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Empty Trash does not free up disk space

  1. I was running out of space on my iMac so purchased a 3TB external drive
  2. I moved my iPhoto library to the external drive (size 249GB)
  3. I then moved the original iPhoto library on my iMac to trash
  4. I emptied the trash (not using secure trash).
  5. When I use 'About This Mac' I see that photos field reduced by 229GB, Movies reduced by 20GB but Other increased by 245GB!
  6. So I actually only gained 4GB of free space.

I have checked several posts and tried the following:

  1. Switch off Time Machine, detach external drive, re attach external drive and switch on Time Machine -> nothing changed
  2. Use Disk Utility and Erase Free Space - insufficient space to create temporary files -> could not use


Anybody got any suggestions?

This is a typical recommended exercise so I am puzzled that it is so complex.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 27 inch - 2011

Posted on Aug 18, 2015 9:30 AM

Reply
22 replies

Aug 18, 2015 10:40 AM in response to Guy Emerson

Not sure if this helps. When I originally stated I moved my iPhoto library to the external drive I meant to say copy of the iPhoto library, the original is still there.


It shows that is is 345GB in size, yet ' About This Mac' says it only has 13GB of photos and 122 GB of Movies. That does not make any sense at all. I can open iPhoto and still see my 45k photos.

Aug 18, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Guy Emerson

If your original library is still on the internal disk it will still take space. Please confirm if you have removed it or not. Remove all external storage to be 100% sure that you are not reading iPhoto libraries on other disks.


'About this Mac' uses the Spotlight index for it's size info, sometimes you are safer using the Finders Info pane to view disk size.


In Finder…

Go > Computer, select the boot disk

File > Get Info…

What free space & disk use is listed there? Do they seem correct? Do the same for the Pictures folder or other places that you need the size info.


If the Finder seems to have the correct sizes consider rebuilding the spotlight index…

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

About this Mac may start to show better figures after a few hours of indexing.

Aug 18, 2015 5:31 PM in response to Guy Emerson

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

In Photos:

File Show Recently Deleted Delete All

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

For ODS:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

For GP:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.

The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Aug 18, 2015 11:19 PM in response to Drew Reece

Drew -


The original library is in place. I had two copies. I moved one to the external drive which was not linked to iPhoto and left the original there. In effect I was only moving a large 249GB files to the external drive to free up space. I have removed the external storage to ensure it does not confuse things. I have also disconnected Time Machine to rule that out.


I checked in Finder and the overall free space there is 65GB which is the same as 'About This Mac'.


For Pictures it is Finder says 355GB but 'About My Mac' says 13GB for photos and 122GB for Movies, so that is not aligned.

I rebuilt the spotlight index as you stated and left it overnight. This morning 'About My Mac' shows 54GB free with 16GB photos and 132GB Movies.

Aug 18, 2015 11:29 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc -

Photo shows no recently deleted photos.

I have over 50B free so that should be okay.

I have not run any shell scripts or done anything other than move the copy of my Photo library to the external drive. In effect all I did was copy a large file to the external drive, remove the file from my iMac and empty trash (not secure), but it did not free up any space.

Time Machine is switched off and the external drive detached.

I have not run tools nor deleted any files other than the large copy of my Photo library which was called iPhoto Library.migratedphotoslibrary.

I can replace this if necessary but I am sure the iMac will say I don't have the space!

I'll look at using a tool to see if it can shed any light

Aug 21, 2015 2:41 AM in response to Guy Emerson

I ran OmniDisk and the only thing that looks large enough to be associated with the 245GB file I copied tor the external drive and then deleted is as follows:

1TB drive

Users 913GB > Guy 906GB > Library 255GB > Application Support 234GB > MobileSync 232GB > Backup 232GB >

There is nothing large otherwise. My Photo Library is the same as per finder 355GB and correct, Music is 232GB, Moves 39GB, Documents 19GB and all rest <1GB

Does that indicate anything? I am reluctant to delete anything without getting advice.

Thanks

Guy

Aug 21, 2015 7:51 AM in response to Guy Emerson

Also the About My Mac is showing very inaccurate information. I reindexed spotlight as suggested by using the spotlight preferences and that did nothing. I then used sudo mdutil -E / as suggested and that just made all my files 'Other'!


I cannot believe there are so many bugs here. I just moved a filed and deleted the original, such an easy thing to do but now no space and no idea how to get it back.

Aug 21, 2015 8:35 AM in response to Guy Emerson

Personally I find the About this Mac panel to be vague & unreliable, which is why I suggested it was rebuilt via Spotlight.


If you make a full backup you can delete the files without worrying, deleting data is the only way to get space back.


FYI

MobileSync is the place where your iTunes backups are kept. iTunes makes these folders based on the device ID, so it can be difficult to work out which folder is from which device via Finder. Instead open iTunes Preferences & look at the devices tab. All the backups should be listed there. You can use that view to decide which ones are not required. Right click to mouse of the list items to get a bit more info or to delete them.

Aug 22, 2015 1:24 AM in response to Drew Reece

I am running 10.10.4 and the Photos app.

I have migrated the old iPhoto library into the Photos app - I assume that this what created the 'iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary file'.

All I did was move a file called 'iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary' from my iMac to an external drive then move the 'iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary' file to trash and empty trash (not securely). It should have freed up 245GB but only freed up 4GB.


'About My Mac' had also had trouble since then showing the correct breakdown for each file type.

Empty Trash does not free up disk space

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