MacOS Ventura not making purgeable space available

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MacOS Ventura not making purgeable space available

I have 660 GB of "available" space on my Mac, of which 640 GB is "purgeable". I am trying to transfer a backup using third party software (Backblaze), and it throws an error because it needs 35 GB of space and it can't find it.

Is there any way of manually clearing some of the purgeable space? I know the OS is supposed to remove it automatically when it needs to free up space, but clearly this is not happening in this case. Is it possible to at least find out what is using the purgeable space? Between iCloud and OneDrive I only have <300 GB of files, so there must be something else (Time Machine?). Maybe then I could remove the files through that app and free up space.

I have also contacted Blackblaze because the problem might be on their end, but this does seem like it is a bug in MacOS.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Mar 9, 2023 2:56 AM

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Answer 1

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PRP_53

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91,807 points

Mar 9, 2023 4:58 AM in response to Engielle

Manage Storage

It is generally a good computer practice to alway keep at least 15% to 20% of the Total Drive Capacity’s as Empty Space. Allowing the computer to drop below these guidelines may eventually, cause unintended consequences.

The links below will assist in identifying what is taking up space on the Internal Drive and provide possible ways to remove data that is under the direct control of the User ( Home Folder ) .

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?

Free up storage space on your Mac

OmniDiskSweeper Safe to use

GrandPerspective

https://www.macworld.com/article/231067/how-to-delete-time-machine-snapshots-on-your-mac.html

See used and available storage space on your Mac

Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Notation - If the user is using a cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner - suggest tweaking the Safety Net Feature in this software. It may be making additional Snap Shots that are not being Cloned to the Eternal Drive. If this should be the case, these Snap Shot could be using additional space on the drive

The final word from Apple on Managing the " Other/ System Data “ Category

Other / System Data: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.

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MacOS Ventura not making purgeable space available

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