Deleting files not reclaiming disk space - Drive almost full

[kurisub]

I’m using a 2013 MacBook Pro on MacOS Catalina (10.15.6) with a 512GB internal SSD.

On Friday I was using photoshop when it suddenly complained the scratch disk was full. Noticed my HD only had about 5GB free!

Deleted a couple gigs worth of stuff (such as a backup MocOS Catalina install disk image) and also ran the latest security update for Catalina, figuring that update might be sitting on my drive taking up space. The update went without a hitch (thank god) but there really wasn’t much change to my drive space.

After the update I seemed to have regained a little more free space (around 8GB free or so) but that quickly went away after just using the computer throughout the day. I proceeded to then delete even more files, and throughout the weekend I’ve probably deleted at least 20GB but probably more like 40-50GB or more. (13GB of Adobe After Effects caches, deleted x-code as I never use it, lot’s of podcasts, movie files, music files, etc) I ran a Time Machine backup, hoping that would do some housecleaning (the backup was around 50GB) but it really didn’t change anything. I turned off timemachine (I’m assuming unchecking “Back up Automatically” is the same thing as “turning time machine off”) thinking that would delete the local snapshots, but didn’t notice any difference in free space. Restarting the mac usually will reclaim a few GB, but that will be eaten after an hour or so, and it’ll go back to 5GB-3GB free range.

I know people have mentioned deleting local timemachine snapshots to free up a lot of space. At one time during the weekend, terminal reported I had 3, but the system must be actually doing it’s job, as when I check later that day in terminal using listlocalsnapshots or tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates, nothing is coming up. I’ve also checked in DaisyDisk and it reports there being no local snapshots to delete.

When I delete files and empty the trash, space never seems to get freed up, and according to about my mac storage management, whatever I delete seems to just go into ‘other’. On Sunday evening other was around 264GB. It’s now Monday and after deleting more files it’s up to 277GB.


I’ve also notice discrepancies in what finder and About my Mac Storage Management report. Find claims I have 5.45GB of available space (258MB purgeble) while About my Mac claims I have 5.22GB.

I went ahead and reset the SMC and NVRAM, neither of those did anything to fix it.

I did go into recovery mode and used disk utility to check Macintosh HD - Data and it gave me the following: (this report was using Disk Utility app, not in Recovery mode, but the error was the same regardless)


Verifying file system.
Volume could not be unmounted.
Using live mode.
Performing fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s1
Checking the container superblock.
Checking the EFI jumpstart record.
Checking the space manager.
Checking the space manager free queue trees.
Checking the object map.
Checking volume.
Checking the APFS volume superblock.
The volume Macintosh HD - Data was formatted by hfs_convert (748.21.6) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.141.1).
Checking the object map.
Checking the snapshot metadata tree.
Checking the snapshot metadata.
Checking snapshot 1 of 2 (com.apple.apfs.purgatory.45ef3f)
error: btn: invalid key order (1) oid 874235 / oxid 0 / level 1 / flags 0x0
previous key: 0x2000000005b24a55
current key: 0x2000000005b24940
next key: 0x2000000005b26c19

Snapshot is invalid.
The volume /dev/rdisk1s1 could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 0.
Restoring the original state found as mounted.
Operation successful.


I’m assuming THIS is the source of the problem.

What are my options here? Will the system eventually get to work and delete all this other? Or is my free space going to just keep dwindling away? I have to use an external drive as a scratch disk to even get photoshop to open files.

If I have to reinstall from recovery, which option do I choose?
Reinstall macOS or Restore from Time Machine Backup?

Again, in recovery mode, the other disks don’t report any problems, just Macintosh HD - Data is the one that gives me errors.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

One more thing to try is to boot to Safe Mode and then restart. Among other things, Safe Mode will clear some caches (and caches are part of Other).

 

[Taz Mangus]

See if this helps.

Fixing Btn: Invalid Key Order Error on Mac

Btn: Invalid Key Order' error on Mac resolved with this guide.

softwaretested.com

 

[kurisub]

See if this helps.

