LukeSeall wrote:
I was temporarily storing a bunch of large files on my mac but I've now removed these and have about 40gb free.
Free up another 60 GB and you should be good to go.
I don't think the space thing relates to the deleted process issue though does it?
The deleted process is directly related to storage. This is the process that actually deletes files after you have asked the operating system to delete them, hence the name. It is the "delete" daemon, or "deleted". It also removes various temporary files, caches, and anything else it can find when free storage space runs low.
Since I've only been low on space for a few days and the deleted issue has been going on a lot longer
You have probably been low on free storage space for a long time. The deleted issue is direct evidence of this. The operating system hides storage use by using the word "available". In most cases, your "available" storage is totally fake. This is storage that could be make "free" if you really needed it, as determined by the operating system, not you. But first, you have to actually run out of storage. Then you will get error messages about lack of storage space. You will try to delete files, but you won't actually be able to fix it. This is because it is actually the deleted process that is really doing the actual deletions, on its own schedule.
Normally, deleted runs periodically in the background and you don't notice it. But when you run really, really low on free storage space, then it will be kicked into high gear to prevent catastrophic system failure, which you were really close to when you ran your EtreCheck report.
So, what this all means is that the operating system has been running correctly, as designed. You simply need to delete more files. I recommend an external drive to archive the files that you don't need every day. Don't use Time Machine for this. Time Machine is a great backup, but it is not an archive. Eventually, files will be deleted from Time Machine.
