Notes on OS won't remove deleted media in group.com.apple.notes

Hello,

I am a bit worried and confused about the way apple Notes works on macOS. 

In Library > group containers > group.com.apple.notes (OS Catalina), there are two folders that seem to contain media I put in my Notes, namely: 

— Accounts > **long number** > Media

— tmp > HardLinkURLTemp

After exploring and experimenting a bit, it seems that the Media folder only keeps what’s currently in my notes. Anything that I delete (and further delete from my Recently deleted) is also removed from this media folder. As such, Media currently is 1.4 GB.

On the other hand, HardLinkURLTemp seems to keep much older media. Certain media that I have deleted from Notes a long time ago still appear in this folder. As such, this folder currently is 2.81 GB. It is twice as big as the first one (is it a coincidence?)

Three questions therefore: 

— Why are my media stored in two different folders? 

— Why HardLinkURLTemp keeps media that have been deleted? 

— Is there anything I can do about it? 

You would think 2.8 + 1.4 GB is not a lot of GB and shouldn’t be worth a concern.

However, I have a daily automation that duplicates the parent folder “group.com.apples.notes” for backup and the folder is 4.84 GB in total, at the moment (and keeps growing). So, I have an interest in keeping this folder as light as it can possibly be. 

Thank you for your help!