Fixing Btn: Invalid Key Order Error on Mac

Btn: Invalid Key Order' error on Mac resolved with this guide.

softwaretested.com

Tried all those except for Safe Mode which I’ll try next. The fsck command mentioned at the end of that article didn’t seem work or do anything when I tried it in single user mode, like it was invalid or wanted some sort of permission, I can’t remember exactly what it said.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Try booting into Revovery Mode (command-R) and reinstall Catalina. This used the full installer. Maybe it will fix the directory structure.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Going on a limb here, but I would recommend using Onyx, its free, to help clear some of the caches. In addition, I know that sometimes hidden caches from other programs/files and that can be hidden in the library. Example, on my MBA 2015 11", I was at about 10GB free, removed tons of programs and nope, still missing like 30GB of space. Removed Xcode, removed VS, etc. etc. etc., nothing. Removed other user profile, cleared cache, again nothing.

Well in the Library, there was a folder that didn't get purged from Visual Studio or Xcode or something that took up tons of space. Purged that library and that resolved it. I wonder if there's a cache in there that may be eating up tons of space.

Simple answer is, if there's a tool that can scan those directories to show what's being used, perfect. Otherwise, you'll have to press: CMD+SHIFT+G in Finder and type in ~/Library then click Go. Next right-click on Library and choose Get Info.

Also, you can check library on root by doing /Library (without the tilde mark):

 

[kurisub]

OK, a few updates. Just did a Time Machine backup to a new SSD I bought today and the size of that backup was only around 320GB (or basically about the amount of user generated space I would assume should actually be used the HD). I tried booting into Safe Mode, that didn't change anything.

I'm guessing I'm going to have to do a reinstall. I just need to know which to do. Restore from Time Machine Backup or Reinstall macOS? Like I mentioned earlier, the Macintosh HD (not data) didn't come up with any errors…I'm assuming this is where the OS install lives and if I reinstall that, will it actually fix the problem since the offending snapshot lives on the drive marked - Data.

One other thing I'm worried about is if I even have enough room to do a reinstall of the OS…I only have about 5GB free now. I'm guessing if that didn't work I would have to erase the entire disk and then reinstall the OS and then restore from Time Machine backup.

 

[yurc]

Going on a limb here, but I would recommend using Onyx, its free, to help clear some of the caches. In addition, I know that sometimes hidden caches from other programs/files and that can be hidden in the library. Example, on my MBA 2015 11", I was at about 10GB free, removed tons of programs and nope, still missing like 30GB of space. Removed Xcode, removed VS, etc. etc. etc., nothing. Removed other user profile, cleared cache, again nothing.

Well in the Library, there was a folder that didn't get purged from Visual Studio or Xcode or something that took up tons of space. Purged that library and that resolved it. I wonder if there's a cache in there that may be eating up tons of space.

Simple answer is, if there's a tool that can scan those directories to show what's being used, perfect. Otherwise, you'll have to press: CMD+SHIFT+G in Finder and type in ~/Library then click Go. Next right-click on Library and choose Get Info.

Also, you can check library on root by doing /Library (without the tilde mark):

I second this. I can pulled unused 12GB from my single folder, it's crazy. I deleted unused junk from no longer used apps called Abstract.app. Since nature of MacOS uninstallation program are just merely dragged to trash, most of remnant are left in ~Library and Application Support folder. It can do manually, but tools like Onyx and Clean MyMac can gave simplified GUI to do that.

Some folks doesn't recommended that tool because they think 'MacOS will do the best' is not good advice. At the root, Mac is still computer and no matter what we used, proper and regular cleaning are needed, especially those hidden junk which is taking space without user knowing where the junk come from.

 

[kurisub]

I ended up have to completely delete the drive, reinstall macOS Catalina and then restore from Time Machine.

System is running good now, and I have over 100GB of free space!

The only problem I have now is that my Adobe CC app refuses to connect to the server so I can’t log in and use my Adobe apps. Anyone have experience with this after doing a full restore?

 

[jggorman]

[UPDATE: After two days of making myself crazy, just after I wrote this post below, my drive space started going back up. I knew I could get help here! . I have no idea what happened. 250 gb back! I need to check the device again in recovery because it said there was something wrong with the partition (EFI?), but that might be I just updated OpenCore (thinking it might help somehow as I was desperate).]

I might have a similar problem. I think it is a bad disk or partition map. I have a 1 TB boot drive that was working fine until recently. At some my drive just started filling up when I was doing nothing. I tried deleting files but little to no drive space would be reclaimed. Now I have deleted probably about 200gb and no change in size results from deleting things. I have less than 4g left and it keeps going down. My system eventually hangs when I am under 2g or so. I am watching it go down about 10 mb a second.