Free space is greatly reduced since upgrading from an M1 MBA to an M4 MBA

[nick_p...@mac.com]

Hi fellow smuggers,
When I made a final Time Machine copy of the 512GB SSD in my M1 MacBook Air there was about 280GB free space. By the time I had migrated the Time Machine backup to the M4 MacBook Air (also 512GB SSD) the free space had reduced to about 220GB.
Just now it was showing 181GB free space so I did a restart thinking that would get rid of some junk files and the free space would increase….but NO! Now it is saying only 150GB.
2 months ago I went to a Genius Bar with this problem. I eventually reinstalled the OS (latest version of Sequoia & updated to 15.6 a couple of days ago). Nothing very helpful but the possible culprit is Spotlight (please see the attached screenshot from a few minutes ago).

Finally I still have the M1 and it’s updating via iCloud and still shows about 280GB free space. I thought I would be better off with the M4 but at the moment that’s not the case.

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Try resetting the spotlight indexes, in Terminal : 

sudo mdutil -E /

Push return, type your password and push return.

_

Regards Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.com www.macambulance.com MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

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<Screenshot 2025-08-04 at 20.10.28.png>

Any suggestions gratefully received,
Nick

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[nick_p...@mac.com]

Many thanks Sam for that suggestion. I will give it a try shortly. Just glad at the moment I still have the M1!

Nick

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/FB02D084-B106-4197-85C9-7BF1D4B34ED9%40macambulance.com.

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

If you get stuck, install Teamviewer QuickSupport for Mac and email me the ID & password directly, I’ll take a look. I’ll be at my desk all of today unfortunately!

_

Regards Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.com www.macambulance.com MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

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[nick_p...@mac.com]

Thanks again Sam. I have just typed in to Terminal what you suggested and this is my current Terminal screen.

Shall go and have a copy and come back or is the fix instantaneous?

On 4 Aug 2025, at 23:08, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:

sudo mdutil -E /

[nick_p...@mac.com]

Should have read ‘go and have a coffee’!

On 5 Aug 2025, at 08:17, nick_public1 via Sussex Mac User Group <sm...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thanks again Sam. I have just typed in to Terminal what you suggested and this is my current Terminal screen.

Shall go and have a copy and come back or is the fix instantaneous?

<Screenshot 2025-08-05 at 08.15.23.png>

On 4 Aug 2025, at 23:08, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:

sudo mdutil -E /

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[Sam - MacAmbulance]

It can take a while to re-index, based on your Mac speed. An M4 should reindex very quickly. Monitor the disk space over the next hour or so, see if there’s a difference

_

Regards Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.com www.macambulance.com MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

On 5 Aug 2025, at 08:17, nick_public1 via Sussex Mac User Group <sm...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thanks again Sam. I have just typed in to Terminal what you suggested and this is my current Terminal screen.

Shall go and have a copy and come back or is the fix instantaneous?

<Screenshot 2025-08-05 at 08.15.23.png>

On 4 Aug 2025, at 23:08, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:

sudo mdutil -E /

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[nick_p...@mac.com]

Currently 165GB free space.

Will monitor and let you know later.

This morning when I woke up the M4 it was quite warm and CPU usage was over 200% for corespotlight!

I’ve been thinking of bringing it to you for a deep ‘clean’ of old crud that must have accumulated over many migrations via Time Machine and other backups from one laptop to another. Definitely something fundamentally ‘wrong’ with it but maybe the indexing will clear it. We’ll see.

Thanks again, Nick

On 5 Aug 2025, at 08:17, nick_public1 via Sussex Mac User Group <sm...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thanks again Sam. I have just typed in to Terminal what you suggested and this is my current Terminal screen.

Shall go and have a copy and come back or is the fix instantaneous?

<Screenshot 2025-08-05 at 08.15.23.png>

On 4 Aug 2025, at 23:08, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:

sudo mdutil -E /

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