Storage space occupied by vfs cache, now I can't get it back

Help and Support
1

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I tried to use rclone mount --vfs-cache-mode writes to transfer about 70gbs of files to Google Drive. The transfer was unsuccessful, but the space in my storage is still occupied

What is your rclone version (output from rclone version)

v1.53.3

Which OS you are using and how many bits (eg Windows 7, 64 bit)

Windows 10 64bit

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

mount GCrypt: X: --config "C:\Users\Michael\.config\rclone\rclone.conf" --cache-db-purge --dir-cache-time 48h --buffer-size 512M --fast-list --poll-interval 15s --vfs-cache-mode writes

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

The thing is, I thought the occupied space would be freed up on its own after an hour. I decided to start from scratch, subsequently deleted all 3 remotes (gdrive, gcache and gcrypt)

A log from the command with the -vv flag

C:\rclone>rclone mount GCrypt: X: --config "C:\Users\Michael\.config\rclone\rclone.conf" --cache-db-purge --dir-cache-time 48h --buffer-size 512M --fast-list --poll-interval 15s --vfs-cache-mode writes -vv
2021/01/14 20:30:11 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.53.3" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "GCrypt:" "X:" "--config" "C:\\Users\\Michael\\.config\\rclone\\rclone.conf" "--cache-db-purge" "--dir-cache-time" "48h" "--buffer-size" "512M" "--fast-list" "--poll-interval" "15s" "--vfs-cache-mode" "writes" "-vv"]
2021/01/14 20:30:11 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "GCrypt:"
2021/01/14 20:30:11 DEBUG : Using config file from "C:\\Users\\Michael\\.config\\rclone\\rclone.conf"
2021/01/14 20:30:11 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "GCache:/Crypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:11 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "GDrive:/GDrive/Crypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "GDrive:/GDrive/Crypt" to be canonical "GDrive:GDrive/Crypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : GCache: wrapped GDrive:GDrive/Crypt at root Crypt
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : GCache: Purging the DB
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Cache DB path: C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\rclone\cache-backend\GCache.db
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Cache chunk path: C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\rclone\cache-backend\GCache
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Chunk Memory: true
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Chunk Size: 5M
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Chunk Total Size: 10G
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Chunk Clean Interval: 1m0s
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: Workers: 4
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : GCache: File Age: 1d
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Adding path "cache/expire" to remote control registry
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Adding path "cache/stats" to remote control registry
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Adding path "cache/fetch" to remote control registry
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "GCache:/Crypt" to be canonical "GCache:Crypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Cache remote GCache:Crypt: subscribing to ChangeNotify
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : vfs cache: root is "\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\Michael\\AppData\\Local\\rclone\\vfs\\GCrypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : vfs cache: metadata root is "\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\Michael\\AppData\\Local\\rclone\\vfs\\GCrypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\Michael\\AppData\\Local\\rclone\\vfs\\GCrypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\Michael\\AppData\\Local\\rclone\\vfs\\GCrypt" to be canonical "//?/C:/Users/Michael/AppData/Local/rclone/vfs/GCrypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : fs cache: switching user supplied name "\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\Michael\\AppData\\Local\\rclone\\vfs\\GCrypt" for canonical name "//?/C:/Users/Michael/AppData/Local/rclone/vfs/GCrypt"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 DEBUG : Encrypted drive 'GCrypt:': Mounting on "X:"
2021/01/14 20:30:12 INFO  : vfs cache: cleaned: objects 0 (was 0) in use 0, to upload 0, uploading 0, total size 0 (was 0)

This log was later generated using a similar setup to locate my vfs-cache directory location, turns out I did delete the content of vfs-cache before, but the problem still remains. Is there any other way for me to clear up that cache?

2

Based on your log file, you seem to be using the old cache remote which is unsupported.

It's best to not use that.

You can stop rclone and delete any cache directories on disk and that frees up any space. You'd have to find the spot where your cache was stored.

3

The thing is it’s nowhere to be found? I tried uploading another video and this time I can find it and delete it. But when I first deleted the contents of the cache directory it was already empty! Now my drive says it’s taking up 600 gbs of storage while there’s only ~500 gbs of stuffs...

4

You'd have to find the folder that items are stored in on you drive.

You can use something like:

Or whatever program you are comfortable with to find the large folders and clean it up.

5

a much better choice on windows is this, many times faster that windirstat.
wiztree read directly from the mft table, does not scan each and every folder.

6

Thank you for your suggestion. After trying it shows I used up 541.8GB, which should be accurate. The problem remains however, as windows shows I used up 624GB. I’m just not sure if the problem can be solved this way ;(

7

Sorry as I'm not following.

You are deleting something and not getting space back? Did you reboot? There is nothing rclone does that 'holds' or hides space as they are just files to delete.

8

I did reboot and it didn’t free up the space. The one time that it gave back the storage was because I was test-uploading a file to see where my cache directory actually was, as I never paid any attention to any of this. The problem occurred back in my last setup, a setup that I since deleted, with the supposedly cache directory erased as well.

Now that I clicked Show Unknown in WinDirStat I can see 82.4GB of Unknown. I wonder what I can do to rectify the issue. I know this isn’t exactly a rclone problem anymore, but any help would be appreciated.

9

windirstat has not been updated in over four years old and has known problems.

please try wiztree, and it can be run as a portable app, like rclone.

10

Thanks for your suggestion. Sadly, neither WizTree nor TreeSize can show where exactly the unknown is. In fact I think they can’t even show Unknown :frowning:

11

never saw wiztree display unknown?
are you running it with administrator rights?

not sure what the problem is with rclone?

12

Yes I tried using it with admin rights.

The problem in short is my attempt to transfer files from my pc to google drive using rclone Mount somehow created an invisible cache (the “unknown”) that eats up part of my storage.

13

Unfortunately, I do think that's the case as rclone writes where you define it in the configuration and in the logs. It does not create Unknown space as I think you are have a separate issue going on unrelated to rclone.

Unknown can be many things like page files, long file names or other wacky Windows things.

14

windirstat is known for displaying unknown.

i have seen that many times over the years, that is one reason i stopped using it.

15

I think I found ‘em. 72.6GB in
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\rclone.
Don’t know how to delete the folder tho.

16

yes, that is the profile location for the system user.
it is just a folder like any other folder, you can delete it.

17

Yup, WizTree does the trick!! Thank you @Animosity022 and @asdffdsa for your help. Really appreciated!! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

18

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