Then find the file that wont delete, and drag it to the Terminal window, and the path to that item should appear. Type in 'rm -f ' without the quotation marks, and with the space after the f. To delete a file using this method, first open up the Terminal, located in the Applications/Utilities folder. This method requires a bit of care, as making a mistake in the Terminal can result in things going horribly wrong. There are a few alternatives that perform many other tasks as well, such as OnyX (free). One that is completely dedicated to it is Super Empty Trash, a free application with the sole purpose of helping you empty your trash. There are many applications available that allow you to force the trash to empty. Luckily this option seems to be more effective with stubborn files than the regular Empty Trash. Secure Empty Trash is normally used to make sure deleted items stay deleted by writing over them multiple times with random data. Go to the Finder Menu in the top left corner of the screen and choose 'Secure Empty Trash' located right below the usual Empty Trash. I had very good experience with free tool OmniDiskSweeper ( which was able to read sizes of different folders on my disk surprisingly well.ĭo NOT delete any files unless you know what you are doing, it may destroy the system.Probably the most simple solution, and almost always works. There were (rare) reports, though, that system misbehaved and somehow created some System files which eventually filled the drive and crashed system. In other words, it may fix itself if you have recently copied/deleted significant amount of data. But these would be thinned automatically if you started to run out of space, so if this is the case it is not a problem.

These can be listed, deleted, or thinned (google it, instructions are on line).

It is keeping snapshots for a day or two. MacOS is doing snapshot backups to local disk, even if you do not use TimeMachine. You will need to do more research to figure out if it is real problem, some type of data you have or even transient issue. Basically, anything which does not fit in any other category is System File in this view. MacOS seems to have very broad definition of System Files.

How to delete system files on mac