User profile for user: 1501virginia
1501virginia Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Applications storage shows a larger space than there actually are apps

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max 32GB Memory 500GB Storage. MacOS Monterey 12.6.


I mostly use browsers and Adobe on a daily basis. I've been seeing how I'm constantly running out of space even when:

  • I don't save files on my computer
  • I've set up Adobe media cache and scratch disks on external drives
  • I've uninstalled unused apps and deleted their respective System/Library/Cache folders


My 'Applications' storage says I have 243.18 GB worth of apps.

My biggest apps are Adobe with a cumulative space of 28 GB.

And maybe 30 other apps that are mostly under 500 MB each.

So logically, I only have roughly 45GB worth of apps installed.


I've tried deleting the all Adobe apps hoping that something heavy with it will be released, but nothing drastic happened. It merely deleted the exact space it said the app occupied, which of course makes sense.


What am I missing?


Please provide some wisdom... I upgraded to this after having a 2014 MBP and it's not paying off so far. This whole confusion I have is causing extremely low performance on my supposedly amazing upgrade.


I'd appreciate any guidance. Thank you.


MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Feb 1, 2023 11:54 AM

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User profile for user: Jaym_8
Jaym_8
User level: Community Specialist

Posted on Feb 3, 2023 05:11 PM

Hello 1501virginia,


Here's some general steps you can use for clearing storage on your device: Free up storage space on your Mac


If you want to get a breakdown of everything that's using space, you can use these steps:


  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Go up in the menu bar and choose Computer.
  3. Select the main hard drive. (generally named Macintosh HD)
  4. Change the view to list view. (select the current view button at the top of the finder window next to the drive name and select "list")
  5. Select View up in the menu bar > Show View Options, and at the bottom select Calculate All Sizes.
  6. Close the view options window and then give Finder a few minutes to calculate the sizes.
  7. Once the sizes have loaded, you can click the triangle next to the different folder names to expand and see everything in the folder. You can also then click on the "Size" column to organize it from greatest to least to see what is using the largest amount of storage.


From there you can delete things you want to get rid of by clicking and dragging them to the Trash in the dock. Once you're done deleting, right click the Trash icon and select Empty Trash to permanently delete everything.


It's also a good idea to give your computer a restart after you have deleted a bunch of things from it.


Cheers!

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Jaym_8
Jaym_8
User level: Community Specialist

Feb 3, 2023 05:11 PM in response to 1501virginia

Hello 1501virginia,


Here's some general steps you can use for clearing storage on your device: Free up storage space on your Mac


If you want to get a breakdown of everything that's using space, you can use these steps:


  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Go up in the menu bar and choose Computer.
  3. Select the main hard drive. (generally named Macintosh HD)
  4. Change the view to list view. (select the current view button at the top of the finder window next to the drive name and select "list")
  5. Select View up in the menu bar > Show View Options, and at the bottom select Calculate All Sizes.
  6. Close the view options window and then give Finder a few minutes to calculate the sizes.
  7. Once the sizes have loaded, you can click the triangle next to the different folder names to expand and see everything in the folder. You can also then click on the "Size" column to organize it from greatest to least to see what is using the largest amount of storage.


From there you can delete things you want to get rid of by clicking and dragging them to the Trash in the dock. Once you're done deleting, right click the Trash icon and select Empty Trash to permanently delete everything.


It's also a good idea to give your computer a restart after you have deleted a bunch of things from it.


Cheers!

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Applications storage shows a larger space than there actually are apps

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