Data volume quota limits available space on my MacBook to half the drive size

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Level 1

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Data volume quota limits available space on my MacBook to half the drive size

I bought a brand new sealed MacBook Pro M5 with 1 TB storage. I set it up as a new Mac and started using it. A couple days later I noticed that the Finder's status bar shows incorrect available space. The About page in the Settings shows available storage at 500 GB:

When opening the Storage page it briefly shows 500 GB capacity:

But after a couple of seconds it changes to 994 GB:

Disk utility shows that the Macintosh HD volume group size is 994 GB:

However, the Data volume size has a quota of 500 GB:

Can someone shed a light on what's going on here? Again, this is a new device, no device management profiles, I did not even open the Disk Utility before and did not set this quota.

The only remotly related thing I did was setting up Time Machine backup to my network drive with a 500 GB limit. I don't see how this can affect the Data volume on my MacBook. I tried disabling the Time Machine backup, but it didn't change anything.

[Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Mar 21, 2026 3:19 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Owl-53

Level 10

105,797 points

Mar 22, 2026 7:28 AM in response to ke4a

To remove the Capacity Quota from that APFS volume, you can use the diskutil command on macOS.

Terminal Command

sudo diskutil apfs resizeVolume disk3s5 0

It should set the size to 0 and tells APFS to remove the quota limit and allow the volume to grow dynamically within the container.

This effectively clears the Capacity Quota (500 GB) restriction.

Open Terminal

Run the command above

Enter your admin password when prompted

It will not echo your password

Afterward, confirm the change

diskutil apfs list

You should see Capacity Quota: None

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Answer 2

Mar 23, 2026 9:24 AM in response to ke4a

ke4a wrote:

Owl-53, thanks for your reply.

> Bought Directly from Apple ?

No, from a local retailer in Bulgaria. Not a small no-name shop, pretty respectable. It came in a fancy Apple's outer cardboard box with a pull tab in the middle. Inside was the MacBook box, with pull tabs intact. The MacBook itself is in pristine condition. I have zero reasons to believe this isn't a brand new device.

From a quick search, it seems it is only possible to set quotas when creating the APFS volume. I'm not aware of any way to do this during normal setup of a new Mac. I'm not even sure how it would be done for the Data volume.

| +-> Volume disk3s5 A4C261EB-15F0-49C7-A5F6-0026F5876F13

| | ---------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s5 (Data)

| | Name: Data (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data

| | Capacity Consumed: 278397804544 B (278.4 GB)

| | Capacity Reserve: None

| | Capacity Quota: 500000002048 B (500.0 GB) (55.7% reached)

| | Sealed: No

| | FileVault: Yes (Unlocked)

| |

A quick search reveals that the quota cannot be removed except by erasing the volume. Since the quota is only set for the Data volume, you should be able to use the Erase All Content & Settings option which should reset the laptop to factory defaults which should remove the Data volume & recreate it so you can go through Setup Assistant again.

Yours is the first report where I've ever seen someone have a quota enabled on their Data volume.

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Answer 3

Owl-53

Level 10

105,797 points

Mar 23, 2026 1:06 PM in response to HWTech

HWTech wrote:

ke4a wrote:

Owl-53, thanks for your reply.

> Bought Directly from Apple ?

No, from a local retailer in Bulgaria. Not a small no-name shop, pretty respectable. It came in a fancy Apple's outer cardboard box with a pull tab in the middle. Inside was the MacBook box, with pull tabs intact. The MacBook itself is in pristine condition. I have zero reasons to believe this isn't a brand new device.

From a quick search, it seems it is only possible to set quotas when creating the APFS volume. I'm not aware of any way to do this during normal setup of a new Mac. I'm not even sure how it would be done for the Data volume.

| +-> Volume disk3s5 A4C261EB-15F0-49C7-A5F6-0026F5876F13

| | ---------------------------------------------------

| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s5 (Data)

| | Name: Data (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data

| | Capacity Consumed: 278397804544 B (278.4 GB)

| | Capacity Reserve: None

| | Capacity Quota: 500000002048 B (500.0 GB) (55.7% reached)

| | Sealed: No

| | FileVault: Yes (Unlocked)

| |

A quick search reveals that the quota cannot be removed except by erasing the volume. Since the quota is only set for the Data volume, you should be able to use the Erase All Content & Settings option which should reset the laptop to factory defaults which should remove the Data volume & recreate it so you can go through Setup Assistant again.

