Uninstalling games doesn't free up disk space

[S.Bend Shovel Slayer]

I'm using 10.13.6 High Sierra.

I have used Steam's uninstall command on a few games. It successfully removes the files from /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps, but no disk space is freed up on the hard drive (SSD), and no files go into the trash. For one game, I even deleted and redownloaded twice, but each time it takes up the space for the game without giving it up, as shown on the hard drive info panel.

It's like the uninstall command is moving the files somewhere else instead of actually deleting them (but searches for the files have so far turned up nothing).

Anyone know what's going on and how to free up the disk space for these deleted games?

[ban]

[Janichsan]

When you de-install a game via Steam, it gets deleted directly and not moved to the Trash.

I think the problem might just be that macOS doesn't properly update the amount of available disk space. At least since the introduction of APFS, this all a bit wonky.

Another thing to consider is that Time Machine does save local backups right on your main drive as long as it doesn't have the opportunity to dump stuff on an external drive. (This is usually not really a problem as the local backups get cleared at the latest when you really need the space.)

Try rebooting your Mac and/or hook up your external Time Machine drive (if you have one and haven't done that already) and check the available disk space then. In my experience, the space get's cleared then and the amount gets properly updated.

[S.Bend Shovel Slayer]

Thanks! It does appear it was just a macOS slow reporting issue. I had tried restarting a few times to no avail, but today, after two days, it has finally updated.

What made me think it was a Steam issue, rather than Mac, is that downloading game files made the HD space go down but deleting files didn't make the space go up. And I was able to delete other, large files on the hard drive that were immediately reflected in macOS's report of the hard drive's capacity — only Steam deletions weren't being reflected. Weird.

[DuhhMize]

Originally posted by S.Bend Shovel Slayer:

I'm using 10.13.6 High Sierra.

I have used Steam's uninstall command on a few games. It successfully removes the files from /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps, but no disk space is freed up on the hard drive (SSD), and no files go into the trash. For one game, I even deleted and redownloaded twice, but each time it takes up the space for the game without giving it up, as shown on the hard drive info panel.

It's like the uninstall command is moving the files somewhere else instead of actually deleting them (but searches for the files have so far turned up nothing).

Anyone know what's going on and how to free up the disk space for these deleted games?