How to Disable the macOS ‘Calculate all sizes’ Option in Finder

The Folder Calculation Delay

When you browse files using Finder’s “List View” in macOS, you can easily see the file size of individual documents, images, and videos in the “Size” column. However, by default, macOS does not display the total size of folders. To see a folder’s size, you usually have to select it and press Cmd + I to “Get Info.” Apple does provide a specific View Option called “Calculate all sizes,” which forces Finder to recursively scan the contents of every single folder in the current window and display its total size directly in the List View column.

While this sounds incredibly useful for managing disk space, it is a notoriously resource-intensive feature. If you enable “Calculate all sizes” in a massive directory—like your root user folder or an external hard drive containing hundreds of thousands of nested files—Finder must physically scan every single subfolder to tally the bytes. This can cause Finder to become painfully sluggish, max out your disk read speeds, and significantly drain your MacBook’s battery as it constantly runs these background calculations every time you open a window. If you value a fast, responsive file browser, you should disable this constant calculation.

How to Stop Background Size Calculations

You can prevent Finder from attempting to calculate folder sizes via the View Options menu.

1. Open a Finder window and ensure you are in List View (View > as List, or press Cmd + 2).
2. Navigate to the folder where you are experiencing slowdowns (or simply open your main Home folder).
3. Click on View in the top Menu Bar and select Show View Options (or press Cmd + J).
4. In the floating View Options panel, look down the list of checkboxes.
5. Uncheck the box next to Calculate all sizes.
6. Optional but recommended: If you want to ensure this is disabled globally across your entire Mac, click the Use as Defaults button at the very bottom of the panel.

Finder will immediately stop scanning subdirectories, dramatically improving window loading speeds. The “Size” column for folders will return to displaying two dashes (–).