Originally published at: Ensure Sufficient Free Space before Upgrading to Ventura - TidBITS
After hearing about Ventura upgrade problems from a reader, Adam Engst did some research to determine that you should try to have at least 37 GB free before upgrading to Ventura. And how you determine that 37 GB might matter.
The free-space problems you saw in trying to upgrade to Ventura probably explains why my MacBookAir 2017 with a 128 Gig hard drive is not able to upgrade to Ventura. I had to delete a lot of file and some apps to be able to upgrade it to Big Sur (and later Monterey). I wonder if Apple really has a reliable way to assess how much free space is needed, and why they offered a 128 Gig hard drive in 2017?
“The devil is in the snapshots!”
So, if you have that 37 GB to install the system, does that mean that once it’s installed, you have no room to actually do anything?
No, because Ventura is probably roughly the same size as Monterey and you’ll delete the 12 GB installer when you’re done. You should end up with about the same amount of space free at the end—it’s just working space during the install.
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On a related note, Howard Oakley suggests that updating Ventura, say from 13.0 to 13.1, requires a minimum of about 14 GB free, but 25 GB free would be wise to continue updating in the future.