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'Missing' GB's on MacBook Air 11"2014 121GB OS 10.14.6

Available shows 11GB Free, and Folder sizes show Users 79GB, Apps 20GB, System11GB, Library 4GB, VM 1GB total 115GB.


However in Users (1, Me) the 79GB Total consists of: 25.7 plus 6.5 plus 5.2 plus 6 other, for a Total of about 38GB.


So where are the 'missing' 41GB? (79-38GB), and can I find and recover that 41GB?


PS: I have seen a similar discrepancy on another external 240GB SSD.


I also had the same issue on OS 13 High Sierra.


Thank you, Steve.

maclanta

MacBook Air 11", macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 1, 2020 8:07 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 1, 2020 8:17 AM

Hi Steve,


Believe it or not the "Storage" report is more often wildly inaccurate than even close to true.


OmniDiskSweeper shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/

7 replies

Mar 1, 2020 9:25 AM in response to maclanta

Thank you, but let me go one step further as an example:


Since the 'Available' shows 11GB, if I want to import a 12GB folder, it will NOT allow it. Same thing, by the way, because it will NOT allow me to download and upgrade to Catalina OS because not enough Free space.


So whatever the 'real' space available is, let's say 28GB, it does not matter.


Alternatively, if the 'real' available is only 11GB, then all of the folder sizes listed are UNDERSTATED.


Steve (maclanta)

Mar 1, 2020 10:54 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank You:


I downloaded and installed the https://www.omnigroup.com/more/


It shows a HIDDEN Library within my User name (steve) of 15.6GB.


'steve' is 53.9 GB including the 15.6 GB Library, which is what the Files inside steve add up to.


Unfortunately the top-level of steve in the Users list shows 79.1GB, which is a 25.2GB discrepancy of unknown source.


Very strange that Apple would not be aware of, or care about fixing, this HUGE discrepancy in available disk space.


I'm going to mark this as 'solved' because of your excellent suggestion to download the OmniDiskSweeper app.


steve (maclanta)


Mar 1, 2020 12:57 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the reply:

Now it’s about 66.GB at ‘steve’ top level but about 38GB added-up by folder within ‘steve’, a difference of about 28 phantom GB. By deleting files/folders within ‘Steve’ I now have about 28GB ‘Free’ of the 121GB MacBook Air Internal Flash storage. I appreciate your help but I am giving up on trying to understand the discrepancies.

Mar 1, 2020 1:14 PM in response to maclanta

PS: I have a 128GB USB3 drive Mac format with NO OS that correctly shows all the file and folder sizes, so it must be an issue with the Mac OS. Unfortunately the OS uses the presumably ‘False and less available size’ to decide how much I can add to the internal storage, including not being able to upgrade the OS without deleting some folders.


'Missing' GB's on MacBook Air 11"2014 121GB OS 10.14.6

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