Colima's disk size is set when its virtual machine is created, and after that it can only grow. Recent versions give container data a 100 GiB disk by default and the machine's own Linux system a 20 GiB one. Those numbers are ceilings: the disk files start small and grow as you pull images and create containers and volumes.
Podman and Lima work the same way. Each runs Linux in a virtual machine on your Mac and keeps that machine's disk as a file in your home folder. Finder can show a disk file at its full ceiling; the on-disk figure in Get Info is what it really takes.
To get space back, delete what you don't need inside the tool, then let the tool hand the space back to your Mac. Colima does that each time it starts.
Podman Desktop has buttons for the main steps. Colima and Lima are command-line tools with no app, so for them every cleanup step is a command, and this post explains what each one removes.
The parts you can clear at any time are the download caches, which only hold copies of machine images. The machines themselves can hold databases and files you made, so never move their folders to the Trash to free space.
How Colima, Podman and Lima use disk space
Containers need a Linux kernel, and macOS isn't Linux. So each of these tools starts a small Linux virtual machine and runs a container engine inside it: Docker, containerd or Podman's own.
Where do images, containers and volumes go?
Into the virtual machine's disk. From your Mac's side, everything you pull, build and create in a machine sits inside one or two large files, not in folders you can browse. A machine you made for one project months ago keeps all of it until you delete it.
That's why these tools show up in a disk map as a few huge files. The files aren't the problem; what's inside them is.
How are the three tools related?
Lima is the base layer: it creates and runs Linux virtual machines on a Mac. Colima is built on Lima and adds a ready-made container runtime, so it manages Lima machines for you, in its own folder. Rancher Desktop uses Lima too.
Podman is separate. Its machine feature creates virtual machines of its own, and Podman Desktop is the app on top of it. None of the three shares a disk with the others, or with Docker Desktop or OrbStack.
Why does Finder show a bigger number?
On current versions of macOS, Lima and Colima use Apple's Virtualization framework by default, and their machines' disks are raw files. Lima's documentation explains that a plain file listing shows only such a disk's full virtual size, not the space it has used.
That's because the files are sparse: blocks are stored only once something writes to them. So a 100 GiB disk file can take only a few gigabytes on your Mac. Finder's Get Info shows both: the size first, then the space on disk in parentheses.
The OrbStack post explains sparse files in more depth, with a file that reports 8 TB.
Where does macOS count this space?
In System Data. Apple describes that category, in System Settings › General › Storage, as files that don't fall into the other categories, and says you can't manage its contents there. Storage settings has no category for virtual machines or containers.
So when System Data grows during a week of container work, a Colima, Podman or Lima disk is a likely cause. The System Data guide covers what else ends up there.
How much space do they use?
It depends entirely on what you keep in them. A machine with a few small images takes a few gigabytes; one with years of images, build cache and database volumes can take a hundred or more.
- Colima container disk, default ceiling107 GB
- Lima machine disk, default ceiling107 GB
- Colima system disk, default ceiling21 GB
- Space container tools and VMs typically use10–150 GB · Review first
Ceilings are Colima's and Lima's default settings, 100 GiB and 20 GiB, converted to the decimal gigabytes Finder uses. The typical range is for container tools and virtual machines on Macs that use them, from the research behind the app's catalog; many Macs use far less.
A ceiling only limits growth. It costs nothing until something fills it, which is why the real figure is always the on-disk one.
Where each tool keeps its files
Each tool has a folder for its machines and, for Colima and Lima, a download cache in your Library folder. Only the cache is something you can clear without thinking about what's inside.
| Tool | Folder | What it holds | Can you clear it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colima | ~/.colima/_lima | Its machines and their disks | Only through Colima |
| Colima | ~/.colima/default | The default profile's settings | No; it's tiny |
| Colima | ~/Library/Caches/colima | Downloaded machine images | Yes |
| Lima | ~/.lima | One folder per machine, with its disk | Only through Lima |
| Lima | ~/Library/Caches/lima | Downloaded machine images | Yes |
| Podman | ~/.local/share/containers/podman/machine | Machine disks and cached images | Only through Podman |
| Podman | ~/.config/containers/podman/machine | Machine settings | No; it's tiny |
What's inside ~/.colima?
