Disk Full and won't let me delete

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Level 1

4 points

Disk Full and won't let me delete

Hi there, my laptop which i got in 2015's start up disc is full, but it will not allow me to delete any of my apps because the disk is full, any advice on how to create space on my mac?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Sep 17, 2020 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Sep 17, 2020 8:38 PM in response to neuroanatomist

Safe Mode is a good option if there are no APFS snapshots or if it is not possible to delete a snapshot.

I would try deleting APFS snapshots first just in case rebooting fails because there isn't enough storage space on the drive.

I would try to manually copy the important files to an external drive before rebooting just to be safe (if the OP does't already have a good backup).

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2020 8:04 PM in response to elayna276

Boot into Safe Mode, immediately empty the trash, then delete files and empty the trash again.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Sep 17, 2020 7:58 PM in response to elayna276

You should always maintain about 20GB of free storage space for the proper functioning of macOS.

See if there are any APFS snapshots that you can delete.

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/reclaiming-drive-space-by-thinning-apple-file-system-snapshot-backups/

Otherwise you may need to erase the whole drive and restore from a backup.

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Disk Full and won't let me delete

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