Storage just decreased by a large amount.

[snerkler]

One of my hobbies is photography and I shoot RAW files which take up a lot of space and so periodically have a clear out onto external drives. My 1TB flash drive was getting a bit low at around 116GB free so I've just removed over 100GB of files, however my hard drive is now showing only 89GB free.

Any ideas why this is, and where's my storage gone?

 

[maflynn]

Reboot and see if it comes back, otherwise download and use OmniDiskSweeper It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.

 

[snerkler]

Reboot and see if it comes back, otherwise download and use OmniDiskSweeper It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.

Thanks. I've rebooted twice to see if it would come back so I'll try that app later, thanks.

 

[snerkler]

I've just performed a time machine backup and bizarrely my storage has come back, now got over 240GB free. Not sure where it went and why it's come back but not to worry.

 

[maflynn]

I've just performed a time machine backup and bizarrely my storage has come back, now got over 240GB free. Not sure where it went and why it's come back but not to worry.

Probably the local snapshots, that is TM uses local snapshots to back up the system.

 

[Fishrrman]

The best way I've found to see what is eating up your space IN PLAIN ENGLISH (rather than a useless graphical representation) is a free app called DiskWave:
https://diskwave.barthe.ph

Just download it and open it.
Then go to the prefs and choose to make normally-invisible files VISIBLE.

Then... just "look around".
You'll see what to do next.

 

[snerkler]

Probably the local snapshots, that is TM uses local snapshots to back up the system.

Thanks. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I have the info showing at the bottom of the finder window which shows the remaining disk space, and I also checked the storage in about this Mac. Both showed approx 89GB free, but then after running a TM backup they're now showing 259GB free.

The best way I've found to see what is eating up your space IN PLAIN ENGLISH (rather than a useless graphical representation) is a free app called DiskWave:
https://diskwave.barthe.ph

Just download it and open it.
Then go to the prefs and choose to make normally-invisible files VISIBLE.

Then... just "look around".
You'll see what to do next.

Thanks, I'll look into it

 

[jerryk]

I've just performed a time machine backup and bizarrely my storage has come back, now got over 240GB free. Not sure where it went and why it's come back but not to worry.

As Maflynn says TM snapshot. See this description about how Snapshots use and reclaim space on your system. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

 

[snerkler]

As Maflynn says TM snapshot. See this description about how Snapshots use and reclaim space on your system. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

Ahh I see, thanks for that link I didn't realise that snapshots were things that took up storage.

 

[jerryk]

Ahh I see, thanks for that link I didn't realise that snapshots were things that took up storage.

It is taking up storage you are not using at the time. And storage that gets freed up when you need it of other purposes.

But, infrequently the snapshots do not get automatically freed up and you need to go their folder and delete them manually.