Disk full in Apple Music? 6 fixes that work

Disk Full in Apple Music but Finder says you’ve got 40GB free? There’s some kind of Apple Music error that's plaguing loads of users.

Sometimes it can genuinely be a low space problem, but there are a few other things causing this confusing message. From your macOS holding on to purgeable space to a corrupted Music cache, and in some cases a library location error.

Anyway, here are six fixes that will help you get rid of it.

How to fix the Disk Full error message in Apple Music

1. Check your space properly: iTunes disk full error

Before you think about trying to fix issues, you need to know your actual storage situation, so quickly go to your main Apple menu > About This Mac > More Info > Storage.

If your Mac is close to being full, then it’s good to know that fix five in the list below is going to be your savior.

A lot of people forget that the storage count here includes purgeable files that can and will be deleted when space is needed elsewhere on your machine.

So sometimes you end up getting the Apple Music disk full error while it’s waiting for that purgeable space to be released.

If you’re a Terminal user, you can also check available space with this command: df -h /

Your Mac always needs a bit of breathing room. If it’s close to capacity, these kinds of error messages are definitely not uncommon.

2. Clear Apple Music cache on Mac

So if your Mac’s got plenty of space but you keep running into the iTunes disk full error, this is the place to start.

Make sure you’ve properly shut down the app. And open up Finder > Go > Go to Folder and type in: ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Music

You’ll need to move the folder's contents into your Trash, then empty it. After you’ve done that, you can reopen Music to see if it’s all working again.

Deleting cache is totally safe; none of your downloaded songs are stored here. The app will rebuild anything it needs.

3. Free up your purgeable space

So you can give your purgeable space a manual push, and all you need to do is restart your Mac. That will help release some of the space, delete larger files, and trigger the cleanup.

You can also check your Time Machine local snapshots because they can house a surprising amount of purgeable space.

It’s a shame Macs don’t come with a clear purgeable space button because that would make life so much easier, but if you do use CleanMyMac and its Performance feature, you can actually clear up purgeable space and also Time Machine snapshots in one go. You can test the app for 7 days — get your free trial here (it includes all features).

4. Delete your downloaded Music

If you’ve got a ton of Music downloaded that you don’t listen to, it’s worth getting rid of it, because they, of course, take up a massive amount of space.

All you need to do is open the Music app > Songs > right-click and add a size filter, then sort by that, to see what’s consuming the most space.

To free up space without removing the music from your library, right-click an album or track and select Remove Download.

That’ll delete the local copy but keep the song in your library, so you can stream or download it again later.

Don’t select Delete from Library unless you actually want to remove the item from your library altogether.

If the Apple Music disk full error Mac appears when you’re syncing your iPhone, watch out because device backups and sync data could be taking up the space, not the music itself. Check again in your Mac’s main storage overview.

5. Free up space on your Mac

If your Mac is low on space, a large Music library certainly won’t be helping, but it’s likely not the main cause you’re getting all kinds of errors and why your music app is not downloading songs.

You need to free up space in general across your Mac, and the biggest culprits are usually system and user cache, all your old iSO device backups, even Mail attachments, your Downloads folder, and all those old files you’ve forgotten about

If you haven’t got the time to find all of this manually, I’d use a tool like CleanMyMac to actually locate everything in one go. Its Space Lens feature will help you map your Mac and see where the space is really consumed.

Then, run the Cleanup and My Clutter features to get rid of the buildup.

6. Move your Music Library

Another solution for you if your Mac is loaded: you could actually move your Music Library to a dedicated external disk.

You just need to fully quit the Music app, and then connect an external drive.

Then, if you open the Music App again and go to Music > Settings > Files, next to Media Location, you can click Change. Then simply pick a new location on your connected drive. But you will need to keep the drive connected when you want to access your music, and don’t delete the original files until you’ve confirmed the external copy opens and plays correctly.

From now on, newly imported music will be stored there. If you want to move music you’ve already imported, I’d first consolidate the library, and you can do that by going to File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files.

That’ll bring all copies of your existing media into the current Music media folder, which makes the move easier to manage.

Apple Music can't download songs on Mac

Finally, if you’re still having trouble, here are a few other things you can try.

Are you connected with the right Apple Account? In Music, click on your name at the bottom and click Account > Account Settings. It needs to be the same account linked to your subscription.

Next, in the Music App, click Music > Settings > General and look for Sync Library. If the option isn’t there, check your subscription and signed-in account first.

Also, I’d check that your macOS is up to date.

Hopefully that's all your issues with Disk Full in Apple Music resolved.