Trash not freeing up space

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Trash not freeing up space

I've read a bunch of threads about this, both on this site and others, and I haven't found any solution, so here it is.

My MacBook Pro has been running out of space a lot recently. So I've been trying to get rid of old stuff I don't need and more stuff to iCloud to make space. I just copied my iMovie Library file (iMovie Library.imovielibrary) onto an external disk and then deleted it. It was almost 80 gigs and I only had about 5 gigs free at the time. After deleting it I still only had 5 gigs free. Nothing changed. If I right click Macintosh HD and choose "Manage Storage" the space used by Documents (where it was located) has gone down 80 gigs, but if I right click Macintosh HD and click "get info" or go to About This Mac and choose storage the available storage has not changed. How do I get the storage back? I can't..delete it again to try and fix it because it's gone.

Thanks,

Seth

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 11, 2019 12:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

LD150

Level 10

89,825 points

Dec 12, 2019 1:36 AM in response to seth_p

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206996

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Answer 2

seth_p Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 11, 2019 12:42 AM in response to seth_p

It seems that when I delete things from the "Manage Storage" window after right clicking on the hard drive icon the storage gets freed up. But if I move something to the trash and delete it that way the storage space does NOT get freed up.

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Answer 3

LD150

Level 10

89,825 points

Dec 11, 2019 2:06 AM in response to seth_p

It may not appear to be free but is still available.

Time Machine will fill available space with snapshots.

Nuclear option:-

First make a Time Machine backup for safety.

Get another external drive the size of your internal drive

Buy Carbon Copy Cloner and create a bootable clone.

Boot from the clone and clone back to the internal drive.

All sorts of junk will disappear.

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Answer 4

seth_p Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 11, 2019 10:29 PM in response to seth_p

About 65 gigs have gotten freed up. Not quite the full 80 but making progress. Maybe it just sits in limbo? A friend speculated it might be FileVault. And the files need to decrypt or something before getting deleted?

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Answer 5

LD150

Level 10

89,825 points

Dec 11, 2019 12:31 AM in response to seth_p

Did you empty the trash folder?

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Answer 6

seth_p Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 11, 2019 12:35 AM in response to LD150

Yes

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Answer 7

seth_p Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 11, 2019 10:23 PM in response to LD150

If the space is available shouldn't I not get the warning that I'm almost out of space? Also how would Time Machine have filled the 80 gigs I deleted...right away?

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Trash not freeing up space

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