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how much capacity do I need to have for update. I have 5 GB and the update is 1.42 GB but it will not update

Why doesn't Catalina 10.15.7 update? I have 5 GB available, the update is 1.42 GB but it will not update. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 16, 2021 7:50 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 16, 2021 7:55 PM

From: How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur - Apple Support

"If upgrading from macOS Sierra or later, your Mac

needs 35.5GB of available storage to upgrade. If upgrading from an

earlier release, your Mac needs up to 44.5GB of available storage. To

upgrade from OS X Mountain Lion, first upgrade to OS X El Capitan, then

upgrade to macOS Big Sur."

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 16, 2021 7:55 PM in response to janelle275

From: How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur - Apple Support

"If upgrading from macOS Sierra or later, your Mac

needs 35.5GB of available storage to upgrade. If upgrading from an

earlier release, your Mac needs up to 44.5GB of available storage. To

upgrade from OS X Mountain Lion, first upgrade to OS X El Capitan, then

upgrade to macOS Big Sur."

Jun 17, 2021 9:20 AM in response to janelle275

With only 5GBs of free space on your mac you are running the risk of your mac locking up and becoming unusable.

The download may only be 1.42GBs in size but this is a compressed file and once uncompressed and ready to be installed

will be at least twice the size.

Generally macs need at least 15-20GBS of free space to function normally, there are numerous background tasks the mac is constantly doing and it needs free space in order to this housekeeping.


Copy files you do not need on a daily basis to an external drive, Movies, Images and Music often take up the most room.

Having copied the files over confirm they have copied over successfully then you can delete them from your mac.

Restart your mac.

Then install the update.

Always try to keep a minimum of 20GBs free, more would be better.

how much capacity do I need to have for update. I have 5 GB and the update is 1.42 GB but it will not update

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