macOS Big Sur Not Enough Free Space | Apple Developer Forums

Hi!

I've been attempting to install macOS Big Sur for the past day now and every time I try, it says I do not have enough free space. In the installer it says that I have 33.86 GB available, but in reality, I have about 108 GB available. That 33.86 GB keeps fluctuating too, every time I run it it changes.

I've attempted to restart my computer, delete more items off of my HD, delete the installer and profile and try again, all with no luck. Any ideas on how to solve this?

macOS
Beta

76k

Posted by

gavinmdev

I am having the same issue, my MacBook says I only have 18 gb’s of free space and I pretty much deleted all the huge apps off my computer and nothing changed?? I’m confused!

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absoluttu
Same issue here.

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tiffanytnyc
As all the others, I moved everything I could to iCloud. Don't have the Time Machine enabled. Still can't install.

—
Ursuladirob

Accepted Reply

Hi,

Are you using Time Machine, If so you may have local snapshots of them store locally on your Mac. (This is the issue I faced when installing)

Try this
Quoted from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204015
"If you want to delete local snapshots manually, turn off Time Machine temporarily:
Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
Deselect “Back Up Automatically” or click the Off/On switch, depending on what you see in Time Machine preferences.
Wait a few minutes to allow the local snapshots to be deleted. Then turn on Time Machine again. It remembers your back-up discs."

That that does not work try deleting it manually in the terminal.

Type tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
You should be presented with something like this com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-06-01-002010 (the number will be different)
If this appears
Type sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-06-01-002010 (substitution the ID presented before)

Hope this Helps

Posted by

teddy06550

i don't have time machine on and never have and I'm still unable to download the update, i only have 18GB available but i barely have anything on my laptop that's taking up storage

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kirafoster1
Teddy, what can I say. A year later, your answer is just as relevant. A guy like me goofing around trying to install Monterey beta on a separate APFS ended up in such deeper of a rabbit hole that I expected. Countless articles, forums, and videos (okay maybe like 50) constantly led me back to square one. I tried everything to get my Macintosh HD - Data configured to how much storage I was actually using from safe boot to first aiding everything in disk utility in recovery. Worn down - my stubborn self almost gave up and actually asked for help, till I came across this developer forum ❤️. Who knew it was that pathetic sluggish Seagate HDD. Toggling automatic backup and waiting didn’t work. Alas, the last option was terminal. And now no more phantom storage (: THANK YOU!

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Skript
works fine ! 150GB free now

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holgerw

Replies

I can't up date my Mackbook

Posted by

gaballa200376

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A little late but I was having the same issue. Found almost 80gb in storage that was my iPhone backup. 😯

Went to Apple logo, About this Mac, Storage, Manage, iOS Files, then deleted the iPhone backups. Freed up so much space!

Posted by

Celeste14

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I need more space for the update

Posted by

latifaaav

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So, I visit this question after 1 year anniversay of my failure of upgrading Big Sur in my Macbook Pro 2014 128GB SSD version. I successfully download the Big Sur but failed once again to install it because of extra 12GB reguired.

Quick and easy solution.

Go to Application Folder, move the "Install Big Sur" app (which is 12.45GB) to an external harddisk.
Start the installation from the external harddisk
Problem Solved.

Posted by

stevescene

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