Not enough disk space when trying to copy file, yet I've only used 13.21 gb on my computer

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Level 1

4 points

Not enough disk space when trying to copy file, yet I've only used 13.21 gb on my computer

I'm trying to copy a file from a prograde 256 gb card (SDXC II) to a 1 tb SanDisk External Protable SSD drive. However when I try to copy this file it comes up saying "additional 14.04 GB of disk space is required to copy this file. You can manage disk space by removing items from the storage section of About This Mac".

So I deleted 83 gb of storage, compressed the fgile down to around 2 gb and it still comes up saying I don't have enough disc space. Do they mean no disk space on the 1 TB SSD card or on the computer itself? Teh Macbook Pro that I have says I have available 723 gb and used 13.21 gb. What am I doing wrong?? Thanks for any help here.

Posted on Jan 17, 2025 4:41 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

62,156 points

Jan 17, 2025 10:30 PM in response to rainesumner

Make sure the actual Free storage space on the destination drive is larger than the size of the file(s) you are copying. You may need more storage on the destination than is used for those files on the source drive due to differences in how the file system allocates storage on different file systems....the size of the drives play a role as well.

Ignore the "Available" storage value the macOS shows nearly everywhere since it is very misleading. Unfortunately the actual Free storage space value is only shown in Disk Utility and within the System Profiler. Even the "Used" storage space value is misleading these days at least when using the APFS file system.

What file systems are used on the SD card and the external SSD?

Can you also post a screenshot of the error message so we can see exactly what is shown?

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Answer 2

rainesumner Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2025 11:31 AM in response to HWTech

Yes that helped, thank you very much! I've attached a photo of the prompt. It's confusing because it is misleading as to me its saying I don't have enough memory on the computer. Why wouldn't the prompt say you don't have enough memory on the san disk instead.....

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