I am running Catalina on a mac mini and I deleted about 30 GB of data from my internal drive and emptied the trash. But the drive doesn't show any larger free space, if anything a bit less. What can I do? I rebooted, ran Disk Utility - but nothing. Help please!
Mac mini
Space may not be reclaimed immediately for a variety of reasons.
The commonest is Time Machine backups/snapshots. Time Machine may keep local snapshots of files for quick restore purposes. The way it does this is via hidden links to files, but the upshot is that when you 'delete' a file, all you're doing is deleting the visible, top-level link to that file (what the Finder shows on your desktop), but it's not deleting the snapshot of the same file (in case you deleted the file by mistake and want to recover it).
Consequently, the space is still consumed until the file ages out of the snapshot (typically 24 hours), or when additional space is needed by the OS or applications (as soon as disk space gets tight, Time Machine will automatically purge snapshots to make space available for new data).
You can also force a flush of the snapshot by temporarily turning off Time Machine (which deletes the snapshots) and then re-enabling it.
More here: About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
Space may not be reclaimed immediately for a variety of reasons.
The commonest is Time Machine backups/snapshots. Time Machine may keep local snapshots of files for quick restore purposes. The way it does this is via hidden links to files, but the upshot is that when you 'delete' a file, all you're doing is deleting the visible, top-level link to that file (what the Finder shows on your desktop), but it's not deleting the snapshot of the same file (in case you deleted the file by mistake and want to recover it).
Consequently, the space is still consumed until the file ages out of the snapshot (typically 24 hours), or when additional space is needed by the OS or applications (as soon as disk space gets tight, Time Machine will automatically purge snapshots to make space available for new data).
You can also force a flush of the snapshot by temporarily turning off Time Machine (which deletes the snapshots) and then re-enabling it.
More here: About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
The more I deleted via “manage storage” the less space was left. Even when doing nothing the gigabites just trickled away for some reason. Apple set me up with an appointment at an Apple Store and the only option was to have a clean os install. Now I have to add everything back. Very discouraging.
Did that while n the phone with Apple support, who could see my screen. The more we deleted via “manage storage” the less space was left. Even when doing nothing the gigabites just trickled away for some reason. She set me up with an appointment at an Apple Store and the only option was to have clean os install. Now I have to add everything back. Very discouraging.
If your hard disk is over 85% full its own swapping of files will over tax it.
A good way to manage space on the Mac is go to Apple menu -> About This Mac -> Storage and click on Manage.
This will help you identify where space is being filled up.
https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/freeware EasyFind makes it easy to locate files without Spotlight.
Good point. iCloud backup also has its own snapshots.
These are both typically stored as hidden files at the root of the hard drive. Be careful though that you have a copy of whatever information either on your destination or the source and not just the root before deleting anything.
I don’t use Time Machine, so that was not the problem. The more deleted via “manage storage” the less space was left. Even when doing nothing the gigabites just trickled away for some reason. Apple set me up with an appointment at an Apple Store and the only option was to have clean os install. Now I have to add everything back. Very discouraging.
Apple might tell you a clean install is the only way. That's not accurate.
Number one, if you don't have at least two backups, and there is something wrong with your media, an erase may leave you with no working copy of your data.
If you are using iCloud you need to learn better management of your ICloud account and should ask the question on the iCloud forum
If you are using Microsoft One Drive, see this link.
You might want to do an Etrecheck check, and would help us determine why your space is filling up.
But don't let anyone tell you erase is the only solution. It is highly risky.
The more I deleted via “manage storage” the less space was left. Even when doing nothing the gigabites just trickled away for some reason. Apple set me up with an appointment at an Apple Store and the only option was to have a clean os install. Now I have to add everything back. Very discouraging.
i don’t use Time Machine. The more I deleted via “manage storage” the less space was left. Even when doing nothing the gigabites just trickled away for some reason. Apple set me up with an appointment at an Apple Store and the only option was to have a clean os install. Now I have to add everything back. Very discouraging.
Disk space not increased after deleting large files
