Mac storage basics · Disks, APFS and formats

What are .Spotlight-V100, .fseventsd and .Trashes on my external drive?

Short answer: Spotlight's index (.Spotlight-V100), the file-change log (.fseventsd) and the drive's Trash (.Trashes). They're usually small; leave them, and empty the Trash with the drive connected.

They're folders macOS creates on drives it uses:

  • .Spotlight-V100 — the drive's Spotlight search index.
  • .fseventsd — a log of file changes used by Time Machine and other apps.
  • .Trashes — the drive's own Trash.

They're normally small. Leave them alone; to get rid of .Trashes contents, empty the Trash with the drive connected, and to stop indexing a drive, add it to Spotlight's Privacy list.

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