Yours is the first report where I've ever seen someone have a quota enabled on their Data volume.

👍

🦉-53

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Answer 4

ke4a Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 23, 2026 8:48 AM in response to Owl-53

I decided to just wipe everything and restore from backup.

Time Machine backup.
Erase the Macintosh HD volume group in recovery mode.
Reinstall MacOS.
Restore from Time Machine backup during the initial setup.

Everything went smoothly, my Data volume is at full capacity now. By the way, the volume is now called "Macintosh HD - Data". It was just "Data" before.

Thanks everyone!

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Answer 5

Mar 21, 2026 9:15 PM in response to ke4a

That appears to be a manually managed APFS volume, since that's the only way to set a quota and a reserve.

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Not sure how your drive got set up that way, that's not the default. The 500 GB TM quota makes me wonder if you are somehow backing up to your internal drive (should not be possible?). It's odd that Other Volumes shows no size, that item represents your startup snapshot.

For completeness, and to help someone else who comes along with more ideas about this than I have, please post a screenshot of Disk Utility after selecting View Menu > Show All Devices. Here's what mine looks like:

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Answer 6

ke4a Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 22, 2026 3:32 AM in response to Owl-53

Owl-53, thanks for your reply.

> Bought Directly from Apple ?

No, from a local retailer in Bulgaria. Not a small no-name shop, pretty respectable. It came in a fancy Apple's outer cardboard box with a pull tab in the middle. Inside was the MacBook box, with pull tabs intact. The MacBook itself is in pristine condition. I have zero reasons to believe this isn't a brand new device.

> diskutil apfs list

Here's the full output. Capacity reserve is none, capacity quota is 500 GB.

APFS Containers (4 found)
|
+-- Container disk3 4276D998-F537-4A91-9CD7-AD61E078DC39
|   ====================================================
|   APFS Container Reference:     disk3
|   Size (Capacity Ceiling):      994610155520 B (994.6 GB)
|   Capacity In Use By Volumes:   301572055040 B (301.6 GB) (30.3% used)
|   Capacity Not Allocated:       693038100480 B (693.0 GB) (69.7% free)
|   |
|   +-< Physical Store disk0s2 F90C510A-67D8-4939-A75D-2949C44651D6
|   |   -----------------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk0s2
|   |   Size:                       994610155520 B (994.6 GB)
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk3s1 6B5BE6D4-109B-48C1-BA6A-2927AC05607C
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk3s1 (System)
|   |   Name:                      Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         12456198144 B (12.5 GB)
|   |   Sealed:                    Yes
|   |   FileVault:                 Yes (Unlocked)
|   |   Encrypted:                 No
|   |   |
|   |   Snapshot:                  326568F6-28EA-4453-88E2-B99F65508CD1
|   |   Snapshot Disk:             disk3s1s1
|   |   Snapshot Mount Point:      /
|   |   Snapshot Sealed:           Yes
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk3s2 8EC4B4DC-EBFB-4C64-B9C8-BA83AA75D828
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk3s2 (Preboot)
|   |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               /System/Volumes/Preboot
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         8904003584 B (8.9 GB)
|   |   Sealed:                    No
|   |   FileVault:                 No
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk3s3 DC839FB6-02C9-4EC9-BFF9-14C5EB974F5A
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk3s3 (Recovery)
|   |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         1604407296 B (1.6 GB)
|   |   Sealed:                    No
|   |   FileVault:                 No
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk3s5 A4C261EB-15F0-49C7-A5F6-0026F5876F13
|   |   ---------------------------------------------------
|   |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk3s5 (Data)
|   |   Name:                      Data (Case-insensitive)
|   |   Mount Point:               /System/Volumes/Data
|   |   Capacity Consumed:         278397804544 B (278.4 GB)
|   |   Capacity Reserve:          None
|   |   Capacity Quota:            500000002048 B (500.0 GB) (55.7% reached)
|   |   Sealed:                    No
|   |   FileVault:                 Yes (Unlocked)
|   |
|   +-> Volume disk3s6 A7DA5C0B-E6F8-490E-A531-1ECD931D4726
|       ---------------------------------------------------
|       APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk3s6 (VM)
|       Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
|       Mount Point:               /System/Volumes/VM
|       Capacity Consumed:         20480 B (20.5 KB)
|       Sealed:                    No
|       FileVault:                 No
|
+-- Container disk5 F6405D34-C596-4205-9F13-D7A73A2D54C3
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk5
    Size (Capacity Ceiling):      16000000000000 B (16.0 TB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   56721473536 B (56.7 GB) (0.4% used)
    Capacity Not Allocated:       15943278526464 B (15.9 TB) (99.6% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk4 (No UUID)
    |   ------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk4
    |   Size:                       16000000000000 B (16.0 TB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk5s1 16EA6314-9E02-4D36-B8BD-2A9A356C1A99
        ---------------------------------------------------
        APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk5s1 (Backup)
        Name:                      Backups of Anton’s MacBook Pro (Case-sensitive)
        Mount Point:               /Volumes/Backups of Anton’s MacBook Pro
        Capacity Consumed:         55124422656 B (55.1 GB)
        Sealed:                    No
        FileVault:                 No

