MacOS seems to continuously take snapshots of the APFS filesystem. While convenient, this is often gets in the way when trying to free up disk space. This happens because when you delete a big amount of files, it will often not result in any noticeable amount of free space.
To list snapshots:
tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Example:
$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for disk /:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-14-145431.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-145113.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-155113.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-165149.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-195146.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-204651.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-23-232657.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-24-085746.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-24-102951.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-24-121340.local
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-24-142223.local
To force delete snapshots:
tmutil thinlocalsnapshots mount_point [purge_amount] [urgency]
Example:
tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / $(echo "10 * 1000000000" | bc) 2
$(echo "10 * 1000000000" | bc)
calculates 10 GB
2 specifies the urgency level of the purge action.
Urgency level is specified as a value from 1-4.
If no snapshots are deleted, try increasing the purge amount.
If this does not help, then try a different urgency value.
(Note, I am not sure whether 1 og 4 is highest urgency. The docs are not clear on this.)