Purgeable space on HDD

I have the same problem, except the OS is holding 276 GB of my main drive (500GB) hostage. I tried first aid and copying large files from an external drive back to the main drive but still get the same error mesage (not enough free space). Ill keep you posted if I find a solution and please post here if you find one. Thanks.

From what I see, this is not a partition but the amount of space on your disk held for iCloud. It is purgable, since iCloid holds the files and they could be flushed. But since you have the space, they are locally held.

If you sync Desktop and Documents to iCloud, this will be large.

My iCloud is not synced. I had a large folder of pictures (loose files) in my downloads folder. I deleted them and emptied the trash can. Next thing I know, I cant reover the space even through reboot. Below is a screen shot.

https://kiszkaenterprises.com/cloud/index.php/s/1mdAGc6f5wemIDZ

My iCloud is not synced. I had a large folder of pictures (loose files) in my downloads folder. I deleted them and emptied the trash can. Next thing I know, I cant reover the space even through reboot.

The blue/white section is the icloud, cache, trash, and other documents the OS thinks are temporary or recoverable that could be deleted to make additional space. To manage this data go to the Apple Menu, About this Mac, Storage, and click on Details... beside the startup drive.

This window will provide a breakdown of all the files on your computer, provide some recomendations on where to save space, manage some of the space, and provide links to other places that may help to managed the space.

This forum does not allow a screen shot. If I put a link to one, its flaged for moderation. I have 45GB icloud in blue. I have 286 GB in white with stripes (purgable). My iCloud photos and documents are not on. If I click on details of storage, it does not list the the 286 GB of purgable data and there is nothing in the trash bin.

When you click on storage -> details -> store in icloud, both checkboxes are checked that keep documents and photos in icloud. There is not way to uncheck this. If you do and reopen it, they are checked again. If you go to system preferences -> icloud -> icloud you can uncheck the documents, however that now rips your documents away from the local computer. The Photo library is unchecked in system preferences. This Beta is pretty rough if my data is compormised. If I cant resolve than I will restore to unbeta.

This eventually rectified itself. I ended up letting the iCloud sync my documents and Photo libary. Once it was finished the almost 300GB of purgable data finally release.

I have activated sync long time ago, but I have a lot of purgeable space. :/

Has anyone found a solution for this problem?
Sierra is holding more than 100 GB of space on my 256 GB SSD which is unbeliavable and I can't find a solution online.

Try looking here - https://forums.developer.apple.com/message/180986#180986

I had this same issue but I was able to delete most of the files.I still have purgeable space but I did free up storage space in the process.

Note:Most of the space was taken up by documents from different applications and old files. Steps followed:

1. About This Mac
2. Storage
3. Macintosh HD section, click Manage
4. Recommendations section
5. Reduce Clutter, click Review Files-This shows the clutter space distribution in different sections.

Note:In my case I went to the Document section and clicked on the File Browser which gave me a list of folders that are using the most storage and from there I went into each individual folders and deleted what I deemed not necessarily in my case.I had some applications that I uninstalled in the past but still had space taken up that was deleted when I unistalled some of these applications.

Be careful that you don't delete essential files.

I hope this helps.

sudo tmutil disablelocal

I'm reading and getting nowhere on a simple issue

This is an old post, but I had the issue of having 300GB of purgeable data, except my computer wasn't removing it. I tried every workaround, was on the phone with Apple Support for over an hour trying to figure it out with no success (they were very nice, but also completely baffled about my situation). Every item I deleted resulted in the extra space being absorbed by the purgeable space. When I started trying to figure out the problem, I had 200GB of purgeable space. I didn't know what was going on until I had added an extra 90GB to that inadvertently.

I tried to download Clean My Mac and CCleaner for Mac, but because I had no space left on my computer, I couldn't download and install these apps. So, here was what I did to solve this problem:

1. Download the .dmg of Clean My Mac onto a USB from another computer.
2. Plug in the USB and double click the .dmg. Do not move the app to Applications. Instead, when it asks you to drag it over to Applications, just double click it. This runs it without installing it on your computer.
3. Run the program as if it was installed. This worked immediately and cleared out all but 3GB of purgeable space.
4. Restart your computer.

After I did this, I downloaded something small (a photo from the internet) and immediately deleted it and emptied my bin to see if it was removed. It cleared out that remaining 3GB when it did so, and now my computer is clearing it out regularly as expected.