Deleting files (and emptying trash) does not change amount of drive space that is "Used".

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Deleting files (and emptying trash) does not change amount of drive space that is "Used".

I have a 1TB internal drive. The finder reports that there are 504GB used on this drive. I would like to make a Time Machine back up of all of this to an external drive. However, the external drive is only 500GB. No problem, I thought, I'll just find 4 or 5GB worth of cruft to delete and then I'll have room (note, this is for a one-time offsite backup and I only need the initial time machine snap shots, so having extra room for subsequent delta backups is not relevant here).

As luck would have it, I actually found about 30GB of files that could safely be deleted. I put them in the trash, emptied the trash and restarted the machine. Now the finder reports that I have about an additional 30GB of space "Available", as expected. However, the amount of space that is "Used" is reported as having gone up slightly, rather than down by about 30GB, with the result that Time Machine still complains that there is not enough free space to complete a backup.

So what gives? How does one actually get the "Used" number to go down if deleting files won't do that?

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 25, 2019 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

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esome Author

Level 1

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Mar 26, 2019 1:48 PM in response to dialabrain

I updated the machine to 10.14.4 this morning and the "Used" number magically dropped down by about 30GB. I still don't know why it didn't do this before or what about the update allowed that space to be freed up but hopefully the problem doesn't repeat itself going forward.

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Answer 2

esome Author

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17 points

Mar 25, 2019 1:44 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks, I will rephrase the original post to remove extraneous information so that responses can focus on my specific question. In effect, the time machine info I provided is a separate question that I did not ask here.

Edit: Well, I no longer have a option to edit the original so I'll post the revised question here and if it doesn't get any traction I'll try a new post later...

UPDATED QUESTION:

My finder reports that I have 504GB of space that is "Used" on my boot drive. I deleted 30GB of files (I put them in the trash, emptied the trash and restarted the machine). Now the finder reports that I have about an additional 30GB of space "Available", as expected. However, the amount of space that is "Used" is reported as having gone up slightly, rather than down by about 30GB, with the result that Time Machine still complains that there is not enough free space to complete a backup.

So what gives? How does one actually get the "Used" number to go down if deleting files won't do that?

As a related question, I note that the Disk Utility reports that the drive has about 500GB free, while the Finder reports that there is about 540GB "Available". What is the difference between "free" and "available"?

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Answer 3

dialabrain

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122,735 points

Mar 25, 2019 1:47 PM in response to esome

As a related question, I note that the Disk Utility reports that the drive has about 500GB free, while the Finder reports that there is about 540GB "Available". What is the difference between "free" and "available"?

"Free" means nothing is written to it. Available means there is space being used, such as Time Machine local snapshots, but those are considered "Available" because they will be erased as needed.

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Answer 4

dialabrain

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122,735 points

Mar 25, 2019 2:07 PM in response to esome

You're welcome. Just to clarify, are you looking at "Get Info" for the drive or "Storage" from "System Report…"? FWIW, the Storage tab from System Report is notoriously inaccurate.

Edit: I should say misleading rather than "inaccurate".

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Answer 5

esome Author

Level 1

17 points

Mar 25, 2019 2:06 PM in response to dialabrain

I am looking at the "Get Info" window for the drive. That's where I am seeing the "Used" number. I would like to know how to make that number go down. I assumed that deleting 30GB of files would make it go down but it didn't really change (it actually went up just a tiny bit).

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Answer 6

dialabrain

Level 10

122,735 points

Mar 25, 2019 2:12 PM in response to esome

It may have gone up if it created a new Time Machine local snapshot. To be honest I've never bothered keeping tabs on how much storage is being used on my Macs. I've never had the occasion to delete files to free space. None of my Macs are even half full. If I had 30GBs of files I could toss I would see what may be going on.

Perhaps someone else will comment.

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