If you’re perturbed by this lapse, submit feedback to Apple. That would seem like an easy fix, but Apple apparently hasn’t addressed it yet.

You can check manually by choosing Apple > About This Mac > Storage, but the problem is that the Big Sur installer itself fails to verify that it has enough space to complete the upgrade.

If upgrading from an earlier release, macOS Big Sur requires up to 44.5GB of available storage. If upgrading from macOS Sierra or later, macOS Big Sur requires 35.5GB of available storage to upgrade. It also affects only Intel-based Macs since M1-based Macs ship with Big Sur, they’re never in a position of having to upgrade from an earlier version of macOS.Īpple is clear about how much space Big Sur requires, specifying it in the Big Sur tech specs: The problem affects only upgrades from an older version of macOS to Big Sur, not an update to a Mac already running some version of macOS 11. If you start the installation without enough free space, you can end up in a Boot Recovery Assistant loop that’s difficult to break. It turns out that you must have sufficient free space for the Big Sur installer to complete its work when upgrading from a previous version of macOS. Macintosh’s detailed research into problems with the Big Sur installer. That’s not to say that some people won’t have problems-no app or operating system is free of bugs-but most reproducible problems should be known.Īlas, one more such problem has become known, thanks to Mr. #1642: How to identify phishing attacks, new iPhone and iPad passcode requirementsĮnsure Sufficient Free Space before Upgrading to Big SurĪs we continue to use macOS 11.2 Big Sur, we’re getting closer to saying that it’s safe for most people to upgrade to Big Sur from a previous version of macOS.#1643: New Mac mini and MacBook Pro models, new second-gen HomePod, security-focused OS updates, industry layoffs.#1644: Explaining Mastodon and the Fediverse, HomePod Software 16.3 and tvOS 16.3, GoTo breach.#1645: AirPlay iPhone to Mac for remote video, Siri learns to restart iPhones, Apple's Q1 2023 financials.1646: Security-focused OS updates, Photos Workbench review, Mastodon client wishlist, Apple-related conferences.

Mac hard drive space not updating