Why is my MacBook Pro's hard drive space decreasing despite deleting files?

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Why is my MacBook Pro's hard drive space decreasing despite deleting files?

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) updated to macOS Monterey 12.7.6 (as it's the lastone available for my macbook pro version).

For some reason a couple of days ago my HD was almost full, I left leff then 50 GB on my 2TB harddrive.

So, I removed files and apps I don't need anymore and I brought it to 80 GB.

After a few hours using it it went back to 47 GB crashing it again.

So, i restarted and removed more files and I went back to 106 GB free space.

After using it for a while it was back to 50 GB but even closing all apps and restarting it wouldn't free the space anymore. I had to manually delete files.

Now again, I deleted more files I don't needed and I was over 125 GB free space.

Now just using Brave, Excell (app on mac) and Acrobat PDF and Whatsapp mac-app it's dropping back to 68 GB.

Unfortunately if I close properly all apps and restart the computer it will be still on 68 GB.

I cannot understand why?

Even if I switch off the wifi it doesn't help.

How to solve?

If it goes back under 50GB it will crash because it doesn't have enough space to run the basic functions of iOS

It's quite urgent pls

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.7

Posted on May 4, 2025 01:52 AM

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Answer 1

May 4, 2025 10:01 AM in response to DL8888

crash because it doesn't have enough space to run the basic functions of iOS

re: macOS

SSD need 15-20% free storage to function as expected.

You are more than choked full— do some serious house cleaning.

Buy an external drive if you need to save and move off the internal drive; and stop pecking at it.

I'll let you do the math on 20% of a 2 TB drive—you have some work to do...

“free” space is the "available" minus the "purgeable"

The macOS does not readily release that "purgeable" space on its own schedule.

Data deleted on an SSD will not be available immediately until the SSD resets storage and makes it writeable.

etresoft sums it up here:

“The "available" storage is the amount of used storage that the operating system could automatically delete if it felt that it was really necessary. The "free" storage is the amount that you can actually use for something.

There are system processes that run in the background and automatically delete some of the "available" storage and convert it to "free". If you completely run out of storage, then those system processes will try a little harder. When you "delete" files you are just hinting to the operating system that you don't need those files anymore. The operating system will eventually remove them, but on its own schedule."

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Why is my MacBook Pro's hard drive space decreasing despite deleting files?

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