Disk available less than storage

Hi rsquared.1,

Thanks for reaching out using Apple Support Communities. Here to help.

We understand you are trying to better understand your storage on your MacBook Pro.

The screenshot you mentioned did not seem to attach to the post. However from what you've described we may be able to provide some insight.

Disc space would refer to how much space is available on your MacBook after calculating the storage space of any apps, data or files you have stored on the Mac currently. The 'storage' being referred to is likely the capacity of your hard drive, 500GB.

The article linked below provides some visual aids and guidance for freeing up space on your Mac. You can view your storage and then select Manage to receive recommendations for optimizing storage, as well as manually manage the content on your device.

How to free up storage space on your Mac

We'll attach a corresponding YouTube video which provides additional context to this guidance.

How to free up space on your Mac — Apple Support

Hope this helps provide clarity! Feel free to follow up with further detail and we will try to assist. Take care for now!

Hi rsquared.1,

Thanks for following up.

We see what you mean from the screenshoot! That does appear abnormal.

Have you created any partitions of your hard drive? The use case for this would be to separate off a section of your hard drive for reasons such as booting another operating system. This is done in Disk Utility. This application could also provide additional insight on your drives.

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

If you take a look in Disk Utility, does the disk capacity appear correct here?

A mismatch like this would be best handled through a direct support case with Apple Support as they may wish to gather logs or will have specific steps for you to take to resolve. You can start a case at the link below.

Get Support - Apple