Freeing up space · Free Up Space wizard and button
Why does Free Up Space say it cleaned files but there was "no net change in free space"?
Short answer: The clean-up worked, but free space ended up level — usually because new files were written meanwhile, the cleared space was already counted as available, or your Mac briefly held it in local backups.
It means the clean-up did its work, but the free-space figure ended up where it started. The usual reasons are ordinary: your Mac or your apps wrote new files during the run, some of what was cleared was space your Mac already counted as available, or your Mac briefly kept hold of the freed space in its own local backups.
Nothing went wrong and nothing was lost. Held space normally comes back by itself within about a day, or you can release it in the Local Snapshots manager.
For a breakdown of exactly where space moved over that period, use Where did my space go?