MacBook Pro 2016 storage full--application and system numbers seem wrong

Question

MacBook Pro 2016 storage full--application and system numbers seem wrong

My SSD on my MacBook Pro 2016 running Monterey is always almost full. The numbers when I check storage or go to manage storage are very different than when I look at the actual folders.

The biggest users of storage according to the summary are applications and system, taking up almost 200 GB:

Applications says 118 GB
System says 76 GB

But the numbers do not add up at all (see screen shot).

When I look at these folders, the numbers are more accurate (see screen shot):

Applications folder says 17 GB
System folder says 29 GB

The other numbers pretty much make sense.

It's driving me crazy, and I cannot upgrade the storage, and I do not want to purchase a new computer (which would only have 500 GB anyway) just because of this issue.

Thanks for any help with this!

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Nov 26, 2022 8:49 AM

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Answer 1

ShannonM1

Community Specialist

Nov 28, 2022 8:26 AM in response to Lucas Metcalf Tobin

Hello Lucas Metcalf Tobin,

Something to bear in mind with storage, particularly System, is that it contains a large amount of data including the operating system as well as caches, temporary files, and other hidden information. Some of that may also be divided between sections under the Storage breakdown but not divided in the folders. So the amounts may vary.

To review some recommendations for managing storage, we'd recommend reading over Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Thanks!

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MacBook Pro 2016 storage full--application and system numbers seem wrong

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