I just installed Linux Mint on my old laptop, which has limited storage (64GB total). Initially, after the fresh installation of the latest Cinnamon version, I had around 45GB of free space, assuming that about 20GB for the system seemed a bit high but acceptable. I've disabled Flatpak updates and Timeshift, but when I booted up today, I noticed I only have 38GB available. What application could be causing this unexpected decrease in available space, and how do I disable it? It's a clean installation with no additional software yet!
3 Answers
Try using space analysis tools to see what's consuming your disk space. You can check out https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.baobab for an app that can help you with that!
You might want to check the log files and the journal in /var/log. With such a small drive, it could help to turn off or reduce logging, or even limit the journal size.
That makes sense! I’ve seen others mention logging issues too. Sometimes something can get stuck logging errors continuously, which might fill up space fast.
I followed your advice, and now I'm down to 29GB! Got any other recommendations?
For a laptop with limited space, you might consider switching to a lighter distro like Q4OS or something similar, just for better performance.
I still have about 45GB left, so I don’t really see the need to switch if everything runs smoothly on my current setup.

Thanks for the tip, but it turns out my issue was related to Timeshift and logging anyway.