Finder shows wrong amount of free disk space

[Janichsan]

Since a couple of days, the Finder shows a ridiculously wrong amount of free disk space on my boot disk:

I already found that I can "fix" this by disabling the local backup with "sudo tmutil disablelocal". However, when I re-enable them the problem returns the next time I reboot my Macbook.

Does anyone know a persistent fix without having to keep the local backups disabled?

(Before you ask: I also have tried to repair my disk and the permissions, to no avail.)

 

[LV426]

Are you doing regular Time Machine backups, by any chance?

If you are, there's a good chance that you have many GB of deleted files hidden away on your drive, on the off chance that you might want to do a Time Machine restore. OS X does this in case you don't always have access to your backup device. OS X will keep such files until you are starting to run out of space, or until you do a complete computer restore from backup.

Clicking the Apple logo on the top left and getting information about storage can tell you how much space you have devoted to backups.

 

[Janichsan]

Are you doing regular Time Machine backups, by any chance?

If you are, there's a good chance that you have many GB of deleted files hidden away on your drive, on the off chance that you might want to do a Time Machine restore. OS X does this in case you don't always have access to your backup device. OS X will keep such files until you are starting to run out of space, or until you do a complete computer restore from backup.

Clicking the Apple logo on the top left and getting information about storage can tell you how much space you have devoted to backups.

Yeah, I know this has something to do with the local TimeMachine backups - hence the provisional fix I mentioned. Disabling the local backups is supposed to get rid of these backups, though. What's more, these local backups don't actually exist, as the nonsensical amount of space they allegedly take up should make clear: 280 terabyte of backups on an 840 gigabyte partition makes little sense, doesn't it?

 

[AlanShutko]

Try running disk utility and verifying your partition. That seems like it could be some corruption of the free blocks count in the filesystem.

 

[Janichsan]

Try running disk utility and verifying your partition. That seems like it could be some corruption of the free blocks count in the filesystem.

As mentioned: I already did that. Didn't help.

 

[Weaselboy]

As mentioned: I already did that. Didn't help.

What does Disk Utility show for space available/used? Different than Finder?

 

[Janichsan]

What does Disk Utility show for space available/used? Different than Finder?

Both the Disk Utility and "df -h" in the Terminal show the correct amount of free space.

 

[Weaselboy]

Both the Disk Utility and "df -h" in the Terminal show the correct amount of free space.

Try clicking About this Mac under the Apple logo at the top left then look at the Storage tab. What does that show?

 

[Janichsan]

Try clicking About this Mac under the Apple logo at the top left then look at the Storage tab. What does that show?

An unrealistic amount of disk space allegedly used by backups.

As I said: I know this is related to the local backups. I'm looking for a persistent fix.

 

[Weaselboy]

An unrealistic amount of disk space allegedly used by backups.

As I said: I know this is related to the local backups. I'm looking for a persistent fix.

If that storage graphic is wildly off and Finder and DU are correct, it is likely an issue with the Spotlight index. That is where that storage graphic gets its info.

Try running the command below in Terminal to reindex Spotlight (it can take a while to complete) then see if the storage graphic looks correct.

sudo mdutil -E /

Before you do that though, run this command in Terminal to show how much space the hidden local backups is using.

sudo du -hs /.MobileBackups

 

[joedec]

Both the Disk Utility and "df -h" in the Terminal show the correct amount of free space.

The default in 10.10 is to use <= 80% of the device for local TM backup. The Finder differs from "df -h" and the Disk Utility because Finder shows available space including the backup space. It's assumed available by Finder because they delete the local backup files if the filesystem needs space for something else.

The only way to stop this from happening is disable local backups.

sudo tmutil disablelocal

If you check System Preferences/Time Machine they indicate if local backups are taken or not. It will state "Local snapshots as space permits"

 

[Weaselboy]

The default in 10.10 is to use <= 80% of the device for local TM backup. The Finder differs from "df -h" and the Disk Utility because Finder shows available space including the backup space. It's assumed available by Finder because they delete the local backup files if the filesystem needs space for something else.

The only way to stop this from happening is disable local backups.

sudo tmutil disablelocal

If you check System Preferences/Time Machine they indicate if local backups are taken or not. It will state "Local snapshots as space permits"

If you look through the thread, OP already tried that and it did fix it, but one should be able to use local backups without this occurring, and that is the issue here. OP is seeing "280 terabyte of backups on an 840 gigabyte partition" and obviously that is not possible. I think what is happening is the space it not used, but just incorrectly showing as being used.

 

[joedec]

If you look through the thread, OP already tried that and it did fix it, but one should be able to use local backups without this occurring, and that is the issue here. OP is seeing "280 terabyte of backups on an 840 gigabyte partition" and obviously that is not possible. I think what is happening is the space it not used, but just incorrectly showing as being used.

My bad, missed it in the original post too.

When showing About this Mac, add the space labeled Backup with Free and you'll get the same number the Finder shows.

I would bet there is a huge file, or file structure, that gets changed or just touched getting backed up. The key is to find it and exclude it. Something like a VM disk maybe.

 

[Janichsan]

If that storage graphic is wildly off and Finder and DU are correct, it is likely an issue with the Spotlight index. That is where that storage graphic gets its info.

Try running the command below in Terminal to reindex Spotlight (it can take a while to complete) then see if the storage graphic looks correct.

sudo mdutil -E /

Before you do that though, run this command in Terminal to show how much space the hidden local backups is using.

sudo du -hs /.MobileBackups

According to that 7.7 GB. The Spotlight tip seems to have helped, at least for the time being: since I did that, the Finder shows the correct amount of free space, even with local backups enabled and after two reboots. So far, so good.

 

[Weaselboy]

According to that 7.7 GB. The Spotlight seems to have helped, at least for the time being: since I did that, the Finder shows the correct amount of free space, even with local backups enabled and after two reboots. So far, so good.

Oh good. This was an issue with previous OS X versions and seems to be back with Yosemite. That Spotlight index gets corrupted and it make that space used show all out of whack.