Upgrade to Big Sur can't proceed after Internet connection problem: not enough free space

In the middle of the macOS Big Sur installation process, I got an error that I have no Internet connection.

After fixing it, I started the installation process once again, however, now the installer says I don't have enough space on my HD.

The installation took part of the free space and now I don't know how to get it back. Anybody know what to do?


The installer does progressive downloads so you won’t have space either way if it’s full.

Why not look in your Applications folder and see if you can free up 10 GB of space, since it’s easy to reinstall most apps, and your copy isn’t any different than another. Or open the disk space cleanup tool in the Apple Menu

  • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Plus, you have a backup in case the installer fails or breaks your Mac so it should be easy to delete files restore them from backup if you can’t clean in general.


Problem is solved. The installation files are at /system/volumes. It remains unclear why Apple is flooding the free disk space with garbage, if the installer is incapable to continue from the point it stopped and has to start all over again then why keep the files?