Not enough free space on your disk to install macOS Catalina

Recently answered here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250711825?cid=em_apple_email_question_correctanswer_go_to_the_discussion_en-us&answerId=251355788022#251355788022

I was facing the same issue and was on the verge of reformatting my macbook.

Here's what fixed the issue for me. I'm not sure if step 1 was necessary, but since I did this en route to fixing the loop of death, I'll list it here for you to consider.

1. Try to reinstall Mojave (this won't wipe your disk) - I wanted to return my macbook to as original a condition as possible, and I figured attempting to install Mojave was the best way to do it. Since I couldn't boot from "Macintosh HD" anymore (I was just getting a white circle with a bar across it), I rebooted my macbook and pressed Cmd + r. This helped me boot into recovery mode. Once there, I clicked on "Reinstall macOS". Don't worry, you won't loose your data doing this as it merely overwrites the OS, it doesn't overwrite your files. Once you do so, and assuming you're connected to Wifi, your macbook will start downloading Mojave and eventually attempt to install it. After an agonizing 30-40 minutes, it'll give you the same error - "not enough free space to install the OS".
2. Try restoring from Time Machine Backups (you might actually have one) - I cannot emphasize how strongly I believed I didn't have one of these backups, but unbeknownst to me, it did exist on my drive. Even if you're convinced you don't have one, it doesn't hurt to give this a shot. Reboot and go into recovery mode again (press cmd + r during reboot). This time when the options pull up, choose "Restore from Time Machine Backup". Now, as I mentioned before, I thought I hadn't got this turned on, but I guess it was turned on by default by the OS. Your macbook will prompt you to pick a disk where the time machines are stored, and I picked "Macintosh HD". When I clicked this option, I saw about 5 backups populate from today itself. I picked one of them that felt fairly far away from the moment I had began installing this OS. For example, if I started my installation at 4pm, I decided to pick up the recovery from 2pm (even though there was a backup available from 4 pm).

Within 5 minutes, the backup restored. All my files were intact, even though I had explicitly moved out/deleted about 30G of files while trying to debug the installation issue.

SOLVED: Hi All. I went to the iStore today and used a Lightning to Lightning cable from my MacBook Air to one of the iStore's MacBook Air. (Rebooted my MacBook Air while holding down the T button while powering up with the Power button). iStore does sell a Lightning to Lightning cable, but you need another MacBook. My Mac Hard Drive was now seen as an external drive in Finder on the iStore MacBook Air. I plugged a normal USB drive into their MacBook Air and copied across data and deleted stuff to free up about 50GB of free space (I had 20GB free before) and then cleared the Trash folder to free up the space. The installation now showing time remaining and continued till successful installation of Catalina. I am a very happy user now having found this solution. Hope this helps for someone else.

Try to restart the machine pressing <command> + R (entering recovery mode) then try to restore using a time machine backup. They are automatically created (if not otherwise disabled) or using an external time machine backup. With that, the system will be restored to what it was at the time of the backup. Afterwards, if you still want to install the upgrade, then remember that you will need to free up, at least, 40Gb to 45Gb or you will end up in the same situation.

I was in the same situation, but had an external time machine backup and restoring it I was able to recover to the previous state, freed up ~50Gb and the installed the upgrade without any issues.

Have you got access to another MacBook/Apple computer? You could connect both via the thunderbolt ports.

Then delete files or even move them to the other computer or an external hard drive.

That is likely your last chance to

be able to solve it yourself (assuming you have tried everything else in this thread, since you are at the solution that worked for me, which I think is the most recent addition to the list.

You need a second MacBook/Air/maybe a Mac desktop.

where are you? Maybe you can meet someone who will let you borrow their laptop.

you want to put your laptop into Target Disk Mode using their laptop. Then transfer as much data off your laptop as needed (if you can move 50+gig to an external hard drive plugged into the second laptop that should be enough).

see http://www.theinstructional.com/guides/high-speed-data-transfers-between-macs-with-thunderbolt

then try restarting your laptop and it will hopefully just go through and install Catalina.

agreed / it is terrible this error is in the coding. Pathetic work Apple.

I had the exact same issue , command + t while restarting , then restore the previous from time machine ( There are 4-5 backups available in time machine for the current date ) , once laptop is normal go about deleting some files , clearing some space , then re-install , it works ... but don’t know why this infinite loop arose at the first place because I had around 120 GB of free space that was more than sufficient to finish iOS Catalina installation , but this update took a long long time ... many hours got wasted in finishing this up ..

