Apps taking up too much space

when I open up my about and go to storage it tells me that I have 127 GB of apps, but when I use get info on the applications folder I get another two different values, up the top next to the name it says I have 70 GB worth of apps but down in general it says "70,292,327,244 bytes (52.16 GB on disk) for 107 items". I don't even understand how that's possible. 70 billion bytes is should be 70 GB but it says right there that its only 52, and then says that its 70 up the top and 127 in about.


I’ve tried rebuilding spotlight but it just won’t work and it keeps saying that I have 127 GB of apps. It’s a bit of an issue at this point as I’ve had to buy a portable hard drive and transfer stuff onto it to have space free. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Posted on May 24, 2022 12:37 AM

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Posted on May 24, 2022 4:50 AM


16 replies

May 24, 2022 3:39 AM in response to tfoster73

Trust what you see in Disk Utility. The "About This Mac" is essentially eye candy when it come to disk space as its reporting algorithm is different from DU. The ultimate authority is DU.


Generally apps take up very little space ... comparatively. If you have a tiny disk, they will certainly take up a greater proportion. But a modern OS such as Big Sur and Monterey segregate the data away from the system. Macintosh HD is system and will run something like 20GB. Macintosh HD - Data is for user data and size will vary depending on what data you've added.


If you have a very small internal disk 120, 256 GB, you'll be better off attaching an external drive to store large amounts of data. Regardless, keep all drives backed up; internal and external.

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Apps taking up too much space

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