I’ve been running Docker Desktop for a single application for the past two years. My Virtual disk limit was currently 17.18GB with Docker.raw file of 34.36 GB so I decided to lower the raw file from 34.36GB to 16GB.
In the Resources section of Docker desktop I lowered the virtual size to 16GB using the resizing tool. I ran the command in the terminal to pull a fresh application with no problem. Yet the raw file in Finder is still 34.36 instead of 16GB. I’m running Docker Desktop 4.25.0 (126437) on my Monterey Mac.
I’m a beginner so any suggestions would be appreciated.
What happened when you went to the resource limits in Docker Desktop and changed the size? When you saved it, you should have seen this warning:
Shrink disk image
Resizing to a smaller size will delete the disk image; all Docker images, containers and volumes will be lost.
Do you want to continue?
Increasing the size is easy, since all you need is more space and then extend the filesystem to use the whole disk, but decreasing the size means you can do it only until the last data at the end of the disk. That means even if Docker Desktop tries to keep data, you couldn’t simply change the size without rearranging data on the disk.
If you really accepted to lose data and Docker created a new virtual disk, you shouldn’t have seen the original filesize.
On the resource page, I moved the Virtual disk limit slider from 17.18 to 16GB and I saw the warning. I choose Apply and restart and Docker desktop deleted the application. I started the app again and then checked Finder which said the Raw file was still 34.36GB. Docker Desktop now shows the Virtual limit size as 16GB.