One drive online files take space on Macbook

Anonymous
2019-12-16T05:50:07+00:00

I have One Drive installed on my MacBook.

When right-click on the One Drive icon in my Finder and click “get info” it says under size:

172.298.589.945 bytes (39,5 GB on disk) for 57.162 items.

So the way I interpret this is that only 39,5 GB should take space on my Macbook disk. Which is in line with the documents I store offline on my mac (some pictures and music)

However, when I look at the actual disk space used (I click apple icon on home screen, click “about this mac” and then under Storage tab it shows me that my stored documents use 178,4GB. And with that my Mac storage is almost full.

I have no other documents on my Mac, I keep everything in One Drive or ICloud. Icloud is totally online, no files are offline. And One Drive I have only a few files offline.

So why does it seem to take all my storage nevertheless?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-17T10:19:57+00:00

    Hi Mirjam,

    Thanks for the updates. We did some tests on that but without luck, we could not reproduce the issue you met. Could you tell me how much storage taken by OneDrive is shown in the Manage Storage dialog if you click File Browser? ( Apple->About this Mac->Storage->Manage->File Browser)

    I have initiated PM invitation for you, and you could share some screenshots via this link.

    Since you mentioned you need to keep some files on the device, we will help you narrow down the issue cause first, before try unlinking OneDrive or Free up storage space.

    We appreciate your understanding and patience: )

    Best regards,

    Oliver

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-16T15:12:13+00:00

    Hi Mirjam,

    Thanks for posting here.

    To confirm, you have enabledFiles On-Demand feature and most of the files in OneDrive have the first status(Online-only), right?

    We have tested on Catalina, and the result matches your description. I think it is an identification issue between Mac Storage calculation and Files On-Demand. It most likely counts 172.298.589.945 bytes(172GB) into the whole storage, but if you right-click those files->info, it will show 0 bytes on disk, so we don't need to worry that the storage is being exceeded.

    However, given the situation, you could also click the OneDrive icon on the upper-right corner and click more, then click Send Feedback and let OneDrive product team notice this behaviour, as Microsoft is committed to continuously improving your experience with our products.

    If I misunderstand your meaning or you have any experience to share, please feel free to post back.

    Have a nice day: )

    Best regards,

    Oliver

    Dear Oliver,

    thanks for your reply. But I am not sure if this helps me.

    I have indeed most of my files as online-only files (similar to the first status in your screenshot), yet my Mac storage is really full with documents. And I have no other documents stored on it. Also if I click in the Mac Storage screen on Manage, I see documents on my Mac that should be online stored only in One Drive.

    I am still on Mojave as I cannot upgrade my Mac to Catalina due to lack of storage! 

    I am happy to share some screenshots if this helps - but prefer to do that in a private chat as this contains personal data.

    Please advise,

    thanks

    Mirjam

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-16T11:13:46+00:00

    Hi Mirjam,

    Thanks for posting here.

    To confirm, you have enabledFiles On-Demand feature and most of the files in OneDrive have the first status(Online-only), right?

    We have tested on Catalina, and the result matches your description. I think it is an identification issue between Mac Storage calculation and Files On-Demand. It most likely counts 172.298.589.945 bytes(172GB) into the whole storage, but if you right-click those files->info, it will show 0 bytes on disk, so we don't need to worry that the storage is being exceeded.

    However, given the situation, you could also click the OneDrive icon on the upper-right corner and click more, then click Send Feedback and let OneDrive product team notice this behaviour, as Microsoft is committed to continuously improving your experience with our products.

    If I misunderstand your meaning or you have any experience to share, please feel free to post back.

    Have a nice day: )

    Best regards,

    Oliver

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    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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