I had about 25 GB free on my C: drive and started downloading a 20 GB file. The download eventually filled nearly the entire drive and then failed. Even after changing Chrome's download location, only about 4.6 GB became available again. I found a very large file under C:UsersNameAppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultFile System33t0, which appears related to the download. Where is the remaining disk space being used, how can I safely recover it, and is there a way to prevent Chrome from leaving large temporary files behind?
2 Answers
Chrome may keep an incomplete download as a temporary file, often with a .crdownload extension. However, downloads initiated through a website can also be stored in Chrome’s site data or File System folders instead of the normal Downloads directory. Check the failed download’s source and remove only the associated temporary or site-data files after closing Chrome.
Chrome’s per-site storage can hold large temporary files, especially when a download is handled by a web application. Open Chrome’s settings, find the storage data for the site involved, and clear that site’s data. This should remove the abandoned download data, but it may also reset that site’s settings or sign you out.
That worked and brought the free space back to roughly 24.6 GB. Clearing the site’s stored data was the fix.
Deleting the stored data for the website that hosted the download restored almost all of the missing space, so it was apparently being kept in Chrome’s site storage rather than as a normal download.