What is the deleted process on a Mac?

The process called deleted on a Mac is a macOS background process that frees purgeable disk space when the disk is running low. It is not deleting your documents, and it is not malware, even though the name sounds alarming. It gets busy when free space is short, or when a big download, install or update needs room, and it goes quiet again once there is enough.

Foreman lists it as “Space reclaimer”, which is a fair description of the job.

What purgeable space is

macOS keeps some data on your disk that it can throw away if it needs the room. This is purgeable space. Typical examples are cached copies of files that also live in iCloud, and other items that can be downloaded or rebuilt later. macOS counts that space as available, because it can be handed back to you on demand.

Open System Settings, then General, then Storage, and you will see the total used and how the space is split across categories. Finder counts purgeable space as available, and selecting your disk and choosing File > Get Info may show how much of the available figure is purgeable. That is why a disk can look nearly full to one tool and have plenty of room to another: one counts the purgeable data as used, the other counts it as free.

The job of deleted is to do the actual clearing. When an app or macOS needs space and there is not enough free, deleted removes some of the purgeable data to make it. You never choose what goes. macOS decides, and it only removes things it can get back.

Why deleted gets busy

The clue is in what the disk has been doing.

• The disk is nearly full. This is the main trigger. The less free space there is, the more often macOS has to clear purgeable items, and the more work deleted has.
• A big download or install is running. An installer that asks for tens of gigabytes can set off a round of clearing so it has room to unpack.
• A macOS update is installing. Updates need free space and can prompt macOS to make some.

In every case the work is tied to a particular event. When the event is over, so is the work.

How to tell if it is a problem

A short burst is normal. Here is how to check without guessing.

Look at the disk first. In System Settings, General, Storage, see how much is free. If the answer is “not much”, then deleted being busy is the Mac doing what it should, and the real problem is the full disk, not the process.

Look at the process. In Terminal this prints its CPU use and memory without changing anything:

ps -o pid,%cpu,rss,comm -p $(pgrep -x deleted)

Run it a few times. ps counts each processor core as 100%, so its figure can be higher than the share of the whole Mac that Foreman shows. If it drops, it has finished.

Or use Foreman. On the Processes page, deleted appears as “Space reclaimer”, with the real name beside it in grey. Its Disk column shows how much it is reading and writing, which is useful here because this process is about the disk. Foreman is a $12 Task Manager for macOS and is free for 24 hours.

If you want to see what else is busy on the disk at the same moment, How to find what is writing to your Mac’s disk goes through it.

What to do about it

If the disk is nearly full, free real space. This is the lasting fix. Open General, Storage in System Settings and look at what is using the most. Large old downloads, video projects and old backups of other devices are usual suspects. Moving things to an external drive or removing what you no longer need gives macOS room, and that is what stops deleted from working hard.

Be careful when removing things. Check each item before you delete it. Foreman does not look at disk space or clean files, so this part is done with Finder and the Storage settings.

Do not end deleted. You can, but macOS will start it again the moment it needs space, and you gain nothing. If the disk really is full, stopping the one process that clears space only delays the room you need.

Restart if it never settles. A restart is the gentlest reset for a background process that seems stuck.

What not to believe

If you come across advice to “disable deleted” or remove it to speed up the Mac, do not follow it. It is part of macOS, and the system depends on it to keep working when the disk is tight. Taking it away does not make the disk bigger, it just means that when space runs out, nothing makes more.

Also be wary of any app that promises to “free up purgeable space” for a fee. macOS already does this by itself when it needs to, and your real choices are the ones above: delete what you no longer need, or move it elsewhere.

When it is worth worrying

Only if all of these hold: the disk is not nearly full, there has been no big download, install or update, and deleted still uses noticeable CPU for hours. Restart, and install any waiting update in System Settings, General, Software Update. If it still happens, it is a good case for asking what else is running in the background, because a different process may be causing the churn.

The short version

deleted frees purgeable space on a Mac. It is busy when the disk is low on space or something big needs room, and it is quiet otherwise. Free up real room if the disk is full, wait for big installs to finish, and leave the process alone. Foreman will show it as “Space reclaimer” if you want to watch it.