External Drive Not Updating Free Space

[Anthropogenesis]

I apologize if this is answered in another thread, but was having a hard time phrasing the problem into a search-friendly query.

My external drives (thumb drives and normal usb drives) refuse to update available free space. Say I put a movie or other large file on, and then there is 5 gb of space available. After I delete the 1 gb movie file, it remains at 5 gb of available space. This problem continues with use until I run out of space. The only solution thus far has been to erase via reformating, but after filling it again, the problem persists.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? The problem seems to be with the laptop (MacBook Pro), not with the drives, as this happens to all connected drives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ergdegdeg]

Do you also empty the trash while the drive is still connected? If not, this is your problem.

 

[Anthropogenesis]

I was not. I didn't realize that would affect it. I guess I should empty that trash more often.

Thanks for pointing that out to this idiot here.