MacOS purgeable,space ‘bug’ - best way around?

[kingston12]

After many years of being a Mac user, I’ve fallen victim to the purgeable space ‘bug’ for the first time.

From what I’ve read online, it’s not a bug as much as a strange method of storage management.

My Mac has got a 500GB SSD which is about half full, but there is 130GB of purgeable space that I can’t use. I’ve tried changing the Tmw Machine and Optimised storage settings based a a few suggestions I found online, but to no avail.

Has anyone worked out the best fix?

[mmm-five]

If it's being caused by TimeMachine/APFS snapshots, then there are some Terminal commands to help you you purge old snapshots, but I think you can also do it with a freeware tool Maintenance or Cocktail IIRC...although I believe it's also now possible via Disk Utility.

Terminal method:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/26/how-to-...

Disk Utility method:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/disk-utility...

I've not got any to test with as I don't use Time Machine...I use Carbon Copy Cloner.

[kingston12]

Thanks for that, I'll have a go at this.

Judging by the way TM is chugging through (still going form yesterday) I think that may have something to do with it.

[dmsims]

Omnidisksweeper is very handy for tidying up what Apple couldn't