Free up Disk Space

If your disk fills up, there are many ways to regain free space:

1. Empty the trash

Files in the trash can pile up over time. Empty it to recover space:

Launch Dolphin.
Click Trash in the sidebar on the left.
Click Empty Trash in the toolbar.

2. Uninstall unused apps

Some apps can be quite large. Uninstall any that you don’t need:

Launch Discover.
Click Installed in the sidebar on the left.
Click Sort: in the toolbar and select Size.
Click a large app you don’t need anymore.
Click Remove.

Uninstalling an app does not automatically remove its custom settings, internal data, saved games, etc.

These can also be quite large. To remove them too:

Navigate to the app’s page in Discover.
Locate the message that says the app is not installed but it still has user data and settings present.
Click the Move to Trash button.
Empty the trash.

3. Delete unused Flatpak runtimes

Flatpak runtimes that are no longer used by any apps sometimes stick around for no good reason.

To remove them, use a terminal window to run flatpak uninstall --unused.

4. Delete unused files

Install Filelight.
Launch Filelight.
Click Choose Folder….
Click Home in the sidebar on the left, then click Open.
Use the list or map view to find large files or folders you don’t need anymore. When you find something, right-click it and select Delete.

Disk Usage Analyzer and KDiskFree can also be used for this purpose.

5. Prune uneeded snapshots

Snapshots of older versions of files can consume a significant amount of space. If you have a recent off-device backup, these snapshots are safe to prune. Learn how here.

Unless the snapshot service is turned off, more snapshots will be made over time, so this is only a temporary solution.

6. Clear caches

Cache files speed up apps, but can consume a significant amount of space. They are safe to remove, but will cause some apps to perform more slowly until they are regenerated.

To remove miscellaneous cache files, use a terminal window to run rm -r ~/.cache/*.

Caches will be regenerated automatically, so this is only a temporary solution.

7. Clear logs and crash debugging data

Log files logs and crash dump debugging data is cleaned up automatically, but can still pile up in the interim. If you don’t need them for system troubleshooting purposes, they are safe to remove.

To do so, use a terminal window to run the following commands:

Remove older log files: run0 journalctl --vacuum-time=2d
Remove crash dump debugging data: run0 systemd-tmpfiles --clean

Logs and crash dumps will appear again over time, so this is only a temporary solution.

Article contributed by Nate Graham under the CC-BY-4.0 license.