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You may also find that local Time Machine snapshots are always marked as purgeable. Other files that can be purgeable include any files stored in your iCloud drive, iTunes movies, videos, podcasts, iTunes U courses, GarageBand sound libraries, foreign language dictionaries, and some fonts. But others are files you have had a hand in creating, such as files you downloaded from the Internet and are residing in your Downloads folder. Some of the files in the purgeable category are items the system manages, such as the various caches.
Mac os disk utility purgeable mac#
Purgeable space is files residing on your Mac that the system considers disposable without any warning to you. Near the bottom of the window is a table that includes a cell with the text:
Mac os disk utility purgeable free#
In the Disk Utility window, you’ll see a bar chart with Purgeable and Free space called out. Launch Disk Utility and select your startup drive from the sidebar. As an example:Īvailable: 717.08 GB (15.72 GB purgeable) (Disk Utility displays purgeable space both in a bar graph and combined with free space in an information table.)Īnother place to see this with a bit more detail is in Disk Utility. Under the General category in the Get Info window, you’ll see an entry for Available that includes the purgeable space.
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You can get a more detailed look at what Available really means by right-clicking the startup drive icon and selecting Get Info from the pop-up menu. With macOS, the amount of available space shown in a Finder window is no longer just the free space, but is instead free space + purgeable space, though the Finder still just refers to it as Available. In the status bar (if needed, use the Finder’s View menu to select Show Status Bar), you’ll see the number of items in the current window, followed by the amount of free space available. You can see this for yourself by opening a Finder window and selecting any folder, Desktop, or item. But it’s the last two categories at the far right side of the bar graph that interest us: Purgeable and Free space.įree space is what it’s always been storage space on your drive that isn’t currently marked as in use, and is available to your Mac’s file system to use as it pleases.įree space is what used to show up in a Finder window’s status bar as Available. With macOS, new categories have been added, including iTunes, GarageBand, and System, in addition to the existing Apps, Photos, and Other. The bar graph displays the space used by files, divided into categories. Included in the graph is data marked as purgeable, ready to be deleted, if needed, for additional room.) (About this Mac’s Storage tab displays a bar graph for each drive currently mounted by your Mac.
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You may need to wait a short time while your Mac performs a few calculations, but eventually you’ll see a colorful bar graph depicting how the space on your various drives is being used. One of the easiest, and certainly the most colorful, ways to see the amount of space taken up by purgeable files is to launch About This Mac from the Apple file menu, and then select the Storage tab. The change has more than a few folks scratching their heads, wondering what’s going on, and why they don’t seem to have as much free space on their drives as their Macs are telling them they have. With the arrival of macOS Sierra, Apple changed how the OS calculates free space on a Mac. Having problems figuring out how much free space is available on your Mac? You’re not the only one.