingly.
GabrielRaphael
macrumors member
heart tip, I need something to tell me whats actually there lol, thanks!
smirking
macrumors 601
In that case, the download link is here:
Omni Labs — OmniDiskSweeper, OmniWeb, and OmniPresence - The Omni Group
Creators of Mac, iPad, and iPhone productivity software. Proud to bring you OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniPlan.
www.omnigroup.com
It's free software and I run it every few months just to make sure I don't have a large cache of obsolete files I forgot about.
StellarVixen
macrumors 68040
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
I'd like to resurrect this thread for Sequoia 15.7.5. Suddenly, Finder and the Desktop icon are showing 383GB free space (500GB SSD) on my M3 MBP.
I know this is wrong. A few days ago it showed the correct ~240GB free space actually available.
Disk Utility says the SSD is healthy and that there's ~240GB free. Same with Disk Inventory X and df -h /.
I don't use Time Machine and Disk Utility confirms no Time Machine backups. I only have the basic 5GB iCloud account which I barely touch (no offloading of files to the cloud.) Apple Intelligence is OFF.
But, Finder Info on the SSD says I have ~120GB of purgeable files. Furthermore Settings -> General -> Storage can grind for hours without computing System Data so that is not included in the Storage bar graph.
I killed the storagekitd process that some say unsticks the System Data calculation but it didn't work for me.
I've forced Spotlight to reindex, rebooted multiple times including into safe mode. I also installed 15.7.5 yesterday. 15.7.4 was giving the same discrepancy.
I have a ~60GB Library/ folder but that's all legit data and I'd hate for it to get purged if the OS feels like it is part of the purgeable stuff.
I know this is wrong. A few days ago it showed the correct ~240GB free space actually available.
Disk Utility says the SSD is healthy and that there's ~240GB free. Same with Disk Inventory X and df -h /.
I don't use Time Machine and Disk Utility confirms no Time Machine backups. I only have the basic 5GB iCloud account which I barely touch (no offloading of files to the cloud.) Apple Intelligence is OFF.
But, Finder Info on the SSD says I have ~120GB of purgeable files. Furthermore Settings -> General -> Storage can grind for hours without computing System Data so that is not included in the Storage bar graph.
I killed the storagekitd process that some say unsticks the System Data calculation but it didn't work for me.
I've forced Spotlight to reindex, rebooted multiple times including into safe mode. I also installed 15.7.5 yesterday. 15.7.4 was giving the same discrepancy.
I have a ~60GB Library/ folder but that's all legit data and I'd hate for it to get purged if the OS feels like it is part of the purgeable stuff.
Have you tried booting from an external drive and running Disk Utility on the internal SSD from there?
Ben J.
macrumors 65816
These kinds of issues are most often caused by APFS Snapshots. Even if you don't have Time Machine enabled (the most common culprit for creating snapshots), you might have older snaphots on your disk, or some other application creating them in the background.
support.apple.com
support.apple.com
About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
Time Machine lets you restore files from local snapshots of the files on your Mac, even when your Time Machine backup disk isn't available.
View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac
In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
Not sure how to do this. I do have an external drive to try but I need pointers on how to get macOS on it.
I did try Disk Utility from the Recover tools. First Aid was clear and after reboot it did not change anything.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
I did check that (View -> Show APFS Snapshots) and there aren't any.These kinds of issues are most often caused by APFS Snapshots. Even if you don't have Time Machine enabled (the most common culprit for creating snapshots), you might have older snaphots on your disk, or some other application creating them in the background.
About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
Time Machine lets you restore files from local snapshots of the files on your Mac, even when your Time Machine backup disk isn't available.View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac
In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.
Ben J.
macrumors 65816
Not sure if it matters, but could you select "View all devices/units/volumes (whatever it's called on an english system), it's just left of the volume name top left, and look again. You'll get a more detailed view in your sidepanel.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
Ben J.
macrumors 65816
OK. I read your post from earlier again, and it seems you're reporting the opposite off what most posts in this thread are about; that the finder is reporting too little space available. You're saying Finder is reporting more free space than it should...
So I guess this was a sidestep of sorts.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
I think the OP had the same issue as I'm having: Finder says a lot of free space, df says less.
OP:
"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"
Me:
- Finder: 388 GB free
- df: 245 GiB free
OP:
"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"
Me:
- Finder: 388 GB free
- df: 245 GiB free
Ben J.
macrumors 65816
I never used df -h. It might be that it doesn't count the size of the system volume; and hence the 16GB discrepancy. Also, Finder doesn't count the disk space used by snapshots, and it might be that df -h is doing that.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
My discrepancy is ~130GB. Also, this is very new - noticed it yesterday. Finder used to show ~240-ish GB free which is what I'd expect.
OP's finder showed 300GB free whereas other tools reported 70-85GB less.
OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
Finder's free space is "free space" less "purgable" - that is how much you could add before the disk is full (because macOS will remove purgeable as required).
So I expect Finder to show more free space than DU. You have about 37GB (300-263) purgeable.
I would avoid
Here is my boot disk using diskutil (I have only included the boot drive):
Total in use 320GB (sum of disk3s1,2,3,4,6) which implies 180GB truely free. A bit different on Mx Mac.
DaisyDisk indicates 48GB purgeable - DaisyDisk is the best utility for understanding disk space usage (free trial).
So free space plus purgeable is 180+48 =228GB which is the same as reported by System Settings > General > Storage and essentially the same as
Finder: 229GB free.
Much the same behaviour as you are seeing.
So I expect Finder to show more free space than DU. You have about 37GB (300-263) purgeable.
I would avoid
df for the system disk, because it is not very aware of how macOS formats that drive.Here is my boot disk using diskutil (I have only included the boot drive):
diskutil list/dev/disk3 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk3 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume BethSSD — Data 303.6 GB disk3s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 2.7 GB disk3s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.3 GB disk3s3 4: APFS Volume BethSSD 11.3 GB disk3s4 5: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.3 GB disk3s4s1 6: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk3s6Total in use 320GB (sum of disk3s1,2,3,4,6) which implies 180GB truely free. A bit different on Mx Mac.
DaisyDisk indicates 48GB purgeable - DaisyDisk is the best utility for understanding disk space usage (free trial).
So free space plus purgeable is 180+48 =228GB which is the same as reported by System Settings > General > Storage and essentially the same as
Finder: 229GB free.
Much the same behaviour as you are seeing.
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OldGuyInTheClub
macrumors member
Thanks, very much. FWIW, Disk Info (right click SSD icon, get info) shows 387GB available (124.41 GB purgeable), and 223.09 GB used on disk.
(387-124.41+223.09)GB = 485.7GB which is the SSD size less some for the system so that checks out.
Bottom line: What bugs me is why it changed all of a sudden. Also, why does System Data in Settings fail to compute? Does it point to something that could worsen? I didn't install anything except the Sequoia system update and that was after all this started. I worry that what macOS thinks is purgeable might not be.
Here's my diskutil output:
(387-124.41+223.09)GB = 485.7GB which is the SSD size less some for the system so that checks out.
Bottom line: What bugs me is why it changed all of a sudden. Also, why does System Data in Settings fail to compute? Does it point to something that could worsen? I didn't install anything except the Sequoia system update and that was after all this started. I worry that what macOS thinks is purgeable might not be.
Here's my diskutil output:
diskutil list/dev/disk3 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +494.4 GB disk3 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.3 GB disk3s1 2: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.3 GB disk3s1s1 3: APFS Volume Preboot 7.4 GB disk3s2 4: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk3s3 5: APFS Volume Data 211.8 GB disk3s5 6: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk3s6
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