Why does deleting a file on a USB stick not free up space?
Solution 1:
I have found that nautilus changed behaviour sometime in the last year from actually deleting files on removable media to putting them into a hidden directory named .Trash
or similar in the top-level directory of the media.
This is great for "oops"es, but did catch me unawares the first time I "deleted" 2GB of a 4GB thumb and still had no extra space.
I didn't explore if Empty Trash was available or worked, I just rm -rf
the offending directory.
Solution 2:
To avoid all this, try using the shift+delete functionality. This way, deleted files do not go to trash. This is described in How to delete files bypassing trash
Solution 3:
In Nautilus, use the 'Show Hidden Files' option off the 'View' menu.
You should then see the '.Trash' folder. You can now Shift+Delete that folder, freeing up the space.