---
title: "APFS snapshot · MacMelon"
description: "An APFS snapshot is a point-in-time copy of the volume. Local Time Machine snapshots can hold space. Disk Housekeeper does not describe deleting them."
url: "https://macmelon.com/glossary/apfs-snapshot"
---

# APFS snapshot

A point-in-time copy of an APFS volume, used by local Time Machine snapshots and some system updates.

APFS can keep a snapshot: a preserved view of the file system at a moment, cheap to create because unchanged data is shared. Time Machine uses local snapshots. They can make free space look smaller until the system deletes them or you do, with a tool that is explicit about snapshots.

Snapshot deletion is not one of the behaviors described for [Disk Housekeeper](https://macmelon.com/apps/disk-housekeeper). Smart Clean is about developer caches, node\_modules, sorting, and watched folders, with a preview and the Trash. If snapshots are the space you need back, that is a separate macOS question, not a hidden mode of this app.

## Apps

[Make room for what matters. Clear clutter with confidence. ### Disk Housekeeper](https://macmelon.com/apps/disk-housekeeper)

## Related guides

[### How to free up disk space on a Mac](https://macmelon.com/guides/how-to-free-up-disk-space-on-a-mac)

## Related use cases

[### Free up space on a MacBook](https://macmelon.com/use-cases/free-up-space-on-a-macbook)

## Related terms

[Apple File System, the default format of modern Mac volumes. ### APFS](https://macmelon.com/glossary/apfs)[Space the system may reclaim, which is not always free for a new file right now. ### Purgeable space](https://macmelon.com/glossary/purgeable-space)[The Storage category macOS uses for files that do not fall into the named buckets. ### System Data](https://macmelon.com/glossary/system-data)