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Incorrect free space computation

When I check the free space available in each volume, the figures are different under 'About this Mac' and Disk Utility. As you can see in the pictures below, the difference is huge (about 9 GB).


About this Mac

Disk Utility

Which one is correct? And why is there such a huge difference?


MacBook Pro (2019)

Catalina 10.15.4

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 19, 2020 9:59 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 24, 2020 11:18 AM

The difference is due to 'purgeable' data taken up by local snapshot feature of Time Machine. Instead of the parent container, if i click on the startup volume in disk utility, it shows roughly the same free space as 'About this Mac' with the value of purgeable data within brackets.


References:


https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/47647/how-to-fix-disk-utility-about-this-mac-and-finder-that-disagree-on-hard-drive


https://superuser.com/questions/1457503/disk-utility-shows-different-storage-usage-recovery-could-not-offer-a-solution


Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 24, 2020 11:18 AM in response to Sridhar Ananthanarayanan

The difference is due to 'purgeable' data taken up by local snapshot feature of Time Machine. Instead of the parent container, if i click on the startup volume in disk utility, it shows roughly the same free space as 'About this Mac' with the value of purgeable data within brackets.


References:


https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/47647/how-to-fix-disk-utility-about-this-mac-and-finder-that-disagree-on-hard-drive


https://superuser.com/questions/1457503/disk-utility-shows-different-storage-usage-recovery-could-not-offer-a-solution


May 24, 2020 12:19 AM in response to Sridhar Ananthanarayanan

Now the difference has increased to 12 GB. Something is definitely wrong. The two sources used to give similar numbers earlier, even if not identical (although they are supposed to give identical values). I am not sure if this discrepancy started after an update, but is now completely unreliable.



This problem is only observed with the startup volume. The free space computation for other volumes on my Mac are either identical or pretty similar.

Incorrect free space computation

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