User level: Level 1 (18 points)Ugh, I notice several unexpected items here. To start, I wonder where the 157 GB of system data originated, especially since Finder shows 242 GB available. Do you have any thoughts on correcting this?
[Edited by Moderator]
Posted on Sep 19, 2026 4:59 AM
User level: Level 9 (72,871 points)Sep 19, 2026 5:05 AM in response to ultra65
Terminology is important here – free space is not the same thing as available space. The one that matters is Free space, but what macOS shows in most places is Available space. Available space includes both free space and ‘purgeable’ space, the latter comprises system caches, snapshots and other data that macOS can delete if it decides more free space is needed. However, there is no way the user can force those data to be purged.
The place to check how much Free space you have is in Disk Utility (in Applications > Utilities), by selecting the main container disk below the drive itself (you may need to select View menu > Show all devices to see it). For example, on my M4 MacBook Pro, the Storage settings pane and Get Info on the internal drive show 1.24 TB of Available space, whereas Disk Utility shows there is 1.15 TB of actual Free space, 90 GB less than ‘available’. Although 90 GB is a small fraction of my 2 TB internal storage, that would not be the case with 256 GB or 512 GB of internal storage.
Note that you can also see the Free space in the System Report (System Settings > General > About > System Report button, at the bottom > Storage).
"System Data" comprises your data, but they are files that Spotlight cannot assign to a specific category like Documents or Applications. Examples include Outlook attachments, Cloud storage caches, and Time Machine snapshots. The information in the System Settings > General > Storage pane is based on Spotlight categories and to be honest, it's not very reliable.
Follow the steps in this User Tip to see what is in there and how to remove if (if you want and if it's something that can/should be removed):
How to free up ‘System Data’ and other st… - Apple Community
User level: Level 9 (72,871 points)Sep 19, 2026 5:16 AM in response to ultra65
Rebuild the Spotlight index.
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
If that doesn’t work, Copy/Paste this into Terminal. sudo will ask for your password. Just type the password and hit return. It won't show anything on screen. Those two commands essentially nuke all the Spotlight records then force a reindex. You may need to restart or log out/in after running the commands.
sudo mdutil -X /; sudo mdutil -i on /
Spotlight re-indexes your Mac after a macOS update, and this process can take some time.
About Spotlight indexing and search results on Apple devices - Apple Support
You may also need to reinstall macOS:
How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
You can do that without deleting your data (though I'd definitely have a backup first).
User level: Level 1 (18 points)Sep 19, 2026 5:14 AM in response to neuroanatomist
i get it but before updating it was like 216 gb available in both finder and system settings , i dont remember about the disk utility tho but after updating its glitched , i mean just look at the screenshot , how can i have 245.15 gb available if i have only a total of 245.11 gb and in that too i've used 4-5 gb of data , please Address this
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256360427