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: Rekosz
Rekosz Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Free vs available disk space huge difference, what is going on?

Hey guys!


I have new MBP16 as you can see on the screen with te specs. I noticed that when I check information on my Macintosh HD it shows 192GB available to me but when I check in the disk tool it shows only 67GB free. So what the **** is going on? How can I free up the space? When I look at the files, they shouldn't take that much space, 192GB should be closer to reality but disk tool shows only 67GB. This is the state after rebooting the system.


Thanks for help!


MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Sep 1, 2022 7:55 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
50,758 points

Posted on Sep 1, 2022 8:12 AM

The "available" storage is the amount of used storage that the operating system could automatically delete if it felt that it was really necessary. The "free" storage is the amount that you can actually use for something.


There are system processes that run in the background and automatically delete some of the "available" storage and convert it to "free". If you completely run out of storage, then those system processes will try a little harder. When you "delete" files you are just hinting to the operating system that you don't need those files anymore. The operating system will eventually remove them, but on its own schedule.


Certain tools will allow you to force the issue and manually clean up some of this storage and manually delete local snapshots. But that is only temporary.

View in context

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: etresoft
etresoft
User level: Level 9
50,758 points

Sep 1, 2022 8:12 AM in response to Rekosz

The "available" storage is the amount of used storage that the operating system could automatically delete if it felt that it was really necessary. The "free" storage is the amount that you can actually use for something.


There are system processes that run in the background and automatically delete some of the "available" storage and convert it to "free". If you completely run out of storage, then those system processes will try a little harder. When you "delete" files you are just hinting to the operating system that you don't need those files anymore. The operating system will eventually remove them, but on its own schedule.


Certain tools will allow you to force the issue and manually clean up some of this storage and manually delete local snapshots. But that is only temporary.

Reply

Free vs available disk space huge difference, what is going on?

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