Macbook storage shows incorrect values

Storage on macOS and APFS volumes is complicated.

The only storage value of any real significance is the Free storage value that is unfortunately only shown in Disk Utility or the Apple System Profiler. Everywhere else in macOS Apple focuses on the "Available" storage value which unfortunately is very misleading so it is best to ignore the Available value. Even the Used storage value can be misleading when using the APFS file system due to how the APFS file system works.

Plus the Storage Management section you've pictured is known to be wrong & misleading at times. The "Applications" mentioned in that screenshot include items outside of the "/Applications" folder and includes any app stored anywhere on the drive. "Documents" in that screenshot also references any type of document file located anywhere on the drive....not just what is stored in the Documents folder.

Backup software including Apple's own Time Machine software utilizes APFS snapshots. This means data you have deleted may still be retained within those backup APFS snapshots until those APFS snapshots are automatically deleted at some point.

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Plus if you copy files to another location within the same APFS volume, those files are not physically copied or duplicated. Only a single physical copy of the files exist with multiple links to that same physical data. So if you delete one copy it won't change the Free storage value at all because you are only deleting a link to that data. In order to affect the Free storage space, you would need to delete all links to that copied data. Even then, see the previous paragraph regarding data being retained for a limited time in APFS backup snapshots.

Also, make sure to always have at least 20GB+ of Free storage space at all times for the normal operation of macOS (this is the minimum required just for very basic usage of macOS). For many workloads, you should have much more Free storage. If you completely run out of Free storage space on an APFS volume, then it may become impossible to delete any files in order to make more room due to how the APFS file system works, so it may require completely erasing the disk followed by reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup.

macfanegas wrote:

I have to admit that I didn't expect such poor management for a (supposed) top level professional equipment.

Apple does have a few issues with storage management such as hiding the very important actual Free space value within Disk Utility and displaying the very misleading Available storage value everywhere else. Plus Apple isn't very clear in the Storage Management section what is actually being shown, at least for the average user.....and that information may even be miscalculated. That is why only the Free storage space value is the most important value for users.

However, with an advanced file system such as APFS with advanced features, it is hard to properly present the storage usage in a very easy to understand way. Which is why I tell people to only trust the actual Free storage value that is only shown in Disk Utility or the Apple System Profiler.

Even the Linux kernel developers and Linux distributions have issues trying to display storage information for the BTRFS file system which is similar to APFS even though it pre-dates APFS by some years (at least on macOS).

The other huge issue is that Apple still doesn't provide a small buffer within the APFS file system to prevent an APFS volume from being "locked"....that is being unable to delete items when an APFS volume has no more Free storage space. At least the Linux kernel developers solved that problem with their BTRFS file system after just a couple of years. Actually they had a way to work around such cases due to another BTRFS feature of expanding the storage pool (I used a small 1GB USB stick to temporarily expand the storage of a BTRFS volume so I could delete some files in order to use the main BTRFS volume again).

Unfortunately Apple's focus is elsewhere on the bigger picture ticket items. It does not help Apple keeps rushing things out the door on a short schedule and rushing onto new things instead of shoring up the current systems.

You can always provide Apple with product feedback here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Even in the oldest PC versions maintaining the storage was never a problem.

That is because older file systems were very simple compared to the APFS file system. They did not have snapshot capabilities or deduplication capabilities. These advanced features makes the APFS file system much more complex as I have already mentioned in this post and my previous post.

Anyway, now my question is, how can we deal with this? Is there any software that helps to manage and maintain the Macbook's storage in an efficient way?

The first step is to understand the current APFS file system and even macOS itself. It also helps to try to understand how Apple works & thinks. If you realize Apple's interests and your interests & needs are completely different, then you will save yourself a bit of misery (just a bit). The easiest thing is to just deal with what Apple throws at you with macOS....the good, the bad, and the ugly crazy non-sensical stuff.

I don't install much third party software (especially not from the App Store), so I cannot really say what is actually available.

macfanegas wrote:

By reading your explanation and the official docs I understand then that Apple's solution is to rely on Cloud storage.

It is not.

I asked a colleague with a pretty new Macbook Pro and he is in the same situation.

Bummer for him.

I have to admit that I didn't expect such poor management for a (supposed) top level professional equipment. Even in the oldest PC versions maintaining the storage was never a problem.

You are trying to do development with a 500 GB device. That's not "top level professional equipment". That's low-end consumer.

Anyway, now my question is, how can we deal with this?

There are different strategies depending on your usage. No one answer is right for anyone.

Is there any software that helps to manage and maintain the Macbook's storage in an efficient way?

There are several different 3rd party apps that people use. I can't recommend any because I develop one of them.

Your usage is a bit unusual. You have a very large usage for Applications. My guess is that these are Flutter/Electron/etc. apps deep inside Xcode's DerivedData directories. As bad as Xcode is with storage, those cross-platform tools are even worse.

Also, you have a very large usage for Documents. That's unusual, especially for a developer. I would have expected to see large usage for "System Data" representing various VMs or other developer artifacts.

If your computer is already 3 years old, then it sounds like it's time for an upgrade anyway. 1 TB is a comfortable size for storage. I'm normally able to keep 100-200 GB free for optimum performance.