I had to restart pressing the keys Command and R until the interface to recovery opened. Then, I used the restore from Time Machine Backup. I was able to use this option because I had a recent Time Machine Backup. So I just plugged-in my external hard drive and followed the wizard.

I tried removing data from the terminal but the installer doesn't pick it up (I'd freed up about 70G but the installer still showed the same % of consumption as before on a 500G disk). Your best bet is to press Cmd+r during reboot (recovery mode) and restore from a time machine backup. Try installing Mojave before that for good measure in case that preps/overwrites some files for the time-machine to take effect more appropriately.

A friend just ran into this so I gave him the following. I have not tried it personally nor has he given me any feedback.

Warning: This process will allow you to get to a terminal session so you can delete files from the terminal. If you’re not familiar with doing this you probably don’t want because it can seriously screw things up. Once the files are deleted you can’t get them back. Also, if you delete some critical files it may prevent you from rebooting.

1. Boot to Recovery Mode by holding Cmd R while booting
2. Once you’re in recovery mode a menu should appear
3. Select Utilities -> Terminal
4. Change directories to /Volumes
5. Change directories to the main boot drive volume which is probably Macintosh HD
6. Change directories to the Users directory
7. Change directories to the user that has the files you want to delete. 
8. Once there use the command line command to delete all your porn 😊 

There’s no Trash to empty. Once deleted they’re gone and there’s no going into the Trash to recover them. I’m being a bit conservative here because if you have and trust a backup such as Time Machine than you should be able to recover them from the backup source.

None of the solutions here would work for me. I have a keyboard issue from Vietnamese rain two years ago, and it means I cannot put my laptop in Recovery mode, or safe mode. So all the fixes were useless to me.

But then I found a blog post about Time Machine Snapshots that were possibly taking up space on my laptop.

See: https://tredje.se/dev/trouble/post/apfs-deleting-timemachine-snapshots-without-tmutil

Once the install fails, and you get the pop up window that says "not enough free space", click near the top of the screen until you get the drop down menus across the top. Under Utilities (I think that is what the tab is called) you will see Disk Utility and Terminal as options. Select Terminal, go to the blog post above, and follow the instructions.

If you're doing this, note that Step 6 had a small typo in it. I have altered Eric who wrote the post so he may update it. In step 6 he wrote: to enter this in Terminal => diskutil apgf listSnapshots BUT he means APSF as in => diskutil apfs listSnapshots

Hope this solves this super annoying and totally unacceptable error from Apple.

If you go back one page in this forum to my post from Oct 20 I tell my story (I am also in Vietnam so had to solve this myself) and link to an blog post I used to go into terminal and delete Time Machine snapshots that freed up enough space for the install to complete.

I hope this helps you.

The CMD-R reset got me out of the loop, but I’ve been sat waiting an hour now, while the screen says “Searching for Time Machine backups”

My problem, apparently, was different somewhat... I started the app to install MacOs Catalina, it all seemed right unitl I saw a message like the original post. Options given to me: restart or shutdown. I restarted, the installations restarted and got stuck on the same screen. I restarted with Command R and entered the terminal, deleted as many big files as I could, having almost 30Gb free, but didn't solve the problem (in that moment I backed up all the files I knew wheren't on any time machine backups and tried to continue). Continued stuck. I then tried to reinstall Mojave, but when I selected the Macbook Disk it said that it was going to be wiped clean... I didn't proceed and followed the step 2. It said that the disk was going to be wiped... without any other options I resumed this procedure, since my last backup was a few days ago and everything else important is in the cloud. This was a very poor update!!!! If I didn't have an external time machine disk with a recent backup, it would be very bad!!! I use Macbooks for over 10 years, this was the first upgrade with any problems, somebody screwed very badly here!!!

If you go back one page in this forum to my post from Oct 20 I tell my story (I am also in Vietnam so had to solve this myself) and link to an blog post I used to go into terminal and delete Time Machine snapshots that freed up enough space for the install to complete.

I hope this helps you.

1. Try to reinstall Mojave (this won't wipe your disk) - this didn’t work for me so try step 2
2. Try restoring from Time Machine Backups (you might actually have one) - you will also certainly have a snap shot Time Machine Backup, probably one from the previous 12 hrs, this is enough to breath life back in to your system. Agree with the general comments not great for Apple to allow this to happen, would have expected a free disk space check to be included within the prerequisite install