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External APFS drive not showing real free spac

I have a 8TB drive with 2 folders, both 3,4TB and 3,5TB, but Finder and Disk Utility shows disk 7,9TB used.

Hidden files are 18MB all together, trash is empty.

I tested moving (not copying) 500GB to another drive, Finder still showing 30GB free disk, even the files arent there and I cant copy back them because says disk is full!!

I also rebooted, ejected the drives ETC...

but I dont know what elsa I can do beyond format again (I dont have a spare 8TB to copy data) to reformat...


Mac Studio (2022)

Posted on Nov 29, 2023 1:33 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 4, 2023 5:04 AM

It turns out, the drive was used with CCC and snapshots were active, so there were Snapshots using space, something went wrong as it wasnt cleaning itself, so I deactivated snapshots and manually deleted all of them.

6 replies

Nov 29, 2023 6:49 PM in response to guguii

If you actually have 7.9 TB used, you are too low on space.


The most you should have used on an 8 TB drive is 6.8 TB. Beyond that, the system will be trying to repeatedly create temporary files to manage memory. If you are backing up date to iCloud it creates temporary files at the root folder, and if you are doing a Time Machine backup the same thing. The root folder is the primary folder when you open the hard drive in the Finder that shows Applications and Users.


This maximum has been found to be arbitrarily true across hard drive lineups based on a percentage of amount full being 85%. You can google the research, and it is pretty true across all platforms.


Instead of formatting, do a better job of filing files, and locate on your on drive backups. A backup is not a backup, until it is in two separate distinct physical locations at a time. When you duplicate folder on the same hard drive, that duplicate is not a backup. The whole purpose of a backup is reduce the risk sudden media failure of the entire failure. You would ideally want at least two separate distinct backups of all critical data in event you do get sudden media failure, and your backup is suddenly your only source of your data. Test your backups regularly.


What to backup....Apple's internet installers have recently disappeared and are not always available. As a result we recommend keeping backups of all license key preference files, installers not found elsewhere, personal documents, music file originals, and photo originals. A clone backup is ideal, as it replicates the entire drive to another drive. Time Machine is good for archival purposes, but only if do a restore to your system with your existing Time Machine backups to yet another drive with the same or newer operating system. If you don't and the backup drive fails, your Time Machine backup may be worthless.

Nov 30, 2023 12:49 AM in response to a brody

Hi! thanks for your your time and your elaborate answer. I see and understand what you saying with the 85% rule, but if I move (already 1,5TB) to another external drive, the total amount of free space now should be 1,5TB but it still showing 30GB...

So I guess something in the drive is corrupted.... I'm going to bring another mac today in order to check if other system shows the same problem with the drive.

I see there isnt any defragment thing for APFS, isn't it?




External APFS drive not showing real free spac

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