Adamwight wrote:
My Mac mini is a 2025 512gb version and it's consistently getting 'full' despite me working to keep it as lean as possible. In the storage calculation and in disk utility it says that 'apps' are taking up nearly 300gb of space yet when I click to open the apps folder they totally nowhere near that, more like 25gb max.
The only accurate storage value is the Free space value which is only shown in Disk Utility & the System Profiler (Disk Utility is the easiest to access). Ignore the "Available" storage space value shown everywhere in macOS since it is very misleading. With macOS "Available" is not synonymous with Free.
I've used a third party cache clearer and manually removed the cash files. System date is only 25gb roughly so where the **** is the extra 200 odd gb being stored.
That should not be needed. macOS and apps will just recreate the cache as you use the system. This will actually slow the system down since the system must do more work. The only time cache or temp files need to be deleted is when one of those files may be corrupted or causing an actual with the OS/app while launching the app. If you boot into Safe Mode, then macOS will clear out the system temp & cache files. Web browsers may also have an option within one of their menus or settings to clear the browser cache.
Using a third party app to clean & optimize the OS will usually cause more problems than they fix.
Can someone please help out - please don't suggest doing what I've already done before - this 200gb must be somewhere!
The only thing you told us is you used an unknown third party app to clear unknown cache files....none of the regular contributors would suggest it. Who knows what that app may have actually removed.
Storage on an APFS volume is complicated. Deleting files may not immediately increase the Free storage value (it will increase the Purgeable storage value and the very misleading "Available" value) because those items may still be retained within the hidden APFS backup snapshots for Time Machine (or possibly some third party backup software). Usually these hidden TM backup APFS snapshots will be automatically deleted in 24-48 hours after all the backups have been successfully transferred to external media. You can view and even delete APFS snapshots using the information in the following Apple article:
View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support
Purgeable storage is storage that macOS will release & convert to actual Free space at some unknown time in the future. If the Purgeable storage is the hidden APFS snapshots, then it may take 24-48hours after the backups have transferred to external media. Who knows about in another sources...perhaps as soon as more space it needed, or at some unknown time in the future.
Plus storage with macOS is complicated by various cloud file syncing services. I don't use them so I cannot assist in that area.
You can use the third party app OmniDiskSweeper to locate the largest files/folders to identify where the largest amount of data is being held (it won't show the hidden APFS snapshots since they are not part of the mounted "Data" volume).
Edit: Forgot to include a link to the Apple article with instructions for accessing Safe Mode:
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