A folder for each profile's settings, named default for the default one, holding a file called colima.yaml. A _templates folder with the settings new profiles start from. And _lima, where the machines are.
Inside _lima, the default profile's machine is in a folder named colima, and any other profile's in colima- followed by its name. Since Colima 0.9.0, new machines also keep a separate container data disk in _lima/_disks, which the next sections come back to.
Where does Lima keep its machines?
In ~/, one folder per machine, named after it. Lima avoids your Library's Application Support folder on purpose, its documentation says, to keep socket paths short. Disks that aren't tied to one machine live in ~/.
Where does Podman keep its machines on a Mac?
In ~/, in a subfolder for each kind of virtual machine: libkrun and applehv on current versions, and qemu on Macs that ran Podman before version 5. Each holds the machines' disk images and the images Podman downloaded to create new ones.
How do you open these folders in Finder?
Folders whose names start with a dot are hidden in Finder, but you can still go straight to them.
- In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder.
- Type the path, such as
~/. The tilde stands for your home folder..colima/ _lima - Press Return.
- Select a folder or file and choose File › Get Info, or press Command-I.
Look, but don't open, rename or move anything inside while a machine is running. The steps are the same in macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe.
Colima disk size: the defaults, the limits and the real number
Colima sets a machine's size when you first start a profile, from its settings file or the options you start it with. Its default settings, which Colima's repository publishes, give 2 CPUs, 2 GiB of memory and the two disks above.
What is Colima's default disk size?
100 GiB for container data and 20 GiB for the machine's system, in recent versions. Colima measures in binary gigabytes and Finder in decimal ones, so 100 GiB shows in Finder as about 107 GB. Apple's page on storage capacity says only OS X Leopard and earlier counted in binary.
Machines created before Colima 0.9.0 have a single disk for everything, and older ones may have a smaller ceiling: an example in Colima's own troubleshooting notes lists a machine with 60 GiB.
How do you see the space Colima really takes?
Open ~/ with Go › Go to Folder, select it, and choose File › Get Info. The figure in parentheses, marked "on disk", is what all your Colima machines take together.
To see one machine, do the same with its folder, and with its folder in _disks. Colima's own list of profiles shows each machine's disk ceiling, not what it uses, so it isn't the number to watch.
Can you make Colima's disk smaller?
Not in place. Colima's default settings say the disk size can only be increased after the machine is created. A smaller ceiling means deleting the profile with its container data and creating it again.
You rarely need to. A ceiling takes no space, so lowering it frees nothing; it only caps how far the disk can grow. Delete what's inside instead, as the next section explains.
How do you give Colima more room?
Raise the disk value in the profile's settings. Colima's FAQ says the new size is applied when the machine next starts, from version 0.5.3. The settings file is plain text, at ~/ for the default profile, so you can open it in TextEdit.
- Choose Go › Go to Folder, type
~/and press Return..colima/ default - Open colima.yaml in TextEdit, find the line that starts with
disk:and raise the number. It's in GiB. - Save the file. The new ceiling applies the next time Colima starts.
Make it larger only if your Mac has the room. A bigger ceiling lets the disk grow further before containers run out of space, and it's your Mac's free space that pays for it.
How to free space in Colima
The order matters: first delete data inside the machine, then let Colima give the freed space back to your Mac. Deleting inside the machine alone frees room for new containers, but not on your Mac's disk.
Delete images, containers and volumes you don't need
Colima runs a standard Docker engine, or containerd if you chose it. It has no window of its own, so this step is done with Docker's command-line tool, or nerdctl for containerd. Colima's FAQ names removing containers and Docker's system prune as the way to free space in the machine.
Docker's prune commands behave the same with Colima as with Docker Desktop. The Docker Desktop post explains what each one removes; the key point is that volumes are never removed unless you ask for them.
Restart Colima to give the space back
Since version 0.5.0, Colima releases unused disk space when it starts, and its FAQ says a restart is enough. Inside the machine, freed blocks are marked unused; on startup Colima tells the disk file to let them go.
- Note the on-disk figure for
~/in Get Info..colima/ _lima - Delete what you don't need, as above.
- Restart Colima.
