Troubleshooting & messages · Undo, move back and Recycle Vault
What does "that holding area is full… nothing was removed" mean?
Short answer: Removed items are held on your Mac up to a limit while your drive is away, and the limit is reached — so nothing new was removed. Connect your drive and held items move there.
Storage Studio keeps things it removes recoverable. Without your external drive connected, it holds them on your Mac — but only up to a set limit, so the holding area can never fill your internal disk. That limit has been reached, so Storage Studio stopped removing anything new.
Connect your external drive: held items move there automatically and removals continue. You can also restore or permanently clear items in the Recycle Vault.