Cant free hd space

[ronfire]

I moved and deleted the photo file, emptied the trash but still will not show the space freed up. Opened a new photo file and does not show any pics or deleted files. What am I missing to clean the HD space.

 

[chabig]

If you said you deleted the file and emptied the trash, I would understand. But what do you mean when you say that you "moved and deleted"?

 

[ronfire]

I moved the photo file to an external drive then deleted the original on the Computers HD.
It was 23gb but it did not free that space up on the HD after deleting and emptying the trash.

 

[justashooter]

What OS? I have had this happen on Mojave when I deleted about 50gb of data, emptied the trash and got no space back. For two days I searched forums for an answer and on the third or fourth day after the delete I once again check the hard drive and my 50gb of free space appeared. Some forums theorized that TimeMachine spot backup was using/holding it. I never found a definitive explanation. Very irritating tho.

 

[jz0309]

I seem to recall similar issues in the past, might have been pre-Mojave, but I also remember that a reboot cleaned up disk space oddly enough.
Added: go to About this Mac, Storage, Manage and get rid of your clutter

 

[justashooter]

Many reboots (safe, regular. etc) did not for me.

 

[chabig]

Regardless, it should not cause any problems. It ought to fix itself with time, and if you do anything that requires the space, it will be reclaimed from Time Machine.

 

[ronfire]

Currently running with Catalina 10.15.5. I have tried a reboot and it did not show the space. I have time machine set to manual backup.

 

[Nermal]

if you do anything that requires the space, it will be reclaimed from Time Machine.

'Might be' is a better way of putting it. I've found that while it usually gives it back if you need it, sometimes it doesn't. It seems to be related to system load; it seems to only give space back 'in downtime'.

 

[ronfire]

Fixed it....Formatted the HD and did a new install.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Fixed it....Formatted the HD and did a new install."

That's about the best way to "clear up and free space"...