How do I fix storage issue on my MacBook Air?

Hello friends! after updating my MacBook Air 2018 from Mojave to Sonoma, I've noticed that my OS storage usage has increased significantly. Could you please assist me in understanding why this is happening and if there’s anything I can do to reduce the storage consumption? Thanks for your kindness :)


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.7

Posted on Dec 27, 2024 1:29 AM

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19 replies

Dec 27, 2024 1:52 AM in response to alfankhoi4

Get yourself a good External Drive with at least 500 GB drive capacity


Start moving your pictures, music, videos and any other files that are large and un-need onto the external drive


What is presented in your Disk Utilities image is general very accurate


A sad reality is, the SSD Drive in this computer >> 128 GB Capacity << should have never been made available for purchase, by Apple


That size of Drive is way too small to doing anything meaningful in the way of storage


You can only " manage " the space that is available


That or purchase a new computer with a much larger Drive Capacity


Below is to compare your computer to mine running macOS 15.1 Sequoia



Dec 27, 2024 2:31 AM in response to alfankhoi4

alfankhoi4 wrote:

should I reinstall MacOS or factory settings?

Before going down that road


If you can determine which of the 2 Data Volumes is where your user account is actually located ??


It is possible to remove 1 of the data volumes with out having to Factory Reset


Suggest opening Disk Utilities and be sure to use the " Show All Devices "


Maneuver to the MacIntosh HD - Data volume


Take a screen shot of this and post back


Do the same for the Macintosh HD- data volume


We are trying to determine the Point Point of each


The one With the Mount Pointe of /System/Macintosh HD ?? is the one to keep


The one with the Mount Point of /Volume/Macintosh HD ?? can be remove in Disk Utilities

Dec 27, 2024 2:09 AM in response to Owl-53

this the result, I can't see any miss


/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):


   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER


   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0


   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1


   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         121.0 GB   disk0s2




/dev/disk1 (synthesized):


   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER


   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +121.0 GB   disk1


                                 Physical Store disk0s2


   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     22.5 GB    disk1s1


   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 2.4 GB     disk1s2


   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.8 GB     disk1s3


   4:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - data     10.3 GB    disk1s4


   5:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 10.3 GB    disk1s4s1


   6:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk1s5




/dev/disk3 (disk image):


   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER


   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +6.1 MB     disk3


   1:                  Apple_HFS k                       6.1 MB     disk3s1

Dec 27, 2024 2:58 AM in response to alfankhoi4

Again and still in Disk Utilities


Maneuver to Macintosh HD-data ( Lower case d )


Click on " Macintosh HD-data "


In the lower left area on Disk Utilities


There is a Plus ( + ) and Minus ( - ) sign


Click the Minus ( - ) sign


That will remove the Macintosh HD-data Volume


In so doing, give the computer an additional 10.3 GB of space



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How do I fix storage issue on my MacBook Air?

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