How can I remove old MacOS .pkg files from /Library/updates? I'm running out of disk space and need to get rid of these that are left over from installing versions 10.15.4 and 10.15.5. For some reason, the installation process didn't do it automatically. The system is not letting me move them to the Trash. I am the Administrator on this system.
MacBook Air
Greetings rdt52,
We understand that you are wanting to free up some space on your Mac, and we'd like to help. Begin by following the guidance found here:
How to free up storage space on your Mac
If any issues remain after completing those steps, Contact Apple Support for further assistance.
Take care.
No, I am not able to Trash these particular files. MacOS is protecting them from being deleted.
I've read online that they are protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP). I've been hesitant to disable it even temporarily to remove them (from the command line). I was hoping that someone at Apple could recommend a safer way to remove them. But from what I read online, that's the only way to do it. Seems crazy that Apple doesn't offer a tool for cleaning up garbage left from old MacOS installations.
This goes beyond simply "wanting to free up some space" on my MacBook AIR. I want to delete the old package files shown in the screenshot. These files should have been removed with each update, but for some reason, they weren't.
Unfortunately, the Contact Apple Support options don't help. I have tried everything in How to free up storage space on your Mac but that doesn't help with these particular system files. Perhaps you could point me to a specific article that addresses this issue?
OK, this is weird/mysterious. They were in separate directories (one for each update) under /Library/updates, but I just went to grab a screenshot for you and they are all gone. And the disk space that they were occupying is released.
I'm baffled.
Hi- Maybe I'm not fully understanding but if you have a list of the searched files can you not drag them from said window to the trash? Seem likely -move to trash and then empty them
Hope that helped
Where are these files located? Can you give us the file path to them? Normally they are downloaded into the Applications folder when accessed via the System/Software Update preference pane.
It's the ghost in the machine at work. 👻
How to remove old MacOS update files?
