Storage space still full after deleting photo library

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Level 1

10 points

Storage space still full after deleting photo library

Hi,

Hoping someone can assist in advising how to clear some space on my MacBook Air.

It was showing that 104GB was being used by photos. I moved all the photos across to a hard drive and deleted them from the MacBook. I have checked the recently deleted folder in Photos and they are not sitting there. I have also cleared the trash. However - I am unable to get any of the space back.

Attempting to clear some space as I am unable to update any software at the moment. (Check for software updates show there are none - however - every website I use says I need to update my versions!)

Any advise on next steps to try would be appreciated!

MacBook Air 11″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Jun 3, 2020 8:14 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 6, 2020 5:07 AM in response to ezzalg

Hello ezzalg,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

I understand from your post that you have not been able to completely free up space on your Mac. While you have transferred your photos to an external drive, you still have not regained the space back. This article has information about freeing up storage space on your Mac which you may find helpful:

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

You may need to restart your Mac as well.

You've mentioned that you are not seeing any updates available but yet you are being advised that you need to update your software versions. This may be because you have to upgrade to a new MacOS. What macOS version are you currently running? You can check that by going to the Apple icon in the upper left corner and then select 'About this Mac'. It will tell you on the pop-up window what version you are running. Also, on that screen it will tell you what year your Mac is. Let us know what that is as well.

Reply back and let us know what version you are running and what year it is and we can continue on with more steps to see if we can help get your device upgraded.

Best Regards.

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Answer 2

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Jun 10, 2020 6:23 AM in response to ezzalg

Hello ezzalg,

I recommend testing the issue while your Mac is in safe mode and/or in a new user account. The following articles have the steps you will need to test the issue in both safe mode and in a new user account:

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

"Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed."

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

"If an issue stops happening when you log out of your macOS user account and log in with another, the issue could be related to the files or settings in your user account."

Regards.

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Answer 3

ezzalg Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 8, 2020 5:38 PM in response to Alwayswantingtohelp1

Hi Alwayswantingtohelp1,

Appreciate the reply!

I have restarted the mac - several times!

About this Mac:

OS X Yosemite

Version 10.10.5

Macbook Air (11-inch, Early 2014)

When I run the software update from here - it advises there is no updates available. Other support threads I have read have advised this could be caused by storage issues.

In the storage it shows that 104.5 GB is being used by photos. However - I have deleted the photos now and checked the recently deleted folder and trash and can't locate them on the mac still. I found another support thread that showed me how to check storage folder by folder (under finder -> all my files --> sort by size) - and still can't see the photos or large files in here.

I would prefer not to have to reset or delete everything on my mac as I require some of the documents - help to update the mac to recent software is the goal (and clear space).

Thank you again for your advice and offer of assistance

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Storage space still full after deleting photo library

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