Reclaim Filevault Space on Mac OS X
I just had a problem about reclaiming space of my home folder. The point is, that I’m using Filevault. This is the home folder encryption function of Mac OS X. Apple has implemented this function by using a Sparsebundle (an image-like file). As long as you are logged in, this file is mounted as your home directory. Usually if you are deleting now stuff, no space will be reclaimed till you are logging out. And this was just my problem. I had deleted lots of files (approx. 20GB) and even after turning off my Mac the space was still occupied. In the past it was working fine.
My first try was to log-in as a different user, “su” to my standard user and do an “hdiutil compact” on my sparsebundle. Interestingly it was turning out, that this compact function isn’t available as long as you are on battery power. So this was giving me the missing hint. You have to be connected to a power supply. Then Mac OS X will reclaim the space again.
Write a comment