- Check Get Info again. The on-disk figure should be smaller.
Colima can also release the space without a restart, with a command its FAQ gives. Either way, nothing inside the machine changes; only empty blocks go back to your Mac.
Old profiles you forgot about
Each Colima profile is a separate machine with its own disks, often made to test something without touching your main setup. A profile you started once for a Kubernetes experiment keeps its images and its disk until you delete it.
List the folders in ~/: every colima- folder is a profile other than the default. Its date in Finder's List view hints at when you last used it.
What does deleting a Colima profile remove?
Colima's delete command removes a profile's machine and its settings, and its help warns that starting again afterwards is like starting Colima for the first time. What happens to your containers depends on when the profile was made.
For machines created with Colima 0.9.0 or later, container data lives on a separate disk that survives deletion. Colima's release notes say the next start of that profile tries to bring it back, as a guard against losing data by accident. Deleting with the data option removes that disk too.
So deleting a profile without the data option can free less than you expected: the container disk stays in _lima/_disks. The release notes also say Kubernetes isn't covered yet, and that there are no guarantees against losing data.
Colima's download cache
When Colima creates or updates a machine, it downloads a disk image and keeps it in ~/, so it doesn't download it again. Existing machines keep their own disks and don't need it.
Colima's prune command empties that folder, and its all option empties Lima's cache too. Because prune only empties the folder, moving it to the Trash in Finder does the same thing, as long as Colima isn't creating or updating a machine at that moment.
| Colima's command | What it removes | What it keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Prune | Its download cache | Machines, disks and settings |
| Prune, all | Its download cache and Lima's | Machines, disks and settings |
| Restart | Nothing; empty blocks go back to the Mac | Everything inside the machine |
| Delete | The profile's machine and its settings | The container data disk, since 0.9.0 |
| Delete, with data | Machine, settings and container data | Other profiles |
What these commands remove doesn't go to the Trash. Moving the cache folder in Finder is the one route here that you can undo.
What about Colima's AI models?
Colima 0.10.0 added a way to run AI models, using a machine type with GPU access on Apple silicon. Colima's FAQ doesn't say where the models are stored, so if you use the feature and Colima's folder keeps growing, models are one more thing to check.
Podman disk space on a Mac
Podman is the one of the three with a full app for cleanup. Podman Desktop shows containers, pods, images and volumes, and its documentation describes deleting each one and pruning everything unused.
How do you free space in Podman Desktop?
Each of its Containers, Pods, Images and Volumes pages has a delete icon for each item and a Prune button. Work from what costs least to lose to what costs most:
- On Containers, delete containers you no longer run, or click Prune to remove all unused ones.
- On Images, delete images you don't need, or click Prune to remove every unused image.
- On Volumes, delete only volumes you're sure about, one at a time.
Podman Desktop won't delete an image a container uses, or a volume a container uses, so delete containers first. Its volume Prune removes every unused volume at once, which is the step to think about twice.
What does Podman's system prune remove?
Podman's command-line tool has the same cleanup as one command, with no button of its own. Its documentation lists what each form removes:
| Podman's system prune | What it removes | What it keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Default | Stopped containers, unused networks, dangling images, dangling build cache | Volumes, tagged images, build containers |
| With the all option | Also every image no container uses, and all build cache | Volumes, unless asked |
| With the volumes option | Also volumes no container uses | Volumes in use |
| With the build option | Also build containers left by interrupted builds | Volumes; unsafe while a build runs |
Podman's documentation says volumes are kept by default to avoid deleting important data. That's the reason to leave them out unless you know what each holds.
Does Podman give the space back to your Mac?
Podman's documentation doesn't say whether a machine's disk file shrinks after you delete images inside it. Check Get Info on the machine folder before and after.
If the figure doesn't move, the space is free inside the machine, ready for new images, but still taken on your Mac. Removing the machine frees all of it, after you've kept what you need.
How do you delete a Podman machine?
In Podman Desktop, choose Settings › Resources. Its documentation says you can start, stop, edit or delete a Podman machine there.
- In the Podman tile, stop the machine you no longer need.
- Delete it.
- Check that nothing you need was in it: every container, image and volume inside goes with it.
