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

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Level 1

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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

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Answer 1

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etresoft

Level 8

46,672 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.

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

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