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How do I delete Purgeable Space on a Mac?

How do I delete the Purgeable Space on Mac OS?


Mac Studio, macOS 14.1

Posted on Dec 12, 2023 10:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 4, 2024 1:36 PM

Hello,

my problem is similar, 180 gb available but 165 purgeable resulting in 15 free

when trying to install a newer version of Mac OS >> not enough free space.


And deleting large file doesn’t do anything.

i backed up my music library 50 gb. (Trashed it & empty the trash) It just increased both values but free space remain 15.


the purge didn’t change anything


thx for your help.



23 replies

Dec 12, 2023 12:53 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX:

Thank you for your efforts to help me. It sure is appreciated.


I did as you instructed then shut down and restarted, and in the 'System Settings - General - Storage, 'Macintosh HD' Does show I have 250 GB more...


However in Disk Utility, 'Macintosh HD' (Data Volume on sidebar) does Not show any change. It still shows 259 GB purgeable. - Also, a 'Get Info' on the Folder in Finder shows the same.


Is there another Step that I missed please, that causes this discrepancy?


Thank you again,

Randall


Dec 12, 2023 1:20 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you Viking OSX, I won't worry about it then. I am on my Mac Studio all day and evening too. I run Parallels and Windows 11 in coherence mode.


I do like to be proactive with disk space and backup. I have 2 x 2-TB SanDisks running Time Machine. I like redundancy.


Thank you again for all your help. May God Bless you.

Randall Goold (in AZ)

Dec 12, 2023 3:46 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX:

Thank you for being so thoughtful and thorough in your helping me.


Yes, my T/M alternates between both SanDisks X-Pro (M.2 SSDs), an hour apart. I knew it wasn't two duplicates for the same hour, but given the reliability of Mac M2 Studio SSD and SanDisk SSDs, I am willing to take a chance on alternating hours for being sufficient.


By The Way, this morning my Storage was using 550 GB. After I used 'sudo purge', it went down to 330 GB used. Now, evidently the OS started 'looking' at it. Because my Storage is down to 91 GB used. One-fifth of what it was using this morning. (I have 900 GB free, instead of 400.) - Twice what I expected! Truly, an answer to prayer.


Thank You So Much,

Randall


[Edited by Moderator]

Aug 13, 2024 6:23 PM in response to Randalls-MacPro

You (and the others concerned about the size of the purgeable space being report) should understand that manually purging does absolutely nothing except maybe give you a dopamine hit when you see the free space size bump up. Whether Finder or About this Mac is reporting 400 GB or 900 GB free made no difference to the OS and ow it works(how you feel about it might be different of course!).


APFS is a far more advanced file system than HFS+ was, and things like space recovery are so transparent to the user that there is almost no point in even looking at it. Or at least understand that you are looking at it for your own sake and not because it is necessary.

Aug 25, 2024 12:11 PM in response to Barney-15E

Ran into the purgeable space issue while trying to update the SD nav card for my car. The Kia updater app does not recognize purgeable space as being available and would not download the update. I tried multiple times to delete files and manually purge with terminal, but could not gain any available space. I came across another posting that suggested turning off "optimize mac storage" under the iCloud settings. Did that, rebooted and watched the purgeable space number rapidly decrease. Downloaded the update and turned optimize mac storage space back on afterwards. Just need to remember to do this the next time around.

How do I delete Purgeable Space on a Mac?

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