Stop receiving "Your disk is almost full" notification

Well, another really quick fix is to switch on the "Do not disturb" of the notifications. That way the notification is silenced.

Of course meanwhile try to fix the space left on your drive... I had the same issue and wanted to be able to work without having to click on this notification each 10s.

Thanks ngartke for asking this very important question. It's been so frustrating with MacOS Sierra's notification. I mean for someone who has been managing his hard disk drive for over 2 years between 3GB to 5GB. I can see the implication of running low on disk drive and very fine with mine but gosh how to turn this off so I stop getting the notifications. I can't believe it's so hard to find how to. Please if you've found a way, let me know. And I had the warning intuition not to turn on iCloud storage optimization for since being with apple from 2008, they have never been the best with anything connected with internet services. Anyway paying the price :-D. Next time will just leave it alone. I've turned off "store in the cloud, and reduce clutter" recommendations but don't know how to turn off optimize storage and empty trash automatically. You know, these are the areas I see why people are so mad with apple but hey i'll take these caveats over the so many other problems I get when running Windows.

Anyway I hope there's a way to turn this off or maybe in a new update.

Thanks mate.

SS drives show (in SMART) how much bytes you have written. And you can check this by using ssd-z in Windows. In macos I can't remember one but I think it is not a problem to find one. For that moment I can't give my own ssds data as it has been used very few for writing. But you can find a lot of disks with unfinished resource and about 10-20 TB written. For example

Trim work in Samsung and Toshiba drives (last ssds I've seen in Mac computers were based on those controllers) very well and in Sandforce Intel's drives also.

Hello ngartke (and All with this problem),

Before I tell you what I did to get rid of that annoying notification, let me say that since I installed macOS Sierra in January (2017), I started to get this error almost all the time, first when just ~6GB were free, then at ~2GB, but I also got it when had ~18GB or even ~35GB free (out of my 500GB HDD), which is REALLY ANNOYING!

And, as I can understand this reason (for at minimum of 2GB free), I don't see a point for not being able to SET THE DESIRED SIZE of the free space available for the notification to come up, as was in older Mac OS versions.

Also, I noticed that the "System" part of the Storage Management (the app that shows what space is using each of the computer "parts", let's say it so), is varying A LOT, from a normal 18-20GB to the double and most annoying ~45GB used.

Now, as a solution, I found out that, sometimes, just restarting the computer could free up that "System" part, and from 40GB (f.e.) if you make it half (as I think is normal), then you just got yourself 20GB additional free space.

And since this "restart trick" does not work all the time, I found out that using OnyX (https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html - for the specific version of Mac OS is installed), then, here among many-many other functions, I have also the option to clear cache of several “parts” of the OS, including System, User, Internet, Fonts, and Logs, which most of the time leads to a great deal of free space freed up.

Please be aware that while you do those cleanings, you do not need to restart the computer after each of them, just after the last one.

Hope this will help you too, as was helped me several times by now!

Felix

P.S. If the system here will remove my above link, just search the web with "OnyX download mac" and you should find the OFFICIAL one on the producer site, Titanium Software.

I've been managing for the past 3 years with 1-5 GB of free space and I have no performance issues.

Have you ever run with 10-15 GB of free space to see if performance improves? With the advent of Yosemite, Sierra and High Sierra free space seems to have become more important.

The fact that you have run for the past 3 years with that amount of free space is like saying you've been driving for 3 years without using the seat belt. But what happens when you need it.

You could get into a situation where you copy a large enough file to your hard drive that will essentially fill up the available space and you will be unable to run or reboot. We're here to tell you of the consequences of your actions. If you prefer to ignore the advice it's on you.

woyciesjes wrote:

Wrong John. This warning can be safely ignored when it's coming up and you have over 10GB of free space. That is more than enough free space for OSX.

Actually, macOS will run with zero GB of free space. In fact, it will run with zero bytes of free space. Not one single solitary byte. I used a Mac for a full week that way. It was perfectly safe. It didn't blow up or anything. It kept complaining, but it kept working, and just as fast as it always did.

Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots to prove it, because with zero bytes available there is nothing left to save a screenshot.

I did, however, take a photograph:

If you continue to ignore that warning, the Mac will eventually not boot at all, leaving you with no option other than to erase it. By that time macOS will have exhausted every available option to reclaim space so that it can continue to work normally.

That's why I wrote:

When that message appears, it should not be ignored. The only way to stop it from appearing is to increase available storage space so that your Mac can continue to work normally. To learn how to do that please read macOS Sierra: Increase disk space.

It remains just as applicable today.

BobSaggy wrote:

Lets hope a future updates gives us the option to turn it off.

I have to agree with babowa, OS X always had this notification – that's about 16 years of progress and Apple still see it as important.

