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Rakouane
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Much less free HD space after installing Golden Gate

Before I recently downloaded Golden Gate I had about 98 Go of free HD space. I now have only 45,01. I have left my Mac running two nights on the trot but no new free space has been shown except that very briefly, when the Mac opens, I see 100 Go free space then quickly disappears to show 45 Go. What is happening and will I ever recover the free space I have lost? Many thanks in advance and have a great day.

Posted on Sep 21, 2026 5:26 AM

2 replies

neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9 (72,871 points)

Sep 21, 2026 7:49 AM in response to Rakouane

macOS Golden Gate adds about 35 GB of data for the local models used by Apple Intelligence. You cannot delete those data.



The absolute minimum is ~20-25 GB free space, and as a rule of thumb you should aim to have 15-20% of your total internal storage as free space. 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). 

 

Some steps to take to safely free up space:

Free up storage space on Mac - Apple Support

Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

How to free up ‘System Data’ and other st… - Apple Community

Rakouane Author
User level: Level 1 (4 points)

Sep 21, 2026 8:58 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Wow! Loads I did not know as really not any type of expert by a casual user. I had a look as Disk Utility and it shows 44.95 Go "disponible" (Mac is all in French) but I thought that the Mac would purge automatically overnight after a few days but you say that it will only if it needs to. I should have bought the Mac with a bigger HD but it was really a question of price and we thought too expensive. I have an external SSD of 2 To with loads free but I suppose I cannot use that for anything other than my documents, photos and videos and non-Mac applications (e.g. Microsoft Office...). Apart from buying a new Mac, which is not possible for a while, do you have any suggestions for me please? Many thanks in advance and take care.

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256361847