Deleting files via terminal not freeing up space.

Question

Level 1

8 points

Deleting files via terminal not freeing up space.

I have a 17" MBP that I have put an SSD in.

I am booting from an USB that has been configured as an installer. (I am trying to repair an installation)

I go into terminal, then cd to the /Volumes/MacBook directory. I have 13Gb free out of 500Gb.

I have tried several times to delete files that I know can be deleted to free up space. The files delete (or appear to), but I never get any more disk space beyond the 13Gb.

Where are my deleted files going and how can I free up space from the terminal on this drive?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 31, 2019 12:37 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

56,618 points

Mar 31, 2019 12:54 PM in response to Perlguy99

Is your SSD formatted with APFS? If so, then you must delete all links before the original core file will be removed from the system.

Do you have permission to remove the file? Try using "sudo", but be careful.

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Answer 2

Perlguy99 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 31, 2019 3:04 PM in response to etresoft

So, I've found info that tells me to run tmutil to see and remove snapshots.

However, since I've booted from a USB installer instance, I first add /Volumes/MacBook/usr/bin to my path, but running tmutil I get the following error...

dyld: Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/TimeMachine.framework/Versions/A/TimeMachine

is there any way I can map to, or load that library so that tmutil will run?

Thank you.

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 8

47,378 points

Mar 31, 2019 6:22 PM in response to Perlguy99

You can only delete snapshots while booted from the volume itself. That’s why I suggested that you keep it to 30-40 GB free. Note that I said “free”. If you check various sources in the Finder or Disk Utility, it may say “available”. That is not the same.

If you have 13 GB free, then you should be able to boot. Just run

/usr/bin/tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 10000000000 4

right away. Then, you should be able to delete enough files to get to a safe level.

Local snapshots are an APFS construct. They do not exist in the filesystem as files.

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Answer 4

Perlguy99 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2019 4:52 PM in response to etresoft

Ok, i was able to boot into single user mode.

When I run tmutil listbackups, it says "No machine directory found for host."

I mounted the drive with /sbin/mount -uw /

Is there a way to tell tmutil where the machine directory is?

Thank you.

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 8

47,378 points

Apr 1, 2019 7:22 PM in response to Perlguy99

I have no idea if any of this stuff will work in single user mode. If you can’t boot in normal mode, then you’ll just have to chalk it up to the standard risks of running out of disk space. It simply may not be possible to recover.

Try to boot normally and run that command as soon as possible.

Maybe step back a bit and explain exactly what you are trying to do here. I don’t know what you mean by “configured as an installer”. If you are trying to install macOS on the new SSD, boot with an external disk and install the OS. I don’t know if that old machine supports Internet recovery. I also don’t know what version of macOS it supports. I also don’t know what kind of SSD you are trying to use. You have to use a modern OS version with most modern SSDs. That might be a problem with an older machine that might not support said modern OS version.

I don’t know what is going on with disk space either. If you are installing a new SSD, the drive should be empty.

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