macOS Big Sur Not Enough Free Space

App & System Services Core OS macOS Beta

Created Jun ’20

Replies 39

Boosts 1

Views 80k

Participants 57

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?

Answered by teddy06550 in 613712022

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

Boost

tiffanytnyc OP

Jun ’21

Same issue here.

Ursuladirob OP

Jul ’21

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

wensx OP

Jul ’21

I came into the problem as well. The Big Sur system has a secret data storage in data disk. You can not delete files from the system, until you restore them from recovery mode. I restore and reinstall the system, it behave as well. So this is a damn system. My disk is 1Tb, it can eat up to about 400GB. Damn it.

gaballa200376 OP

Oct ’21

I can't up date my Mackbook

Totalnoob OP

Nov ’21

After reluctantly deleting a bunch of apps that I actually use- I kept getting this message when trying to update. I found this page, turned off Time Machine, and tried again. 15 minutes left on the update but it seems to be going well now.

Celeste14 OP

Jan ’22

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!

latifaaav OP

Sep ’22

I need more space for the update

stevescene OP

Feb ’23

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.

Fenny OP

Apr ’23

I'm pretty much facing a similar issue too. I deleted to show enough space for the required space wanted by the software application, but it kept saying there's no enough space at the end. I tried to install Ventura