What is consuming 175GB data that is showing in the storage section on my MacBook Pro?

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What is consuming 175GB data that is showing in the storage section on my MacBook Pro?

Hello Apple Community,

I have recently purchased a 2024 MBP with an M4 pro chip and 1 TB of space about a week ago. As of today, somehow something has consumed 175 GB of space and im not sure what or why?

Here is what I did so far:

1) I checked Disk Utility to see what is going on. Im not sure how it says 5 volumes are taken up, at most i see three.

2) I checked the view setting and checked the calculate all sizes option and it says the user (me) has already used 140 GB. While i did install some things that might have taken up 40 GB, the other 100 is unaccounted for. When I follow the directory to find the large folders it doesnt add up.

I did have an idea that it was my physical CD library that I had installed from my external hard drive to sync my ipod and my apple music but then after i supposedly deleted all the information and moved it all to stream, im still stuck with where I am at now.

Please help I dont want to be stuck in storage limbo on my new computer Q.Q

[Re-Titled By Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Apr 19, 2025 11:54 PM

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Answer 1

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MartinR

Level 7

24,137 points

Apr 20, 2025 7:32 AM in response to Morticus

You can get a first peek at where space is being used by running the Storage Report (Settings > General > Storage > Storage Settings); it can give you a general idea about how storage is being used.

In order to actually drill into details about what takes up storage you need an app like DaisyDisk to see what, exactly, is taking up space. You can quickly visualize where large amounts of storage exist and drill down to identify it exactly. DaisyDisk is available in the Mac App Store as well as direct from the author.

Music, photo & movie/TV libraries tend to take up considerable space. They can all be relocated to an external drive. Backups of iOS devices (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.) also often take considerable space.

ps. The Finder does not show hidden folders. That's probably where your 'unaccounted' space lies. iOS backups, for example, are hidden; so are cloud files and email. Also, the 5 volumes count is correct. But 3 are hidden, so in Disk Utility you should only see Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data.

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What is consuming 175GB data that is showing in the storage section on my MacBook Pro?

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