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Deleted photos from MacBook but storage space not reclaimed

Hello!

My macbook is pretty old and after freeing it from all of the media on it, it doesnt want to recognize its newfound freedom. I found another thread by the same title as mine, but the answer and resolution didnt work for me.. Still shows 214 GB on disk 😅

What can i do?


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 8, 2023 9:34 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 8, 2023 10:13 AM

How did you free Photos from all the media? Did you select everything the the Library view and then command-delete? Does the Library view now have no pictures in it? How about the Recently Deleted folder? Command-delete puts the pictures in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before they get removed completely.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 8, 2023 10:13 AM in response to euphorbialeuconeura

How did you free Photos from all the media? Did you select everything the the Library view and then command-delete? Does the Library view now have no pictures in it? How about the Recently Deleted folder? Command-delete puts the pictures in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before they get removed completely.

Jan 8, 2023 9:53 AM in response to euphorbialeuconeura

Did you empty the trash? (Sorry if this sounds insulting, but I forget my keys all the time...)


This is the forum for using the app Photos, but you didn't mention that app at all. Do you use Photos to store your "media." Or was the media all in Finder folders? If you use Photos, is it synced with iCloud? In Photos Preferences, is "Copy Items" checked?


What shows 214 GB on disk? Is it from selecting the hard drive and doing command-I to see the information?



Apparently I have 160 GB available on my drive, and I'm pretty comfortable with that. Over 200 GB of my used space is for Photos.

Jan 8, 2023 10:37 AM in response to euphorbialeuconeura

It's on the sidebar after Library and Recents and those things. I think it's in the same place for Ventura.



It's a great thing! Here is part of my Recently Deleted folder:

It shows how many days are left before they go away. If you really want to delete them, select them and hit delete. It'll ask you if you really mean it.


You know, you could just quit Photos, drag the Library (in the pictures folder) into the trash, empty the trash 😏, and start a new Library. Option-click on Photos, and you can create a new Library. You don't even have to delete the first one to do it. You can have two libraries and swap between them. I have 11 of them.

Jan 8, 2023 10:00 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hey Richard!

Thanks for your reply :-) Definitely a possibility, not an insult at all, but my trash is definitely empty, in fact the photos didnt even go there after being deleted. I thought maybe if i give it some time, but it's been like 2 days.

Sorry for not clarifying, yes i do mean media in the App Photos, not in folders. They were a LOT and were on my pc because of icloud sync, which i turned off before deleting it all. It shows me the 214 GB when i go to finder and click on info after rightclicking photos.

Deleted photos from MacBook but storage space not reclaimed

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