Increase available storage on MacBook Air (2018)

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Increase available storage on MacBook Air (2018)

My MBA says it does not have enough storage space to update the Operating system. I have tried everything I know to increase storage to no avail. I have emptied trash (on desktop and photos). I have transferred about 2GB of photos to an external SSD, although that did not change the available storage. Mail uses more than 4GB, but I do not know how to reduce that amount. (I have deleted all mail contents that I could but that did not change the available storage.) How can I increase the amount of available storage. MacBook Air running Sonoma 14.6.1 w/ 8GB RAM and 121GB SSD. The MBA says I have more than 9GB of available memory, but to update the operating system I need more than 13GB.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Nov 10, 2024 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 10, 2024 9:49 AM in response to clep

If I understand correctly, you have a MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) with the smallest SSD that Apple offered: a 128 GB SSD. I'm afraid that replacing that SSD with a larger internal one is not an option. The OWC site – which has upgrades for many earlier MacBook Airs – says that Apple started soldering in SSDs in 2018.

You are running Sonoma 14.6.1 right now, so I'm guessing that you are trying to update to Sonoma 14.7.1. That Mac is not able to run Sequoia.

What's new in the updates for macOS Sonoma - Apple Support

After you transferred photos to an external drive, did you go into your Recently Deleted album and manually delete them there? When you delete photos from Photos, they go into the Recently Deleted album – just in case you had deleted them by mistake, and wanted to get them back.

The photos stay in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days, or until you manually delete them from there, whichever comes first. Then you get the space back. But be warned: once you delete photos from this album, or allow them to be automatically deleted, they become permanently deleted – and you can't get them back. Make very sure you have copies that are safe elsewhere before deleting "transferred" photos from this album.

Photos are just one thing that can eat up a lot of space. Music, movies, and TV shows are another. It is possible to move Music and TV libraries to an external drive – though for a notebook, that might be a bit inconvenient.

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