Storage on MacBook Pro 13" (2019)

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Level 1

13 points

Storage on MacBook Pro 13" (2019)

My available storage on my MacBook (256 GB) is fluctuating between 54 GB and 70 GB. This concerns me for some reason (I am no expert when dealing with hardware). But also I was on the understanding that I had the Flash Storage Drive option (even in my system information I can find storage descriptions among the other listed components where it lists the computer as having flash storage); however, on the main window of the About Computer feature and anywhere I try to manage the storage it reads SSD (solid state drive). And lastly, the option for "On My Mac" in the sidebar of Finder will not show any space, I cannot drag, save, open, move, or enact on the folder in an anyway. Before the latest update I could attempt to open the folder, but an error message popped up telling me the folder could not be found and gave me the option to repair its alias...

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.0

Posted on Oct 26, 2022 5:37 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

133,411 points

Nov 2, 2022 6:58 AM in response to turtle87

MacOS creates and destroys tasks at a remarkable rate even when it seems idle to you. That is part of how it can best take advantage of its multiple processors (of an indefinite number). As MacOS works, it also creates and destroys logs of what it is doing.

To add some context, MacOS consumes about 9GB of storage going from a cold start to up and running (doing nothing).

Your drive with only 60 G Bytes free is almost full.

The behavior you are reporting is not unusual and not a cause for alarm except to say that you will need an additional storage drive sooner rather than later.

Filling your disk completely sometimes causes spectacular crashes, occasionally leading to loss of data, so you need a backup drive as well.

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Answer 2

Nov 10, 2022 8:49 AM in response to turtle87

You may have some stow-aways on board. Current MacOS 11 Big Sur or later uses a locked, encrypted, signed System Volume, so these may be annoying, but not dangerous.

One way to identify them is to use this little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck, to produce a report of what's what on your Mac. The report is pre-laundered of any personally identifiable information, so is Safe to post back to the forums, following the directions:

Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Oct 26, 2022 5:49 AM in response to turtle87

turtle87 wrote:

My available storage on my MacBook (256 GB) is fluctuating between 54 GB and 70 GB.

You do not paint a very big picture...

SSD like to have 15-20% free storage at all times to run efficiently—all Volumes share space within the Container with no penality

this could be local snaps, virtual memory, swap files, Time machine backups, etc.. causing your "fluctuating"

I do not interpret an issue here—

Do some general housecleaning to free up storage if you are concerned about a 16GB difference as presented above.

Face the fact you have one of the tiniest of SSD available today.

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Answer 4

turtle87 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 2, 2022 2:42 AM in response to leroydouglas

I mean that I can have no apps running, not be connected to any network or wifi router (meaning my wifi and bluetooth are turned off) or device and my storage available will change (I.e. - Home 250.69 GB, 67.75 GB free ... then Home 250.69, GB 67.01 GB ... then Home 250.69 GB, 59.54 GB) within minutes, sometimes seconds of my logging on.

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Answer 5

turtle87 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 10, 2022 8:20 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you so much! I tend to not find any helpful tips like this very often and attempt to "fix" things I shouldn't try fixing and there's no Apple store close by really. The lady at apple told me shed never seen someone run into as many problems in such a short time span as she had me (this was when I bought my very first Mac). I even stumbled into an issue she'd never seen before (laughing). Again thank you!

I hope my asking you this is ok... but my computer boots with reverted settings. Certain settings (display and sharing mainly) will be active upon one boot, but not other times. Safari ignores my preference to block all pop ups. Something called "XProtect.app" and "key-logg-hash-wrapper.exe" (that may not be the exact name, but close), injection sql is written all over files that just show up and or are very large (both in hidden and unhidden folders, cache folders, web server, temp, .zsh session folders) I'll open some of them with the text edit.app and they will open with a different name and extension. They use weird wingdings type fonts I can't understand. It just worries me because lately I have noticed that some of my files for school and work are missing or moved as well as my folders and how they were organized. Even my option in finder "On this Mac" won't show up on the side bar if I select it. It will be there but I can't access it (it says it's an alias and no original can be found). Then it disappears again when I restore finder. The volumes folder used to have just two listed (my Home and one other). Now there are several including a preboot, Boot, VM, and Mtn something along with 5 empty folders Those last two have a couple files in them that are 4GB large (each about 1GB) - one identified as Item Swap... I know thats a bit much. My apologies...

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