Why does disk utility say I have used 900GB of my 1TB hard drive, but that I still have 600GB free?
The "about this mac" storage tab seems to more accurately reflect what I believe my storage situation is. See screenshots below.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
You have 597GBs of available space. The purgeable space has been used by macOS for snapshots which can be deleted automatically as needed. You do not need to do anything to use this space. The remainder of available space is currently unused. Purgeable space will remain until the 92GBs is filled.
You have 597GBs of available space. The purgeable space has been used by macOS for snapshots which can be deleted automatically as needed. You do not need to do anything to use this space. The remainder of available space is currently unused. Purgeable space will remain until the 92GBs is filled.
You have an APFS formatted SSD. You are also looking at the physical drive, not the logical volume. The latter is what you see in the Storage tab of About This Mac. However, that is not reliable.
Get Correct Storage Information
Do not use the information from the Storage section of the About This Mac dialog. Ignore the Storage information as it is typically wrong. To find out the correct information for any disk: Select a Desktop disk icon. Press Command-I to open the Get Info window and look at the topmost panel displayed. You will find the disk information displayed for Capacity, Available, and Used. If you have more than one disk/partition then repeat for each one on your Desktop.
The categories found in the Storage section of About This Mac is simply an arbitrary way of displaying files on your drive. There are no such categories actually on the drive.
In other words, MacOS has stored some stuff in a swap disk on the unused space on your drive. It is marked Purgeable since the OS will release that for file storage if you need it. i.e., it will be "purged" to make room for your files.
The 596 GB available includes both 92 GB unused and 504 GB purgeable.
Still says the same info under Command I.
My confusion is if its saying I have used 900/1000GB, how I have ~600GB left.
Disk Utility says 900GB of 1TB used, but 600GB free?
