You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: BuySellStuffonCL
BuySellStuffonCL Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

SSD missing capacity?

Macbook Air 2020, M1 chip. 8GB, 256GB SSD. OS 11.5.1


I was getting ready to clean out old unused files. I did a "get info" (command "I") on all the folders listed under the Macintosh HD icon to see which were the biggest. When I added the results of the individual folders (applications, library, system, users) I get a total of 203.3 GB. Disk utility shows free space of 25.89.

and total capacity of 245.11. 245.11 - 203.3 = 41.81. 41.81 - 25.89 = 15.92. I assume that is what is being used for the OS. Is that correct?


Next I do a "get info" on my "users" folder and it says 166.65. When I do it for all the folders within my "users" folder; documents, desktop, library, music, movies, etc. (including "shared") all together they add up to

145.64 GB. 166.65- 144.64 = 22.01.

I have heard there are "hidden" files in Mac OS. Would they be that big? What do they do? Where are they located, in a folder or somewhere else?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Aug 22, 2021 9:41 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: MrHoffman
MrHoffman
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
127,321 points

Posted on Aug 22, 2021 11:41 AM

macOS takes up room, yes. That’s the blue-colored not-Data partition. Caches take up room. Temporary files, too. Those get stored in the red-colored Data partition. The Spotlight data used by the tools you are using can also sometimes be stale or wrong, and rebuilding the Spotlight caches can help there. And the Spotlight data is stored in the Data partition, with the rest of your stuff. Other user logins (if any) are also stored in Data. GP and ODS are just vastly easier to navigate and to see where the storage is going. Including finding data elsewhere in the Data partition.

View in context

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: MrHoffman
MrHoffman
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
127,321 points

Aug 22, 2021 11:41 AM in response to BuySellStuffonCL

macOS takes up room, yes. That’s the blue-colored not-Data partition. Caches take up room. Temporary files, too. Those get stored in the red-colored Data partition. The Spotlight data used by the tools you are using can also sometimes be stale or wrong, and rebuilding the Spotlight caches can help there. And the Spotlight data is stored in the Data partition, with the rest of your stuff. Other user logins (if any) are also stored in Data. GP and ODS are just vastly easier to navigate and to see where the storage is going. Including finding data elsewhere in the Data partition.

Reply

SSD missing capacity?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up