Local Snapshots manager

macOS keeps local snapshots of your drive so Time Machine has a steady point-in-time view to back up. Each snapshot quietly holds on to space that files used at the moment it was taken, until the snapshot ages out (usually within 24 hours) or is cleared.

Why this matters for Storage Studio: when you move a large folder to your fast drive, the space it freed can stay reserved rather than actually free — your Mac still reports the drive as just as full. The Local Snapshots window gives you a simple way to see those snapshots and reclaim the space, so you never need to open the Terminal.

How to open it

Two paths:

More menu → Local Snapshots… — always available.
Want more space? → Manage snapshots in the Free Up Space

recovery panel — surfaces automatically when you have five or more local snapshots.

What the window shows

External-drive icon, title, and a one-line Time Machine summary:

Time Machine destination: your backup drive's name

Latest backup: the date and time of the most recent backup

A Refresh button re-checks your snapshots and your Time Machine destination.

Appears when you have one or more active relocations whose freed blocks haven't been reclaimed yet:

[amount] freed by past moves may still be reserved

Folders now sit on your fast drive, but the space they freed hasn't shown up yet — local snapshots from before the move are still holding it. Reclaim now to clear enough snapshots to surface the freed space.

[ Reclaim [amount] ]

The button clears just enough snapshots to release that much space. After a successful reclaim the banner hides itself until a new move completes.

Snapshot list

One row per local snapshot, sorted newest first. Each row shows:

A status icon:
✓ green seal — Already backed up to Time Machine, safe to delete
⚠ orange triangle — Local only, not yet on Time Machine; deleting would lose state
🔒 gray lock — macOS system update snapshot, required, cannot be deleted
? gray question mark — Backup status unknown; treat as local-only
Relative age ("10 minutes ago", "6 hours ago")
The date and time the snapshot was taken
A status description line
A red Delete button for non-required entries; system-update

snapshots show a gray Required pill instead.

Clicking Delete shows a confirmation with wording tailored to that snapshot's backup status, then removes it and refreshes the list.

Delete all backed-up — bulk delete every snapshot classified

as already backed up to Time Machine. Local-only and system-required snapshots are skipped even if you click this.

Custom reclaim: N GB → Reclaim now — for arbitrary amounts

unrelated to past relocations. Useful when a specific operation needs space, e.g. "I need 20 GB free before installing a macOS update".

Outcome banner — status of the last action, dismissible.

Automatic clean-up after a move

After every successful move to your fast drive, Storage Studio clears just enough snapshots so the freed space shows up right away, instead of waiting for the snapshot to age out. If that ever doesn't work it's noted quietly and never affects the move itself. After three or four big moves you'll typically not need the Local Snapshots window at all — your Mac catches up on its own. The window remains the right tool for older moves whose space is still reserved, and for one-off reclaims (for example, ahead of a macOS update that wants a specific amount of free space).

Safety guarantees

Snapshots your Mac needs are never offered for deletion.

System-update snapshots always show a gray Required pill instead of a Delete button, and can't be removed.

**Bulk delete only touches snapshots already backed up to Time

Machine.** Local-only snapshots are always skipped, so you can never lose state that hasn't been backed up yet.

Everything happens in the background. The window stays responsive

even while several snapshots are being deleted, and no single step can freeze it.

Can I move snapshots to my fast drive?

No — local snapshots have to live on the same drive as the data they refer to, so they can't be moved to your fast drive. What you can do:

Point Time Machine at your fast drive so backups land there, then

delete the local snapshots once they're safely backed up (the green seal icon tells you when).

Let the automatic clean-up and reclaim banners do their job to

keep the reserved space to a minimum at all times.