Podman's documentation says removing a machine deletes the virtual machine, its image file and the connections Podman made for it. Podman can't run containers again until you create a new machine.
What does resetting Podman remove?
Podman's reset command stops every machine, then removes all of them, with their settings and data files: the machines' disk images and any images it downloaded to create them. Its documentation shows it asking for confirmation and listing the machines first.
It's the heaviest step Podman has, and it's a command. Deleting machines one at a time in Podman Desktop reaches the same result with more control.
Old machines left behind by Podman upgrades
Podman 5.0, in March 2024, replaced QEMU on the Mac with Apple's own virtualization, and its release notes say machines made by Podman 4 can no longer be used. Red Hat's knowledge base notes that the old machine is abandoned and keeps using disk space.
So if ~/ still has a qemu folder, it belongs to a machine current Podman can't start, and anything inside is out of reach without the old version. Check its size before deciding whether you need it.
Podman 6.0, in June 2026, made libkrun the default on Macs and dropped support for Intel Macs. A Mac that made machines of both current kinds keeps an applehv and a libkrun folder, and Podman 6 manages both.
Can you change a Podman machine's disk size?
Podman's setting for changing a machine's disk size applies only to QEMU machines, and only upwards. On a Mac, you choose the disk size when you create a machine, in Podman Desktop's Disk size field. A different size means a new machine.
Lima machines and Lima's cache
Lima on its own makes full Linux machines, not just hosts for containers. That makes its machines more likely to hold work of your own, and its cleanup more of a decision.
What's in a Lima machine's folder?
Lima's documentation lists every file. The large one is the machine's disk: named disk since Lima 2.1, and diffdisk in machines made before, sometimes next to a basedisk it builds on. The rest are settings, logs and small files Lima uses while the machine runs.
Lima's default disk size is 100 GiB, and its default settings say machines use Apple's Virtualization framework on macOS 13.5 and later, with a raw disk. A newer Apple format, ASIF, is an option on macOS 26 and later; Lima notes it can't be converted back to raw.
Can you resize a Lima machine's disk?
Lima's documentation says increasing a machine's disk size is supported, but shrinking a disk isn't recommended. The machine may need to be stopped first.
How do you delete a Lima machine?
With Lima's delete command: Lima has no app or button for it. Deleting a machine removes its folder, with its disk and everything stored inside. Copy out anything you made in the machine first.
Lima can also protect a machine from its own delete command. Its documentation is clear that this doesn't protect it from Finder, which is one more reason never to remove machine folders by hand.
Lima disks that outlive their machines
Lima can create standalone disks in ~/ and attach them to machines. Its documentation says they persist independently and survive a machine's deletion, and that a disk can't be deleted while it's attached to a running machine.
Colima's container data disks are disks of this kind, kept in its own _lima/_disks folder. If a Lima or Colima folder stays large after you deleted machines, look there.
Lima's download cache
Lima keeps downloaded images in ~/, one folder per download address. Its documentation adds that an image may also be kept in a converted raw copy for Apple's virtualization, so the same image can be cached twice.
Lima's prune command deletes the whole cache. An option keeps downloads that existing machines or templates still refer to. Existing machines have their own disks, so the only cost of clearing it is a download the next time you create a machine.
Rancher Desktop, Apple's container tool and running several at once
A few other tools on a Mac work the same way, and some people have more than one installed. Each keeps its own disk, and nothing is shared between them.
Rancher Desktop
Rancher Desktop runs Kubernetes and a container engine in a Lima machine kept in ~/. Lima's FAQ advises against managing that machine with Lima's own tools; use the app.
With the dockerd engine, its Images page deletes selected images. Its Troubleshooting page has Reset Kubernetes, which can also delete container images, and Factory Reset, which removes the cluster and all its settings and asks whether to keep cached Kubernetes images.
Apple's container tool
Apple's open-source container tool runs each container in its own lightweight virtual machine. It keeps images, container file systems, volumes and Linux kernels in ~/, as the catalog's Apple container data entry describes. It can report how much space could be reclaimed, and prune what nothing uses.
What if more than one tool is installed?
Each tool stores its images in its own disk, so the same image pulled in Docker Desktop, OrbStack and Colima takes space three times. Colima's FAQ notes that Colima becomes Docker's default context when it starts, so Docker's commands then act on Colima's engine, not the others.
