Macbook "Storage is Too full". But it's not?

I know nothing about Macs but "storage is too full" is weird, is that actually what it says? An exact error message word-for-word might help the Apple experts when they come along.

Just check what size the TV shows you are downloading are.

Apple tend to prioritise quality over size on their downloads, so if you are downloading "see" in 4k for example, it looks like a single episode could be up to about 9.5gb.  1080p looks like it runs at about 2.5 to 4.5gb per episode.

Masters of the air is even worse - single episodes in 4k look like they can be up to 20gb.

I....erm.... don't download directly from Apple, so I don't know what size they would be if you did, but I would imagine they'd be in the same ballpark.

You could try
Apple / storage / Manage and work through to see if there are purgable files doing nothing but take up space...

You could try downloading fewer episodes / episode by episode / series by series and see if that helps. Sorry, I know that's blindingly obvious, but it would at least tell you whether you have some sort of downloading glitch or you are, as above, simply trying to overfill your storage bucket.

Also your computer will reserve some storage for OS and virtual processing, so you don’t actual have 256GB available.

Masters of the air is even worse – single episodes in 4k look like they can be up to 20gb.

You can't download Apple TV episodes in 4K, only 1080p, so it's not that. I've just looked Masters of the Air on my MacBook and it's 1.35GB.

That's odd. Perhaps some temp files are kicking around - but when you look at the free space available in settings/general/storage, it should take that into account 🤔 Does it make any recommendations in there to free up space (under the graph showing how much is used)?

Apple TV+ should default to 1080p on the MBA. So about 1.2GB for a 1 hour episode, unless you've changed it to 4K in the settings.

Have you done a full restart since you got it? This can release temp storage that has been grabbed by apps.

Also know nothing about macs. How much storage have you in the cloud? Is something backing up to the cloud and filling it up? My kids phones are good at that

@phil5556 - Go to Apple Menu > System Settings and then click General on the side bar. Click ‘Storage’ on the right and that will show you what type of files are taking up your HD space.

It will also give you options for optimising storage and clearing up the drive.

If you're backing up certain folders to iCloud, don't download your shows to one of those folders.

(basically what stuf said )

Does sound like it could be an iCloud thing. Free account only comes with 5gb storage. Programs will be trying to back up, not have storage and throw a wobbly. Turn off WiFi to stop any back up and open your  iCloud settings to see what it’s set to back up. Turn off anything big storage wise or upgrade your account for more cloud storage.

Not sure it's iCloud. Only Documents and Desktop get backed up if you've turned that on. The Apple TV+ app saves it downloads somewhere else, in Movies/TV, unless you've changed that setting.

If you are running short of iCloud storage, IME you get some pretty obvious messages telling you to upgrade your iCloud subscription.

Cheers, I'm not quite sure what it was doing but it's happy enough again now... I deleted the downloads that had started, then re-started TV and set up a new library, downloaded some things and it works.

Strangely the TV folder is about 20GB but under storage it only shows 1.4GB?

[img] [/img]

Not an iCloud issue, I've got plenty of space in the 2TB plan.

Are your music and movie folders stored in your home folder or externally?

If you don't use GarageBand, iMovie or Keynote - dump those as they take up a chunk of space.

They are on Macintosh HD > Users > Phil > Movies > TV > TV 1

(was originally just TV but when I deleted it I made the new one inside the TV folder and named it TV 1)

There's no music saved on it but the folder is in its original location, I haven't done anything with it.

Apple TV+ should default to 1080p on the MBA. So about 1.2GB for a 1 hour episode, unless you’ve changed it to 4K in the settings.

Yep it's set to 1080P and seems about right at 1.2GB/hr now that I've got it working.

Looking at your screenshot above too. ^^^

I'd not be syncing my phone messages to my laptop, just let them back-up to icloud. That's 5gb saved! 🙂

Strangely the TV folder is about 20GB but under storage it only shows 1.4GB?

Maybe those numbers aren't real-time. A daily job updates them or something.