"Not enough free space" when trying to install XCode even though there's ~7x more free space than required

The title says it all...

I am trying to install XCode, constantly getting that message, no matter what I try. Currently I have 41+ GB free space, XCode requires 6.1 according to App Store.


Please suggest how to solve this issue.


Thanks a lot in advance!

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Posted by
errata
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  • Me also getting same problem whenever I try to update Xcode. At least it should show update size of any app. It doesn't show update size for any app in App Store. How can we know which update is consuming how much data? If it explicitly asks that I want exactly this much of space for installing updates then we can do something about it. Without showing update size it simply goes on asking for more space for whatever free space we provide. Anyway this problem was encountered when I updated from

    Catalina 11.15 to Big Sur 11.0 (trouble moving Xcode from 12.4 (12D4e)) to 12.5

    —
    thejas_k
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I was needed 40Gb. Macbook 13, 2015, 8Gb, 128SSD

  • it could be an issue with RAM memory swapping.

Posted by
Iurii_Logosha
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I have 33GB of free space in my mac. But it is not allowing to install the xcode which is of 11GB. Actually how much space required to install xcode.
Posted by
siva2sk
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Code Block 
~/Library/Developer
rm -rf Xcode/


Now try downloading Xcode from app store or expanding your Xcode .xip archive.
Posted by
ajax8732
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  • Worked to me. Thanx.

    —
    kaluango
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After using the suggestion from @ajax8732 I was able to clear enough to have 48GB free. Only then would Xcode install for me.
Posted by
grepler
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The answer provided by ilkod below worked for me!
Worked the following: sign out from AppStore -> Restart Mac -> Sign in to AppStore -> Download Xcode
Posted by
CJStudio
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I got it to work with ~25 GB free storage space, by not updating but instead uninstalling Xcode and then reinstalling it through App Store.
Posted by
ludwigfriborg
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Encountered this issue on September 19th 2020. My MacBook air showed about 33GB of free storage, but would not let me download XCode; I probably tried 10 times and received the same error message of "not enough storage." I called Apple for help. We went through everything, the logging in and logging out of my Apple account, restarting the computer, logging into the computer in safe mode. Only after I freed up some more space and hit 40 GB of free space would the download start. Have no idea why this is, as XCode is only about 11GB.
Posted by
Brittcowan2020
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I am having the same issue. This is Apple's walk of shame for creating a mediocre SSD's for their OSX.
128GB? Really? Fire whom ever decided that 128GB SSD is enough for anything ...

My solution is/was relocating/removing Applications and Items from your OSX Hard drive just long enough to download XCode, then move XCode to an external HDD and update the Path. Return all the Items you relocated or removed.
This Worked for me before, now I am having to redo the whole thing again. :(
Posted by
waelio
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In my case Docker Desktop seemed to have a hold on the FS. After quitting Docker Desktop I was able to unarchive.
Posted by
mattycas
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21 sept 2020
I had to clean out some storage and had 43gb free before it would download.
Posted by
diarmuidmcg
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Hey, I found a working solution

After update macOS to the 10.15.6 I noticed that Xcode throws info that is not enough space on disk to update app, so I tried to run old Xcode and I noticed a popup about missing requirements, after click "install" the problem about updating Xcode in AppStore gone.

There was no needed steps to uninstall Xcode so I'm happy of that :)

I hope that this will help you too
Posted by
BartoszMaciejewicz
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I have MacBook Pro 13 inch 256gb 2017 running MacOS Big Sur beta and had the same error until I free my storage up to 40gb and now Xcode 12 is installing from AppStore :)
Posted by
aminedge
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The answer provided by ilkod below worked for me!
Worked the following: sign out from AppStore -> Restart Mac -> Sign in to AppStore -> Download Xcode
Posted by
muriloksantos
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I encountered the same issue on September 24 2020. Apple needs to fix this error. You need at least 40gb+ of free space in order to download Xcode which is only 11gb.
Posted by
arashmanpreet
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Code Block language
cd ~/Library/Developer
rm -rf Xcode

this worked for me, thanks @ajax8732 
Posted by
bob1993
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