"Disk Utility" used space differs from "Storage"

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BH1983 Author

Level 1

5 points

"Disk Utility" used space differs from "Storage"

Disk Utility is reporting that 400GB of 494GB in my M2 Mac Studio is used, but under System Settings>General>Storage it shows 118GB used.

At first I thought this was down to "Optimise Mac Storage" being turned on in iCloud so I turned it off which made no difference. I then thought that TimeMachine was storing local snapshots so I've turned the TimeMachine setting to manual but that hasn't changed anything.

I then installed a third party app called Disk Inventory X which shows around 75GB used so I'm not sure how Disk Utility is reporting that I have only 80GB of free space?

Does anyone know how I can resolve this?

Mac Studio, macOS 14.2

Posted on Jan 9, 2024 7:57 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

82,474 points

Jan 9, 2024 9:30 AM in response to BH1983

What Volume are you selecting in Disk Utility...?

The new APFS volume structure can be confusing for Mac users that are accustom to seeing and using the old Mac OS Extended format. In Disk Utility you need to look at the Container disk and not the actual drive.

I'm posting some screenshots for example:

My eye-candy Storage shows 200.64 GB available of 499.96 GB which equals to 299.32 used

My Disk Utility only shows slightly different than the eye-candy at 198.78 GB free and 301.18 GB used.

Plus then OmniDiskSweeper shows a total of 302.5 GB used

So as you can see all three are showing with-in 2 GB.

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"Disk Utility" used space differs from "Storage"

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