Storage occupied increases when files are deleted

[savingsomemoney]

Hi friends!

I'm facing a weird issue. Every time I delete data from my Samsung T7 SSD (only used with macOS), the space does not clear but in fact, for every GB of data I clear, 100 MB space is additionally occupied (approximation).

- I have all my files, videos and photos on this external SSD (1TB). I decided to purge old, unnecessary images to clean up my photos collection. All of this was done in the finder and not in the photos app. There is no photo library either.

- I have two laptops - a 2019 Macbook Pro and a 2020 M1 Macbook Air. On both of these, I have TM automatic backup unselected and use Carbon Copy Cloner on the MacBook pro. the M1 air is new and is not set up for backup yet.


A second weird issue is - when I delete files from the SSD and clear recycle bin, it empties trash. but when I plug in the drive to the other laptop and clear recycle bin, I can actually see it delete thousands of files that were apparently permanently deleted on the other Mac. But the storage issue remains.


Past threads were inconclusive and Apple support is well, :|

 

[usagora]

Navigate to the root of the SSD in question and then press COMMAND + SHIFT + . (period) to toggle view hidden files/folders. There should be a .Trashes folder. Be sure it is empty. If not, delete everything in it.

I'm not sure if that will be the issue, but that happened to me before with a USB "thumb drive". I think the issue was I had ejected the drive before emptying the trash.

 

[savingsomemoney]

Navigate to the root of the SSD in question and then press COMMAND + SHIFT + . (period) to toggle view hidden files/folders. There should be a .Trashes folder. Be sure it is empty. If not, delete everything in it.

I'm not sure if that will be the issue, but that happened to me before with a USB "thumb drive". I think the issue was I had ejected the drive before emptying the trash.

The .Trashes folder is empty. I also deleted the entire folder. I also safe ejected the drive and restarted computer. no luck.

 

[usagora]

The .Trashes folder is empty. I also deleted the entire folder. I also safe ejected the drive and restarted computer. no luck.

Then I'd start going through both the hidden and non-hidden folders one by one and checking their size to see if anything stands out (single-click on the folder to highlight it then press COMMAND + i to see info).

 

[savingsomemoney]

Then I'd start going through both the hidden and non-hidden folders one by one and checking their size to see if anything stands out (single-click on the folder to highlight it then press COMMAND + i to see info).

Thanks. no luck with that either. I wonder if it's Carbon Copy Cloner snapshots (although none of the files are visible).

 

[chown33]

First, what's the OS version on each Mac. You identified the Mac hardware, but not the OS software.

Second, if the disk is formatted as APFS, then there might be snapshots present. According to the following article, you can use Disk Utility app, which is present on every OS, to view snapshots:

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.

support.apple.com

I found that page by searching for: delete apfs snapshot

 

[savingsomemoney]

First, what's the OS version on each Mac. You identified the Mac hardware, but not the OS software.

Second, if the disk is formatted as APFS, then there might be snapshots present. According to the following article, you can use Disk Utility app, which is present on every OS, to view snapshots:

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.

support.apple.com

I found that page by searching for: delete apfs snapshot

This kind of fixed the issue. It is the snapshot. I'm on Monterey 12.0.1 on both. Attaching the snapshot for future reference. I believe this is an automated process, I can leave the snapshot feature on for now.