I deleted 80gb, but I still have the same storage space

[memo90061]

This has been going on for a while after I changed the format of the SSD to APFS. I deleted 80gb right now, and I still have 349gb available. I already turned off optimize storage from iCloud. What can I do so that it updates as soon as I delete?

I have 113gb in hidden space according to DaisyDisk. When I delete it, it's still there.

 

[RecentlyConverted]

I take it you deleted the trash?

 

[memo90061]

I take it you deleted the trash?

Yes, it happens on the new APFS format for me.

 

[Weaselboy]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

Do you have Time Machine turned on?

 

[BLUEDOG314]

Like Weaselboy is probably implying, your issue is likely due to local snapshots for time machine.

 

[Honza1]

Yes, it happens on the new APFS format for me.

This has been discussed so many times, that simple google/macrumors search would answer this.
APFS format does not release space on delete:
1. APFS can have multiple pointers to one data record, if it is used by multiple files. For example, if you duplicate a file, no new space is used, APFS simply creates link to the existing data. Logically, deleting that file (link) from one place makes no difference in space used. Only deleting the last place the data is used gets the data really deleted...
May be - may be not :
2.If you are using Time Machine, TM keeps data for about 24 hours locally as short term TM backup - and so it can back them up when disk is attached later. This is the hidden space... There are instructions on line (try google) how to prune the tmutils space they are using manually.
Somehow surprisingly, it does same when you are not using TM. In any case, the space was marked "purgeable" and if needed, should be automatically released to OS.

It is confusing and works well ONLY if you have large amount of space on drive - basically, when you do not care. I have about 50% of space available all the time on my 1TB SSD and all of the above behavior is generally transparent and works really, really well.
Since Apple is still selling Airs with SSD of 128Gb, there must be lots of confused users desperate for space on their systems.

Unless you get in troubles (with 350GB I doubt it), ignore and live your life. It's not worth fighting with it, usually it works.

 

[The Mercurian]

Ohh I was just about to start a thread on this topic but I see I'm not the only confused one. I just deleted 200GB of photos that were duplicated between Photos and the old iPhoto programs and nothing changed with my free space. I guess this explains it :/

 

[Oleg K.]

The files you delete don't get immediately deleted on APFS, they get captured by the local snapshots of Time Machine. DaisyDisk shows them as "purgeable space" (inside the "hidden space"). Even after "purging" the purgeable space it in DaisyDisk, it may require some time for macOS to complete its background snapshot tasks and release the disk space. In the meantime you may see the "still hidden" space grow temporarily. In this case, you may simply wait and check later without doing anything and see that you have your free space back. See https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/PurgeableSpace.html

 

[The Mercurian]

The files you delete don't get immediately deleted on APFS, they get captured by the local snapshots of Time Machine. DaisyDisk shows them as "purgeable space" (inside the "hidden space"). Even after "purging" the purgeable space it in DaisyDisk, it may require some time for macOS to complete its background snapshot tasks and release the disk space. In the meantime you may see the "still hidden" space grow temporarily. In this case, you may simply wait and check later without doing anything and see that you have your free space back. See https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/PurgeableSpace.html

Yeah I figured out that much and then some. Turns out time machine stores local backups that can take up alot of space. In my case about 100GB. You have to use Terminal commands to delete those backups so probably not for everyone to be dabbling with: https://www.imore.com/how-reclaim-disk-space-system-macos-high-sierra

 

[Weaselboy]

Yeah I figured out that much and then some. Turns out time machine stores local backups that can take up alot of space. In my case about 100GB. You have to use Terminal commands to delete those backups so probably not for everyone to be dabbling with: https://www.imore.com/how-reclaim-disk-space-system-macos-high-sierra

You can run this in Terminal to dump them all at once instead of one by one like that article shows.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

 

[The Mercurian]

You can run this in Terminal to dump them all at once instead of one by one like that article shows.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

Great tip thanks!

 

[Oleg K.]

Yeah I figured out that much and then some. Turns out time machine stores local backups that can take up alot of space. In my case about 100GB. You have to use Terminal commands to delete those backups so probably not for everyone to be dabbling with: https://www.imore.com/how-reclaim-disk-space-system-macos-high-sierra

Right, this is almost equivalent to what DaisyDisk does, except that the latter also removes other categories that contribute to the "purgeable" (when you delete the "purgeable space"). But in most cases, the snapshots are the biggest space hog there.