Resolved Help freeing up space on a 256 GB SSD for Big Sur

[Morod]

Hey everyone,
I have a 2019 13” MBP with a 256GB SSD. I wanted to upgrade to Big Sur from Catalina (call me crazy) and during the download a dialog box opened saying I needed 12GB more space on the SSD. The wife loves her photos. There’s currently a bit over 12GB available, and I’ve taken about everything off it I can.

In very simple steps, is there any way I can somehow free up space somehow? I thought Big Sur would just install over Catalina. PS… I am an old retired guy. I don’t speak good “technise”.

Thanks!

 

[chscag]

If photos are taking up a large portion of your drive space, you can always move them to an external drive. Very easy to do by creating another photo library and directing it to the external drive.

There are other ways to free up space that's being used by photos. However, I'm not into photos but I'm sure others will have suggestions on how to move those photos elsewhere.

 

[glenthompson]

If you’re using iCloud storage for the photos you can optimize storage on the Mac and free up space.

 

[Morod]

Not using iCloud, but thank you. I may look further into putting the photos on an external drive.

 

[IowaLynn]

Even SSDs need more than 10% free space. And 12GB is just the file size. It needs to write temp files and more. Yes, normally you can "upgrade in place" but it needs more like 30-40GB to do so.

The system only takes ~20GB when done. You've got 200GB of "data"

You need a safety net.

Ideally you would clone drive (make a perfect duplicate, like with Carbon Copy Cloner), make sure you can boot from that, start or updaate your TimeMachine - and one for Catalina and then another once Big Sur is up.

Good idea to start fresh, clean install - ie, erase your drive. Use Recovery Mode.

Having backup(s) - so you and your wife remain on speaking terms - is simple and basic. MacOS should have prompted to setup TimeMachine at some point. A 1TB drive, 350% the size of your system/data, on something like Samsung T5 SSD external unit ideally.

 

[pldelisle]

DiskInventory X can tell you what files take space on your drive.

IowaLynn said it all.

 

[IowaLynn]

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Samsung T7: 500GB drive to clone, another just for media files. A larger unit, 1-2TB, for TineMachine. The T5 is fine, slightly cheaper and either will get the job done.

 

[pldelisle]

SAMSUNG SSD T7 Portable External Solid State Drive 500GB, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Reliable Storage for Gaming, Students, Professionals, MU-PC500T/AM, Gray

The Samsung Portable SSD T7 is the next standard in external storage. With transfer rates up to 9.5x faster than traditional external hard drives and read/ write speeds up to 1050 MB/s1, you can move massive files around with unparalleled ease and fluidity. Its sleek, shock-resistant design is un...

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Samsung T7: 500GB drive to clone, another just for media files. A larger unit, 1-2TB, for TineMachine. The T5 is fine, slightly cheaper and either will get the job done.

I’m not a fan of multiple external drives. I prefer centralization of storage. But that’s another level.

 

[Morod]

Okay, I do have a 1TB external that I use several times a week with both TM and Superduper.
So get another 1TB external, wipe the current Catalina from the MBP (having backups for Catalina on the first external), install Big Sur on the MBP, and use the first drive to reinstall Photos, etc. Use the 2nd external as backup for Big Sur. AM I kinda right?

 

[glenthompson]

Okay, I do have a 1TB external that I use several times a week with both TM and Superduper.
So get another 1TB external, wipe the current Catalina from the MBP (having backups for Catalina on the first external), install Big Sur on the MBP, and use the first drive to reinstall Photos, etc. Use the 2nd external as backup for Big Sur. AM I kinda right?

Yes but I would use the new drive as a second backup of the current install until you get Big Sur installed and working well. Can't have too many backups.

 

[IowaLynn]

Okay, I do have a 1TB external that I use several times a week with both TM and Superduper.
So get another 1TB external, wipe the current Catalina from the MBP (having backups for Catalina on the first external), install Big Sur on the MBP, and use the first drive to reinstall Photos, etc. Use the 2nd external as backup for Big Sur. AM I kinda right?

Yes.

I also like to take a drive and give it dual use, 2 partitions, so I can have SD! and TM, or clone A and B where B is let week and A is daily. Maybe a smaller system and next to none users data files except ~/Library essentially. That way it is bootable and takes very little space away from TimeMachine. I chose T5 as seem to be universally supported, fast enough, bus powered, and silent.

 

[mwidjaya]

There’s currently a bit over 12GB available, and I’ve taken about everything off it I can.

Even as is, it is not a good thing to run with so little free space.

Generally, you should have at least 20GB of free space.

You will need to figure out moving photos, music, videos to external disk.

Cloning

Nah, moving iMovie is as simple as ABC. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203049#:~:text=%20Move%20a%20library%20to%20an%20external%20storage,is%20finished%20copying%20to%20your%20external...%20More%20 So is moving photos and music. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Morod]

Thank you all! I am bookmarking this page for future reference!

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Let me offer you a way to try Big Sur WITHOUT TOUCHING the internal drive on your MBP.

Get a small EXTERNAL USB3 SSD.
Something like this:

INLAND Professional 120GB SSD 3D NAND SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (120GB)

NO WAIT BOOT-UP, BETTER PERFORMANCE, RENEW YOUR PC WITH INLAND PROFESSIONAL SDD Fast start-up, loading and file transfers Get up to 520MB/s sequential read speeds for no-wait boot-up, shorter applications load times and quicker data transfer. Incredibly load and run games, videos and photos in an...

tinyurl.com

Also get a USB3 2.5" external enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

These two items will cost you $30.
The drive just snaps into the enclosure.

Use disk utility to erase it to:
APFS with GUID partition format.

Now, download the Big Sur installer and run it...
BUT...
... when the installer asks WHERE to install, "aim it" at the external SSD. NOT at the internal drive.

Now you will have a copy of Big Sur to play with, and your internal drive will be "left intact" for the time being, photos and all.

You will have to use "the option key trick" to boot from the external:
1. Press power button
2. IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears
3. Select the external with the pointer and hit return.

But again, you now have a way to experiment with Big Sur, and "know what you'll be getting into" BEFORE you get into it.

 

[Morod]

Well, no go. I tried doing the above and I couldn't figure it out. How about this? Her music is taking up a lot of space as it was all imported using Apple Lossless. Around 9,000 songs. Is there any way to batch convert them to a smaller size? Or maybe deauthorize the computer, delete her music entirely, then re-import them using a different format? I can't touch het photos. I only have 9GB available on her 256GB drive.

 

[pldelisle]

Well, no go. I tried doing the above and I couldn't figure it out. How about this? Her music is taking up a lot of space as it was all imported using Apple Lossless. Around 9,000 songs. Is there any way to batch convert them to a smaller size? Or maybe deauthorize the computer, delete her music entirely, then re-import them using a different format? I can't touch het photos. I only have 9GB available on her 256GB drive.

Don’t re-encode the songs. You have a gold mine with all that lossless audio files. Simply get a good external USB-C hard drive to put everything there or a Synology/Qnap NAS.

 

[Morod]

Thanks, pldelisle. I should say my iMac has the identical music library. 500GB SSD gives me room. The MBP is my wife's, and she would have problems carrying around an external drive. Maybe if I just deleted the music she doesn't like from her MBP, the music should stay on my iMac (we share the iTunes account).

 

[Morod]

Sorry for the trouble, everyone. Looks like I can delete the songs I imported from CD on the MBP without affecting the iMac music. I assumed deleting from one would delete from all.
Easy peasy getting my space back.