If you've moved to one tool for good, clear out the others through their own apps, or uninstall them. The OrbStack post and the Docker Desktop post above cover those two.
To remove Docker Desktop for good, the post on uninstalling Docker Desktop completely goes through each step.
| Situation | What to do first |
|---|---|
| Colima's folder is large, profile in use | Delete unused images and containers, then restart Colima |
| An old Colima profile you don't use | Delete it with its container data, after checking its volumes |
| Podman takes more than expected | Prune containers and images in Podman Desktop, then check the machine folder |
A qemu folder from Podman 4 | Check its size; current Podman can't use it |
| Lima machines from past experiments | Copy out your files, then delete them with Lima |
| You need space today, nothing else | Clear the Colima and Lima download caches |
Mistakes to avoid
These tools keep everything in a few plain-looking files, which makes the wrong fix easy. Most lost data comes from one of these.
Don't move a machine's folder to the Trash
A machine's folder holds its whole disk: every image, container and volume, and every file you made in a Linux machine. Moving it to the Trash takes all of it at once, with nothing picked out first.
It doesn't free the ceiling either. Deleting a file frees what it takes on disk, the same space you'd get by deleting the machine with its own tool, with no chance to keep the parts you need.
Don't judge by Finder's Size column
Finder's List view can show a disk file at its full ceiling, so a Mac that seems to hold three 107 GB files may be using a fraction of that. Read the on-disk figure in Get Info, or a tool that measures space on disk, before deciding anything.
Don't treat volumes like a cache
Images come back with a download, and build cache comes back with a build. Volumes are where containers keep data meant to last: local databases, uploads, files a service wrote. Nothing brings a deleted volume back, so prune volumes only when you know what each one holds.
Don't reset first
Factory resets and Podman's reset are the fastest way to an empty disk, and the hardest to undo. On most Macs, deleting a few old images and one forgotten profile frees most of the space, with nothing lost that you wanted.
Don't paste cleanup commands from a web page
The command-line tools of Colima, Lima and Podman can delete a lot with one line, and a command copied from a web page can do more than it says. Podman Desktop and Finder cover the safe parts of this post without any Terminal, and the download caches can go to the Trash like any folder.
Backups, other drives and speed
Virtual machine disks are large files that change whenever a container writes anything. That's worth thinking about once, for backups and for moving to a new Mac.
Should Time Machine back up these disks?
That depends on what's in them. If your machines hold only images you can pull again, leaving them out saves backup space. If a volume or a Linux machine holds your only copy of something, keep it in the backup, or export that data and back up the export instead.
To leave a folder out of Time Machine, in macOS 27 or macOS 26:
- Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Time Machine.
- Click Options.
- In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder, type
~/and press Return..colima - Drag the
_limafolder onto the list of excluded items. Apple's steps allow dragging items there as well as adding them. - Click Done.
Apple notes that excluded items still appear in Time Machine's local snapshots. Those snapshots can hold on to space after you delete things; the guide to Time Machine local snapshots explains how they expire.
Can you copy a machine to another drive?
You can, but there's rarely a reason to. Lima's documentation warns that an ordinary file copy of a raw disk copies its entire virtual size, not just what it uses, so a copy can need far more room than the original takes.
The safer route to a new Mac is the tool's own: export the volumes and files you need, install the tool there, create a fresh machine and pull your images again.
Will freeing this space make your Mac faster?
No. Deleting images and machines frees disk space, and that's all. It doesn't make containers or your Mac run faster.
What does save memory and processor time is stopping machines you aren't using. A stopped machine keeps its disk but uses no memory, and on a nearly full disk it's the space, not the speed, that you need back.
Keeping it from coming back
- Once a month, check the on-disk size of each tool's folder in Get Info.
- Delete stopped containers and old images when you finish a project, not months later.
- Restart Colima after a big cleanup, so the space comes back to your Mac.
- Delete test profiles and Lima machines as soon as the test is done.
- Keep seed data and database dumps in your projects, so volumes are easy to rebuild.
- Use one container tool day to day, and remove the others' data.