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Answer 7

Owl-53

Level 10

105,797 points

Mar 23, 2026 3:10 AM in response to ke4a

To reiterate " there should not be a Quota set on the System/Volumes/ Data volume " on this Brand New machine

Scenario One

Return the machine for Exchange or a Full Refund

Scenario Two

Capacity Quotes do not automatically get applied . There may have been some Third Party Software installed that has used this issue

To avoid a game of 20 questions

Download the Application Etrecheck ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.

It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer

The application is free or paid for added features.

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.

Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then paste >>>> using the Additional Text Icon <<<<

Scenario Three

The user ( you ) may have inadvertently used a Terminal command that has caused this Capacity Quota issue

Suggest retracing your steps to undo this

Scenario Four

" I guess this will remain a mystery and my only option is to back up everything and factory reset. "

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Answer 8

ke4a Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 22, 2026 2:50 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Thanks for your reply, neuroanatomist. After extensive googling I also don't see how this quota could be set up other than manually. I guess this will remain a mystery and my only option is to back up everything and factory reset.

Here's my full tree of devices, it looks pretty much the same as yours:

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 9

Owl-53

Level 10

105,797 points

Mar 22, 2026 2:24 AM in response to ke4a

How to check if a quota is actually set

Open Terminal and run and use this command


diskutil apfs list

Look for your Data volume and check for lines like Quota Size or Reserve Size

Do you see something like Quota Size: 500.0 GB

OP Wrote " I bought a brand new sealed MacBook Pro M5 with 1 TB storage. "

Bought Directly from Apple ?

If from Apple, there should not be a Quota set on the System/Volumes/ Data volume

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Answer 10

Owl-53

Level 10

105,797 points

Mar 22, 2026 5:47 AM in response to ke4a

Sorry for the delay

This is the issue, a Capacity Quota for the /System/Data/ Volume

I must step away for about 1 hour or more

Perhaps my colleague has the time and can offer the method to Remove the Capacity Quote

APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s5 (Data)

| | Name: Data (Case-insensitive)

| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data

| | Capacity Consumed: 278397804544 B (278.4 GB)

| | Capacity Reserve: None

| | ➡️ Capacity Quota: 500000002048 B (500.0 GB) (55.7% reached) ⬅️

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Answer 11

ke4a Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 23, 2026 9:36 AM in response to ke4a

I recalled one more thing, which is most likely not related. I chose "Set up from iPhone or iPad" during the first setup instead of "Set up as new". I think it's only supposed to copy some settings like languages, iCloud account, WiFi passwords etc. I don't think it can affect volume quota. The volume should already exist at this point and it should not be possible to apply a quota to it.

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