Notify Apple, if enough people complain maybe a developer will look into it & decide if an option to disable it is a good idea (considering how modern SSD storage behaves) but I doubt that will happen as it can lead to data loss in some circumstances.

https://ssl.apple.com/feedback/

Has anybody had any success with malkowski's earlier 'plist hack' suggestion? klopyrev did it ever work for you? Hacking system files is ill-advised but you guys appear to like living on the edge anyway…

How to stop receiving "Your disk is almost full" notifications

1. Boot to Recovery OS by restarting your machine and holding down the Command and R keys at startup.
2. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
3. Enter the following command:

   $ csrutil disable

4. After enabling or disabling System Integrity Protection on a machine, a reboot is required.
5. Boot into your account.
6. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
7. Enter the following command: launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
8. Reboot to Recovery OS by restarting your machine and holding down the Command and R keys at startup.
9. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
10. Enter the following command:

    $ csrutil enable

11. After enabling System Integrity Protection on a machine, a reboot is required.
12. Boot into your account.
13. Done. Disk space warning has now been disabled and System Integrity Protection is still functional.

How to stop receiving "Your disk is almost full" notifications

1. Boot to Recovery OS by restarting your machine and holding down the Command and R keys at startup.
2. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
3. Enter the following command:

   $ csrutil disable

4. After enabling or disabling System Integrity Protection on a machine, a reboot is required.
5. Boot into your account.
6. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
7. Enter the following command: launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
8. Reboot to Recovery OS by restarting your machine and holding down the Command and R keys at startup.
9. Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
10. Enter the following command:

    $ csrutil enable

11. After enabling System Integrity Protection on a machine, a reboot is required.
12. Boot into your account.
13. Done. Disk space warning has now been disabled and System Integrity Protection is still functional.

Thanks for the question, ngartke. I just find it extremely annoying when people don´t answer the question and instead assume that you need advice to free up more space (ow my god, you´re gonna die!), buy another HD, buy another computer, move to Mars, etc. It´s patronizing and not helpful at all. I´d also like to know the answer, since my 128 GB Mac Air works PERFECTLY fine running with 2 GB of free space. But I´m not running very fine having to turn the **** notification every 10 seconds, and still had to read a lot of very unhelpful answers (not really answers, just opinions in fact). To make myself clear: I don´t want or need opinions, I just need to turn the notification off. Thanks a lot for your comprehension 🙂

This is not an opinion: there is no safe way to turn it off.

Just a heads up (not an opinion either, just facts):

Once your Mac refuses to boot up, crashes inexplicably, and/or winds up with one kernel panic after another and you request help in these forums, do not forget to mention that you prefer to run your OS without the required "headroom" (storage space). Or, simply don't bother asking for help since you will get more advice to free up space - which, as we all know now, is not what you want to hear.

FWIW, no one here has been patronizing; they have all attempted to be helpful.

Good luck; I am done here.

I know you don't want to hear this, but you've been really lucky so far in running your Mac with this little spare disk space - very, very, very lucky.

I don't normally post on communities, but your situation compelled me to post - this will only get worse unless you do something about your low disk space right now - today.

Clear out your Mac, use the new tools in Sierra to free up space, buy another HD and transfer some files over - whatever, you've got to do something.

The main point is that anyone who tries to help you in turning this notification off would be doing you a disservice.

If your car had a warning light flashing, you would ask the garage to fix the problem, not 'turn the annoying light off'.

If you don't do something then at some point you will be back on these forums asking people why your Mac is starting up with a 'stop sign' and not booting.

If you still think you're right (you are not), then it's your (Mac's) funeral.

ngartke, i think just wait for answers that points to your question and ignore all the rest. I read answers like these especially forums related to  products and services all the time and there is just not much you can do. Once we realize how so different we all are, maybe some understanding will come to see we all use our machines differently, even if the machines are all the same. I've been running between 2GB to 3GB for over 4 years now and have managed this very fine. It's something i praise  for because i also use windows on an HP laptop and man that chap is slower than a snail. Sometimes actually can't work on it but they are other windows machines that manage. My MBA runs optimally, so  have done a very good job. It's just the nagging notification that's the headache :-D. Lets hope a future updates gives us the option to turn it off.

Your question is very specific and glad some here in the forum get what you want an answer to.

I'm with you, Rockstar, the condescension here is mind-blowing. I have 600 gigs free on a Terabyte disk - that's 60% free - and I just got the message. I'm doing Mac IT work for 25 years and know what I'm doing. Does somebody here want to lecture me on the importance of freeing up disk space? Maybe you should rail at Apple's heavy-handedness in treating us all like morons who cannot manage our machines.

Additionally, we do not get paid and most of us volunteer because we want to help; however, we are not obliged nor do we get paid to be the recipients of some posters' attitude. The advice directed at the OP was spot on.

Your case would be odd - definitely - and if you had asked providing necessary technical and relevant details, I would have genuinely tried to help. As it is - good luck.