How to Delete com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots Folder

[RobertoMinelli]

For Catalina the steps should be:

1. command-r boot to recovery
2. csrutil disable in Terminal to disable SIP
3. reboot to command-r recovery again
4. in Terminal cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD (or whatever your normal boot drive is named)
5. rm -rf /com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots
6. csrutil enable in Terminal to enable SIP
7. reboot

If your boot drive is using an encrypted APFS (Apple File System), you will not see it under /Volumes. To overcome this problem, before step 4, you should mount it in Disk Utility (from the Recovery Mode) and insert the password to decrypt it when prompted.

 

[Shazaam!]

When/if you reinstall Catalina in recovery mode, a box warning first appears stating that com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots will be deleted if you continue. Problem solved.