SSD Keeps getting full...

[glaseryaniv]

Hi,

I've been having an issue in which no matter how much data I delete of my Macintosh HD, it keeps getting full. I download a lot of stuff, but then transfer all to an external drive and delete it off my main HD... But istat and Disk Utility show no change in available space (sometimes even LESS space after I delete). On the other hand, if I just "get info" on the HD I see a lot more available space, that makes much more sense (i.e right now the istat + Disk Utility show around 70GB free, while in the 'get info' terminal I get 154GB free). I am of course emptying the trash and my TM backup is to an external drive.

Any idea's? I'm low on space already, and it's beginning to worry me

I'm running:
rMBP 2.3/16
256 SSD
ML 18.1

 

[Beta Particle]

It’s likely time machine backups. The space is available to be written to if needed, so OS X doesn’t necessarily count it as “used” space.

 

[glaseryaniv]

It’s likely time machine backups. The space is available to be written to if needed, so OS X doesn’t necessarily count it as “used” space.

I think you're right... I just unplugged my external TM drive and opened TM - there are still rollbacks! that's very strange and I have o say I don't really like it. I don't want any backups on my SSD... so how does that work?
Is there a way to change that setting? to erase that backup?

 

[markp99]

I think you're right... I just unplugged my external TM drive and opened TM - there are still rollbacks! that's very strange and I have o say I don't really like it. I don't want any backups on my SSD... so how does that work?
Is there a way to change that setting? to erase that backup?

Time Machine mgmt should be mostly hands-off for you. As your machine needs space it will consume the local space occupied by the oldest TM files.

I'm not sure you want (or if even possible) to disable the local TM files, these are there to permit backups when TM Disk is not available. You might be putting yourself at small risk for gaps in your back-up schedule.

 

[Arizor]

Is there a way to change that setting? to erase that backup?

Launch Terminal:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

 

[Weaselboy]

Yep... that is Time Machine local backups. You can read about it here.

You can disable it as suggested in the above post, or just leave it on and OS X will manage the space. If you need more storage space OS X will shrink the local storage area on its own. You can just ignore it.

Also, if you turn Time Machine off then back on it will zero out the local backups space.

I leave mine on. I find it sometimes handy to have the backed up version of a file available when away from a backup disk.