How the app does it
Wombit finds each tool's folders and explains what they hold and what removing them costs, from the catalog's entries. Sizes are space on disk, so a sparse disk counts as what it really takes, and hard links and APFS clones count once.
The download caches of Colima and Lima are Safe: they start checked in Cleanup, and after the review sheet the app runs each tool's own command to empty them. The sheet says that what a command removes can't be put back.
What the app runs, after you review itPRO
- colima prune --force
- Colima's download cache; machines and their disks stay
- limactl prune
- Lima's download cache; machines and their disks stay
The machines themselves are Review first: Colima's and Lima's machines, Podman's machines, Rancher Desktop's machine and Apple's container data. The app explains each one and shows the tool's own steps, as above, and never moves a machine's disk to the Trash.
~/
Library/ Caches/ colima Disk images and other files Colima has downloaded, kept so it doesn't download them again.
Safe · Runs colima prune --force
~/
Library/ Caches/ lima Operating system images and tools Lima has downloaded, kept so new virtual machines don't download them again.
Safe · Runs limactl prune
~/
.colima/ _lima The Linux virtual machines Colima runs containers in, with their disks and container data.
Review first · Explained only: never removed
~/
.lima/ * Linux and macOS virtual machines created with Lima, one folder per machine with its disk and settings.
Review first · Explained only: never removed
~/
.local/ share/ containers/ podman/ machine Disk images of the Linux virtual machines Podman uses to run containers on a Mac.
Review first · Explained only: the app shows you how
~/
Library/ Application Support/ rancher-desktop/ lima Rancher Desktop virtual machine
The Linux virtual machine where Rancher Desktop runs Kubernetes and your containers, with its disk.
Review first · Explained only: the app shows you how
~/
Library/ Application Support/ com.apple.container Images, containers, volumes and Linux kernels used by Apple's open-source container tool.
Review first · Explained only: never removed
The app reads only names, sizes and dates, and file names and paths never leave your Mac. Seeing all of this is free. Clearing the caches in Cleanup is PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see how big Colima's disk really is?
In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder, type ~/.colima/_lima and press Return, then select the folder and choose File › Get Info. The figure marked on disk is the real space. Colima's own list of profiles shows each disk's ceiling, not what it uses.
Can I shrink a Colima disk?
Not in place: Colima's settings say the disk size can only be increased after the machine is created. A smaller ceiling means deleting the profile with its data and starting it again. To free space, delete images and containers inside Colima and restart it instead.
Why didn't Colima free space after docker system prune?
Pruning frees space inside the virtual machine, ready for new images, but the disk file on your Mac keeps it until Colima releases it. Since version 0.5.0, Colima does that each time it starts, so restarting Colima is enough. Check the on-disk figure in Get Info before and after.
Does colima delete remove my containers and volumes?
For machines created with Colima 0.9.0 or later, not by default: container data is on a separate disk that survives, and the next start of that profile tries to bring it back. Deleting with Colima's data option removes it too. Older machines have one disk, and deleting removes everything.
Is it safe to delete ~/Library/Caches/colima?
Yes. It holds disk images Colima downloaded, and existing machines keep their own disks. Colima downloads what it needs again the next time it creates or updates a machine. Avoid doing it while Colima is creating or updating one.
Where is the Podman machine stored on a Mac?
In ~/.local/share/containers/podman/machine, in a folder for each kind of virtual machine, such as libkrun or applehv, with its settings in ~/.config/containers/podman/machine. Macs that used Podman before version 5 may also have an old qemu folder there.
How do I free up space in Podman Desktop?
Delete unused containers, then unused images, with the delete icons or the Prune button on each page. Delete volumes only when you know what they hold. To remove a whole machine, open Settings › Resources, stop it in the Podman tile, and delete it.
Can I delete the .lima folder in my home folder?
Only if you no longer need any Lima machine: it holds every machine's disk and everything stored in them. Delete machines you don't need with Lima itself, after copying out your files. Lima's download cache, in your Library's Caches folder, is the part that's safe to clear.
Sources
- Change Storage settings on Mac · Apple
- Colima FAQ · Colima
- Colima v0.9.0: persistent disk · Colima
- Internal data structure · Lima
- podman-machine-reset · Podman
- Managing your application resources · Podman Desktop