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I am trying to backup my old iPhone 7 to my Mac, so that I can restore it to the new iPhone XS. iTunes keeps giving me an error stating Unable to backup due to insufficient space on the computer. The iPhone that I am trying to back up is 128 GB capacity (with 70 GB free, and I have 128 GB free on my Mac.

What's the probable problem here? Software on all of my devices are up-to-date (macOS Mojave on my Mac and iOS 12.1 on the iPhones).

Cruise5
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  • can we see the numbers you are talking about diskutil list – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 05:52
  • @Buscar웃 Here you go - https://imgur.com/a/oqISHZB – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 06:02
  • thank you, that looks fine, not try the About this Mac > Storage to see the result there – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 06:22
  • @Buscar웃 I already added the about this mac > storage pic in the previous imgur link – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 06:30
  • sorry I missed that. it says you only have 17 GB left, and you want to transfer 58GB from iPhone. That does not work. So where did you see the 128GB free space ? – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 06:33
  • I am confused. The diskutility image says 128 GB left (111 purgable) and available 17 GB. So my real available space is 17 GB. Why does about this mac show available is 128 GB ? – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 06:48

2 Answers2

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According to your information provided

You have 17 GB free space on the Disk.

enter image description here

You also have 128 GB of which 111 GB can be purged (freed).

To purge go to About this Mac > Storage > Manage

enter image description here

Decide what to do by following the instructions.

Ruskes
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  • would purging delete any important files ? what data is occupied in the 111 gb purge ? – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 06:54
  • no it wont, you will be given the opportunity to decide. Use the Review the files and decide what to keep and what not. Or buy a USB disk and move your files there. Also read this from Apple https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996 – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 06:55
  • You can buy 4TB external drive for $100 which will last you for Years before you fill it up. That is like having 8 of your Mac's storage. – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 07:04
  • @Cruise5 are you satisfied wit the answer, or have another question ? – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 07:40
  • I am transferring some 100 GB of files to an external hdd. Will try the itunes backup and let you know. – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 07:41
  • Ok, I moved 100 GB to external HDD. In disk utility it's showing 231.76 GB (214.92 GB purgeable) and I am still getting same error in itunes. – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 08:01
  • log out of iTunes and restart the Mac then log in again, to refresh the information. – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 08:04
  • Unfortunately getting same error. No idea what's wrong with itunes. – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 20:21
  • But now your disk on the Mac actually has enough free space – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 20:34
  • you can try the Reset in iTunes > your account, at the bottom is the Rest all Warnings – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 20:37
  • I reset warnings here: https://imgur.com/a/6GgXjNX

    Logged out, restarted mac, same error.

     – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 20:47
  • stubborn thing ! and your disk now shows how much FREE space ? – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 20:55
  • 231.54 GB (216.23 GB purgeable) – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 20:56
  • I am convinced that this is nothing to do with free space. There is some file system corruption in my iphone and itunes is gonna tell me to delete everything and restore. I might have to go third party route to salvage my data like tenorshare software. Sucks. I wanted seamsless transfer from old iphone to new. – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 21:27
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    @Cruise5 But Disk Utility and Terminal still show not enough space? Have you considered thinning local snapshots? – Redarm Nov 11 '18 at 22:21
  • Please just tell me how much FREE space does it shows (in the graph on the right), not the Available/Purgeable values. – Ruskes Nov 11 '18 at 22:29
  • OK, here is the updated free space values from different sources - https://imgur.com/a/Bcxfb8R

    I am just confused by the itunes behavior. If I have free 232 GB free space, I should be able to download a 200 GB file right now without mac deleting any of my files right ? Why does itunes have this special behavior ? Sorry I am not too familiar with this free vs purgable space thing.

     – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 22:58
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    https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309143/how-to-thin-your-local-time-machine-snapshots-on-macos-high-sierra – Redarm Nov 11 '18 at 23:18
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    @Redarm Thanks, I think that was the main problem. The time machine snapshots. I used some commands from that page and also from this: http://thagomizer.com/blog/2018/03/27/cleaning-up-time-machine-local-snapshots.html

    Itunes is finally backing up now.

     – Cruise5 Nov 11 '18 at 23:44
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    Thinning should be automatic, but there seem to be issues, especially with Virtual Machines in play. – Redarm Nov 11 '18 at 23:57
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Check out this post on reddit. This worked for me.. The problem for me was happening because time machine was in the middle of a backup so the available space was being taken by time machine, but it was showing empty everywhere else.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9w14ra/itunes_saying_not_enough_free_space_to_save/

Graham
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