Not Enough Room To Install Big Sur

[Huntn]

Got a message that I needed 30Gb to install Big Sur on my wife’s MacBook Air. Any way around this other than cleaning data off your computer? I assume no.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

What size is the drive and what is taking up all the storage?

I went through this with my parents, the proverbial "I don't really do much with my computer" demographic who insist on getting a tiny drive to save money and next thing you know they have more pictures and videos than the Library of Congress. Getting the least amount of RAM also became an issue. This also prevented them from getting the most out of Apple's shared data ecosystem. So a few years ago I forced them to upgrade their iPhones, iPads, and Macs to respectable drive and RAM sizes.

 

[thekev]

While you need a backup of your data before you start with something like an OS upgrade, you can clear stuff other than important personal data. I haven't used OSX in several years, but the older ones did build up annoying caches and things. It can be many GB. You can also trash any software you'll need to update along the way. Just install the latest version you have access to after the OS upgrade.

So a few years ago I forced them to upgrade their iPhones, iPads, and Macs to respectable drive and RAM sizes.

You're a good son. Lack of ram and drive space cause more grief than anything else. I used to get annoyed when people in the other place would drone on about cpu/gpu upgrades for light users, pretend that 8GB is a lot, suggest that "futureproofing" would guarantee a decade or more of use from a laptop, or suggest upgrades for increased resale value. It's like none of them paid any attention to the threads where people spilled liquids on their machines or had one stolen, experienced perennial issues with particular model years, or saw an announcement that their model would no longer be supported.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

You're a good son. Lack of ram and drive space cause more grief than anything else. I used to get annoyed when people in the other place would drone on about cpu/gpu upgrades for light users, pretend that 8GB is a lot, suggest that "futureproofing" would guarantee a decade or more of use from a laptop, or suggest upgrades for increased resale value. It's like none of them paid any attention to the threads where people spilled liquids on their machines or had one stolen, experienced perennial issues with particular model years, or saw an announcement that their model would no longer be supported.

What pushed me over the edge was my mom attempting to do something as commonplace as auto uploading her photos and videos to iCloud to save drive space on her iPhone and wanting to see the same photos and videos on her Macbook. Getting it to work required an OS upgrade on both her iPhone and Macbook. Should be simple but there wasn’t enough free space on her iPhone to upgrade iOS and not enough RAM on her Macbook to upgrade MacOS. We also all upgraded our iPhones the same year because I didn’t want to deal with solving problems or features that were due to older different models.

I’m also discovering older non techie people aren’t aware they are using something when they actually are. For example an older friend wanted to do something that required going into iCloud. They said they don’t use iCloud, yet their photos, videos, contacts, and iPhone are all auto-backed up in the cloud. Um, in complicated tech jargon that’s what’s called using iCloud.

 

[Renzatic]

They said they don’t use iCloud, yet their photos, videos, contacts, and iPhone are all auto-backed up in the cloud. Um, in complicated tech jargon that’s what’s called using iCloud.

That's Apple quality right there. Their stuff is so easy to use, you don't even know you're using it when you use it!

 

[Huntn]

I’m working on clearing enough stuff off my wife’s computer. Photos are only 80MB or so. This is an older MBAir and so it’s got a small hard drive to begin with.

 

[Yoused]

That's Apple quality right there. Their stuff is so easy to use, you don't even know you're using it when you use it!

Reminds me of using excel on w95 at work – I was constantly yelling at it "Stop Helping Me!", years before FYAC.

I was at my mom's recently and did the OS upgrade. I so lose track of time. Her iMac is so old that the upgrade was to the security update for Catalina. No Big Sewer for her, I guess.

 

[thekev]

That's Apple quality right there. Their stuff is so easy to use, you don't even know you're using it when you use it!

I'm not sure I agree with that. Apple has been aware of the existence of homebrew for many years, yet they never once thought to add a decent package manager to Mac OS?

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I don't know what Windows is like with the upgrading process, but I do appreciate that Apple prevents you from even attempting an install if your hardware can't cut it.

 

[lizkat]

I’m working on clearing enough stuff off my wife’s computer. Photos are only 80MB or so. This is an older MBAir and so it’s got a small hard drive to begin with.

Hah, I downloaded some lossless audio to my MBA 2020 just to fool around with the sound on different speakers. If I ever allowed myself to get addicted to lossless coming off the laptop instead of out of the rack's CD player, I might have to get a 2TB external just to hold the Beethoven lol.

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