APFS Deleting files does not reclaim disk space & exit code 8

[lukasm]

I have this problem and not enough free space to install the Beta 3 update, frustrating!

Ah well, this is why we make backups first, back to Sierra I go.

 

[JamBeats]

This issue has not been fixed as of 10.13 final build. I upgraded from Sierra to high Sierra and thought that everything is fine and deleted my Sierra backup 🙁 now I'm stuck with this issue with more than 160 gb in the system category

 

[cabrown]

This issue has not been fixed as of 10.13 final build. I upgraded from Sierra to high Sierra and thought that everything is fine and deleted my Sierra backup 🙁 now I'm stuck with this issue with more than 160 gb in the system category

**Same here this is ridiculous... Disk Utility says I have 200gb of "purgeable" space. However I am given no options of actually purging it....**

UPDATE:
Solution is posted here, thank you to a fellow macrumors user, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/solution-reclaim-storage-back-from-system.2073174/

Confirmed I got back almost all of my "purgeable" memory from High Sierra

 

[Apple_Robert]

**Same here this is ridiculous... Disk Utility says I have 200gb of "purgeable" space. However I am given no options of actually purging it....**

UPDATE:
Solution is posted here, thank you to a fellow macrumors user, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/solution-reclaim-storage-back-from-system.2073174/

Confirmed I got back almost all of my "purgeable" memory from High Sierra

You aren't meant to be able to delete "purgeable" files.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...means-in-storage-under-about-this-mac-section

 

[cabrown]

You aren't meant to be able to delete "purgeable" files.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...means-in-storage-under-about-this-mac-section

Maybe so, however, in my case they were not "automatically" deleting as space was needed. I was transferring files to my MacBook Pro late 2016 and it continuously was canceling the transfer saying I was "out of space". High Sierra was not effectively doing its job of deleting the local snapshots, so I had to find a solution to manually do it.

 

[aserrano1971]

I told to everybody, in another thread, that this problem was not solved in High Sierra GM and nobody believed me.

Maybe I wanted to lie 🙂)

Yeah! this solution has worked for me.
Thank you for this temporary solution.

My belief is Apple has released an incomplete apfs because it was running out of time...maybe

UPDATE:
Solution is posted here, thank you to a fellow macrumors user, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/solution-reclaim-storage-back-from-system.2073174/

 

[JamBeats]

I'll let you know if the solution works for me. Thank you! 🙂

UPDATE: It works 🙂 thank you soooo much!
First time posting on this website and such awesome community!

 

[memo90061]

I've had the same problem. I just wish after deleting the trash bin that the space left would update. Now it takes a while to show me what's left.

 

[Raima]

As of 1st Oct 2018, this problem still exists even updating the security patch 2018-002 for 10.13.6

 

[memo90061]

I had an issue with that, and deleting the snapshots wasn't working. I'm back to HFS.

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

On a 2018 MacBook. Been going back and forth with Apple on this. According to multiple 'tree view' apps, (including one a support agent ran) I have over 550 GB of unknown ghost data.

All apps show identical numbers, within a few hundred MBs of one another, and correlate free space and folder sizes numbers shown in Finder. APFS is a mess despite plenty of time to fix the bugs. Would run HFS if the machine allowed it.. Recommend others look into this, although I've seen random ghost data before I've never seen anything like this...

I use CCC instead of TM so local snapshots aren't an issue and ghost data does not show in hidden files and folders. It's uncatalogued data that so far seems like I can't get rid of without wiping the drive... (Even then I'm skeptical.)

 

[iMacDragon]

check what "tmutil listlocalsnapshots /" shows, I bet you'll find a load of snapshots. I'm think TM might always active on an apfs disk in local sense.

To delete them run "tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999999"

If it doesn't show anything, then definitely a weird issue.. I will grant.

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Thanks... Terminal returns:

com.bombich.ccc.DC04BDC2-436D-4CC7-82A6-8737955CC541.2018-12-03-173625

com.bombich.ccc.AF38FC15-F94D-4A4F-B14A-05295C323016.2018-12-07-050233

com.bombich.ccc.91B796DB-73DB-4504-BCA6-5F71A351E45E.2018-12-09-073553

com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-12-28-050645

 

[iMacDragon]

Looks like carbon copy cloner is the culprit from default settings on backing up APFS drives.

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/leveraging-snapshots-on-apfs-volumes

"When you select an APFS volume as a source† or destination to a CCC backup task, CCC will automatically enable snapshot support on that volume and set a default Snapshot Retention Policy for that volume. For basic snapshot support, you don't need to configure any settings; CCC will automatically manage your snapshots using a sensible set of defaults."

and looks like as long as there's more than 30gb of space free, it will keep them around.

"
Default retention policy settings

• 
  
  
  • SafetyNet snapshots will be retained for 7 days†
  • Weekly snapshots will be retained until free space is constrained†
  • Daily snapshots will be retained for 30 days†
  • Hourly snapshots will be retained for 24 hours
  • The oldest snapshots will be deleted when free space is less than 30GB"

 

[zedsdeadbaby]

Thank you!! I'm not a terminal wizard so very, Very much appreciated! Will read through and update this thread this weekend... Cheers.
[doublepost=1546591771][/doublepost]Had no idea CCC was capable of this up until now... Looks like what I thought was a thorn in my side might be the thing that saves my @ss from another issue that started Dec 9th...

Discovered the infamous speaker/headphone 'crackle' immediately after installing 2 security updates. The 3 months prior to installing them sound was fine... I've confirmed the security updates introduced the issue by booting from a clone made before updating, then stress testing the MacBook for 4 days. No distortion booted from the clone, daily distortion on the internal...

The ability to restore only the OS is smart. Bombich's always been clever like that...
One more reason why I've always preferred CCC to TM.