Hello im trying to install Big sur on my Mackbook pro 13" it says i need 14gb and i cant figure out how to clear enough space on my disk And the notification stays on my Update settings icon
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
I would like to know how to create the space the MacBook
You don't have to upgrade to Big Sur (at least not yet). In fact I would encourage you to wait a few months before attempting to upgrade to Big Sur since a lot of users are having problems installing Big Sur (I was one of the users which took two days to figure out the cryptic error messages before I got Big Sur intalled). Plus many apps may not have been updated yet to work properly with Big Sur plus Apple usually has to release several patches in the first couple of months to fix issues. I always wait at least three months before upgrading any major OS releases, but I had to update this system for work.
Unfortunately for us Big Sur is double the normal size because it is a Universal app which has the files for both Intel and the new M1 Apple silicon Macs so the installer itself takes up about 12.5GB. Being a Universal app means everything takes up even more room with Big Sur. Personally I am against the Universal apps because they take up so much room and bandwidth, but I do understand why Apple does this in order to keep things "simple" for users when Apple changes CPUs like this. FYI, you should always have at least 20GB of free storage space for the normal operation of macOS which in Big Sur's case isn't quite enough for an install.
When you do upgrade to Big Sur make sure to have a good backup before you attempt the upgrade.
While I’ve found Big Sur to be one of the smoothest upgrades in recent years, there’s really no major reason to upgrade yet. I generally suggest that, lacking a compelling reason, people wait for a while.
Second, if you have less than 20GB of free space, your computer isn’t able to run at its best. It really is best to keep between 15GB to 20GB free for caches and temporary files. If your computer has a 128GB drive, this can be difficult and it isn’t always easy with 256GB drives either. BobTheFIsherman pointed you to a comprehensive guide. I can distill it to a couple basic ideas: music and video files tend to be the largest files and can quickly fill a drive. You have a decent collection of music, movies, and other video it would be a good idea to invest in an external drive and move those files to it. Data files (word processing and the like) aren’t large and you won’t gain much by deleting them. Except for extensive 3D and RPG games, most programs aren’t very large either.
You actually need at least 35.5GB of free storage space to actually perform the installation of Big Sur:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475
yes i understand that. I have gone through the process and still not enough. Why does apple make us update out of existance?
Thank you. I actually have 17.8 GB of free storage. I’m just lost on what I should delete to get more storage.
How to clear space on my MacBook Pro
