"Deleted Users & Shared" taking up 157GB!

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Level 1

82 points

"Deleted Users & Shared" taking up 157GB!

On my new MBA M3, with Sequoia 15.2 and 500GB storage, "Other Users & Shared" takes up about 152GB of storage. That's in addition to 60GB of photos and 44GB Music. When I look up the Users folder, which shows 303GB, I see that Deleted Users is 157GB -- it's almost all what must be an old Home folder with 67GB Photos and 47GB Music, so slightly more than what shows now.

My current Home folder is 144GB -- it contains the photos and music. I am not a heavy user, like graphics or games -- I just web surf, email, download photos and listen to music. So having 2/3 of my space already used when I've had the computer only 3 months is kind of disconcerting. The Deleted Users folder shows the last date modified as Dec. 30, 2024 -- I have no idea what I was doing on that date. My last Time Machine backup was October 8.

So what is this Deleted Users folder and why is it so enormous? Do I need it? Does it have anything to do with migrating data from my old (2013) MBA (250GB) to this one? Can I dump it safely?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 7, 2025 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

202,764 points

Jan 16, 2025 11:30 AM in response to william98

william98 wrote:

So instead he had me just drag the Deleted Users folder to the trash, empty and restart, which made me nervous but I did have everything backed up -- and now I have 300GB of storage available, which is what it should be.

Good computing william98 !

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Answer 2

william98 Author

Level 1

82 points

Jan 16, 2025 11:22 AM in response to william98

Well, I ended up calling Apple support -- the guy was mystified, couldn't figure out why there was no Deleted Users folder showing in the Users and Groups. He said most likely all that space was from Time Machine backups. So instead he had me just drag the Deleted Users folder to the trash, empty and restart, which made me nervous but I did have everything backed up -- and now I have 300GB of storage available, which is what it should be. And all my music and photos and docs are still there. He and I wondered if this is another bug with the new Macs.

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Answer 3

leroydouglas

Level 10

202,764 points

Jan 7, 2025 11:33 AM in response to william98

william98 wrote:

On my new MBA M3, with Sequoia 15.2 and 500GB storage, "Other Users & Shared" takes up about 152GB of storage. That's in addition to 60GB of photos and 44GB Music. When I look up the Users folder, which shows 303GB, I see that Deleted Users is 157GB -- it's almost all what must be an old Home folder with 67GB Photos and 47GB Music, so slightly more than what shows now.

My current Home folder is 144GB -- it contains the photos and music. I am not a heavy user, like graphics or games -- I just web surf, email, download photos and listen to music. So having 2/3 of my space already used when I've had the computer only 3 months is kind of disconcerting. The Deleted Users folder shows the last date modified as Dec. 30, 2024 -- I have no idea what I was doing on that date. My last Time Machine backup was October 8.

So what is this Deleted Users folder and why is it so enormous? Do I need it? Does it have anything to do with migrating data from my old (2013) MBA (250GB) to this one? Can I dump it safely?

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/176a9791-d2c6-4ce6-8246-f55a8df31486

if you do not need the deleted user folder you can trash it...

ref: Restore a deleted user on Mac

Delete a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

if in doubt about your storage— OmniDiskSweeper for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more

you can see the big picture from the Terminal.app copy and paste:

diskutil list internal

your user folder is the "Macintosh HD - Data " volume

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Answer 4

william98 Author

Level 1

82 points

Jan 15, 2025 4:56 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks for this. Sorry I'm late replying -- this forum is supposed to email me when there's activity on my question, but it never does, so I had to call up my question to see if anybody replied. I've never used Omni before, but I do have OnyX -- probably not at all the same. Anyway, I'll try your advice and let you know how it turns out. Again, thanks very much.

But just to be clear -- that deleted user folder is me, not some other user. I never created that folder, so I don't know where it came from. It seems to be an old Home folder maybe from migrating stuff from my old computer running Mojave? And it contains stuff that I have in my current Home folder. As long as deleting that deleted user folder doesn't also delete my current Home folder, I guess I'll delete it.

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Answer 5

william98 Author

Level 1

82 points

Jan 15, 2025 10:44 PM in response to leroydouglas

Hmm...well, I can't delete the Deleted Users folder because the only name in there is mine. The exact same name as in my Users folder. When I go to Users and Groups, like the instructions on the link say to do, the only name there is my own. I can't delete that!

I got this computer in October 2024 and migrated my data over from my 2013 MBA. The Deleted User folder as a whole has the Date Modified as Jan. 7, 2025, but the folders in it have modified dates only in November and December. It contains 157 GB of data.

My home folder -- also with the same name as the Deleted Users folder -- has folders as far back as 2017, but most are 2021 - 2024. It contains 150 GB of data.

Am I supposed to drag the Deleted Users folder to the trash? Elsewhere in the community, I see people saying that they did everything they were supposed to do about deleting the ** folder, but the files keep coming back.

This is really screwy, and it's never happened with any of my Macs. Well, I've had only three. But still.

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