Mac storage not updating after deleting files

Question

Level 1

54 points

Mac storage not updating after deleting files

Filled up my Mac storage. Trashed 45GB. Storage shows 40GB now available. No, wait, only 25MB available. What happened? Repeated more trashing, similar result. Now Mail says not enough storage to function. And Chrome now says it is full.

Full disclosure: I recently updated my OS from Yosemite directly to Monterey (as far as this Mac will go). There was not much storage left before I updated, now there is, and continues to be, none at all.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Nov 4, 2026 4:52 AM

Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

62,211 points

Nov 4, 2026 10:13 AM in response to John Howarth

Deleting files in the Finder does not immediately delete the file and free up space.

Think of the trash as more like a quarantine area, so you can recover files if you deleted them by mistake.

It's usually tied into Time Machine, where the OS keeps a local snapshot of files on the local disk before offloading them to external storage. While you might 'delete' the master/current copy of a file, it still exists in the snapshots, and will do until the snapshot is cycled to external storage or it ages out.

If I remember rightly, local snapshots exist for 24 hours before aging out, which means that the 'deleted' files are still on your drive for that long.

If you're absolutely sure you don't want to recover any of this data you can turn off Time Machine and (potentially dangerously) delete the snapshot data via Disk Utility (open Disk Utility.app, select your drive and check the APFS Snapshots list - the 'size' column indicates how much actual size/changed data exists in each snapshot):

Answer 2

Nov 5, 2026 8:42 AM in response to John Howarth

John Howarth wrote:

Thanks Camelot for your reply. I understand about emptying the trash to complete a deletion. Now, in the image you attached, I see everything that you have greyed out, but I see none of what is below. How do I get to that?

Here is an Apple article regarding viewing & deleting APFS snapshots:

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/view-apfs-snapshots-dskuf82354dc/mac

Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

62,211 points

Nov 4, 2026 1:32 PM in response to John Howarth

> Now, in the image you attached, I see everything that you have greyed out, but I see none of what is below. How do I get to that?

Check what you have selected in the sidebar. Modern OS drives get partitioned into multiple parts for the OS, user data, etc. so you might be looking at the wrong part.

It's also possible that Time Machine is turned off and it's not saving snapshots, but I'll go with my first thought as the culprit.

Answer 4

John Howarth Author

Level 1

54 points

Nov 4, 2026 10:49 AM in response to Camelot

Thanks Camelot for your reply. I understand about emptying the trash to complete a deletion. Now, in the image you attached, I see everything that you have greyed out, but I see none of what is below. How do I get to that?

Answer 5

John Howarth Author

Level 1

54 points

Nov 4, 2026 1:50 PM in response to Camelot

Unfortunately no. I have six choices in the sidebar when everything is opened. None of them produce the snapshot list.

A storage space of 50+GB has reduced to 1.4GBsince your last message, without me doing very much. The laptop fans have been very active as well.

Also, my laptop is rejecting my long held Apple ID password. The same password on my phone lets me in, but on the problematic Mac, I am locked out.

Answer 6

John Howarth Author

Level 1

54 points

Nov 6, 2026 4:07 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you HWTech. That article explained a lot. I have been a Mac user for 30+ years, professionally as a film editor and music producer, but have never noticed the menu items in Disc Utility. Once the snapshot was deleted, it was interesting to see the slow gradual return of 5GB+ of space. This slow return mirrored the slow loss of space when I previously deleted items from the drive. I have not regained all the space I lost, but I now have a slight insight as to why I should never allow my drive to fill up. All that stuff going on in the background....