Finder says my Users folder is using up 63.96 GB in 336 items and yet there are nothing to speak of visible in any of the user folders

Finder says my Users folder is using up 63.96 GB in 336 items and yet there are nothing to speak of visible in any of the user folders. You can see from screenshot below the major folders on the system which add up to 96.7 GB in total. I only have a 128 GB so space is at a premium and supposedly approx 64 GB is taken up with users folder. I have hardly anything in my users folders as you can see I have expanded all the folders below. What is going on and how do I reclaim what looks misreported used disk space.


Many thanks



Mac mini (2018)

Posted on Jun 22, 2024 10:05 AM

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7 replies

Jun 22, 2024 2:10 PM in response to Rksjackson

Each user folder contains its own hidden /Library folder that contains all sorts of files & caches used by the applications installed on your Mac. That is most likely where all the files are that you say you cannot see.


You cannot see the ~/Library folder or its contents in the Finder unless you navigate directly to it by doing Go > Go to folder and enter ~/Library. But please note, ~/Library is hidden for a reason - there is almost nothing there that users should poke around in because of the risk of corrupting something there.


Among other things, Outlook, Mail and other email apps store your emails & attachments in ~/Library. If you have an iPhone or iPad, those backups are also stored there and they can take a lot of space.


The problem is your Mac simply does not have enough storage space for effective use. Get a good external SSD to increase your storage and use it for your data. If you are using, or want to use, Music, Photos or TV you can have their libraries stored on the external drive, thereby saving space on your built-in drive.

Jun 22, 2024 7:47 PM in response to Rksjackson

You need a minimum of 45 GB of contiguous space. Because of fragmentation of large files, that generally isn't obtained until you have freed at least 55 GB of space.


Alternatively get a hard drive with its own power source, and at least 256 GB built-in storage, to use for booting into newer OSes until have a chance to upgrade the Mac from scratch.


Take your photo and music and movie libaries and copy them to two distrinctly different external sources of media or more.


Uninstall apps that are not used or copy their installers onto these backup drives.


https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/ offers a nice way to drag and drop applications while booted into safe mode (shift key), to remove an application and all its components.

Jun 23, 2024 4:38 AM in response to a brody

Man I wish I'd had the app cleaner before now - anyway thanks all for the replies. I've only had this mac mini a month now so I'm considering reverting the machine to factory reset clean catalina install. Then performing the sonoma upgrade first thing and then taking it from there with external drives etc. Any thoughts on this approach would be greatly appreciated.

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Finder says my Users folder is using up 63.96 GB in 336 items and yet there are nothing to speak of visible in any of the user folders

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