Greetings. A problem happened: The MacBook claimed that there was not enough space on it, after that I cleared about 20 GB of data, but the space did not increase, but only decreased to 179 MB. What can be done?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.7
Part 1 of 2
There is Empty Space and then there is Purgeable Space
Purgeable Space is managed by the Operating System Exclusively
When the Operating System decides that Empty Space is needed, it will release portions of the Purgeable Space back to Empty Space
AFAIK - there is No User Method to hasten this process except to give it a day or sometimes more for the Operating System to make this transition from Purgeable back to Empty Space
When deleting 20 GB of Data, was the Trash also emptied
Part 2 of 2
It is generally a good computer practice to alway keep at least 15% to 20% of the Total Drive Capacity’s as Empty Space. Allowing the computer to drop below these guidelines may eventually, cause unintended consequences.
The links below will assist in identifying what is taking up space on the Internal Drive and provide possible ways to remove data that is under the direct control of the User ( Home Folder ) .
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac
What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?
Free up storage space on your Mac
➡️ How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac and this is often a source of filling up the Internal Drive if Time Machine Backup was not run often.
Time Machine Backup will make Snap Shots which will be held on the Internal Drive until the Drive is attached to the computer. Then and only then will the Snap Shots be transferred to the External Drive and removed from the Internal Drive
See used and available storage space on your Mac
Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Notation - If the user is using a cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner - suggest tweaking the Safety Net Feature in this software. It may be making additional Snap Shots that are not being Cloned to the Eternal Drive. If this should be the case, these Snap Shot could be using additional space on the drive
The final word from Apple on Managing the " Other/ System Data “ Category
Other / System Data: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
Part 1 of 2
There is Empty Space and then there is Purgeable Space
Purgeable Space is managed by the Operating System Exclusively
When the Operating System decides that Empty Space is needed, it will release portions of the Purgeable Space back to Empty Space
AFAIK - there is No User Method to hasten this process except to give it a day or sometimes more for the Operating System to make this transition from Purgeable back to Empty Space
When deleting 20 GB of Data, was the Trash also emptied
Part 2 of 2
It is generally a good computer practice to alway keep at least 15% to 20% of the Total Drive Capacity’s as Empty Space. Allowing the computer to drop below these guidelines may eventually, cause unintended consequences.
The links below will assist in identifying what is taking up space on the Internal Drive and provide possible ways to remove data that is under the direct control of the User ( Home Folder ) .
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac
What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?
Free up storage space on your Mac
➡️ How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac and this is often a source of filling up the Internal Drive if Time Machine Backup was not run often.
Time Machine Backup will make Snap Shots which will be held on the Internal Drive until the Drive is attached to the computer. Then and only then will the Snap Shots be transferred to the External Drive and removed from the Internal Drive
See used and available storage space on your Mac
Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Notation - If the user is using a cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner - suggest tweaking the Safety Net Feature in this software. It may be making additional Snap Shots that are not being Cloned to the Eternal Drive. If this should be the case, these Snap Shot could be using additional space on the drive
The final word from Apple on Managing the " Other/ System Data “ Category
Other / System Data: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
MacBook talks about "lack of space"
