Why removing docker containers and images does not free up storage space on Windows? How to fix it?

Question

Problem:

As I download and run containers, they keep taking up more and more space. I found suggestions for cleaning up unused containers and images and I did so. Guess what? They eat up even more disk space!

What I found so far:

It has to do with .docker\machine\machines\default\disk.vmdk file. It only gets bigger!

Log of disk.vmdk:

                            size (MB)
1. with 2 images                1,376
2. downloading a new image X    ?
3. running X as Y               2,963
4. removing Y                   2,963
5. removing X                   3,106
6. removing all the images      3,126

The only fix I found so far was running docker-machine rm default which removes the VM. The problem is that I have to download all the images again. There should be a better fix. Can someone explain:

What is going on?
How to fix it?

Yes, that's correct, virtual disks only get bigger; virtual drivers don't know what part of the virtual disk is in use by the OS file system and what part isn't. It's all just bits. — Mark Ransom, Apr 22 '16 at 17:18

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '19 at 14:39

21

There are maintainance commands you can run on the more recent versions of Docker. They will free up space used by stopped containers, dangling images and dangling volumes:

docker container prune -f
docker image prune -f
docker volume prune -f

answered Mar 06 '19 at 14:39

Arnaud Weil

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There is a combined one as well: docker system prune – Markus Andreas Jul 26 '20 at 19:31
1

Also, it has been mentioned in other posts that space is freed, after restarting docker desktop – Shivam Jha Nov 24 '21 at 16:15
Yep, restarting docker desktop worked for me. – amiellion Apr 27 '22 at 06:18

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 24 '21 at 16:31

11

On windows 10, this was a major issue, space was not freeing up, even after I ran docker system prune I started noticing this when I found that every week; my SSD was filling up every2 or 3 GB of space.

Try opening Docker Desktop, hitting the Troubleshoot icon at the top right of the UI, and then clicking "Clean / Purge data". This reclaimed the space for me.

Also see:

answered Nov 24 '21 at 16:31

Shivam Jha

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my SSD went from 37 to 54gb in free space after running that troubleshooter. Had also run `docker system prune` a couple of days ago. Thanks for the tip. – Tiramonium Dec 09 '21 at 12:55
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Thanks. after doing everything with docker prune, only this solution works in the end. Claimed back 24GB from Docker. – blaz Jan 10 '22 at 09:39

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

4

Maybe the images you are using, use volumes. If they do then deleting the container doesn't do the trick. You must delete the volumes as well. In order to do that you must specify the -v flag when deleting a container

docker rm -v <container name or container id>

Depending on your docker version you will have some more commands available. Check this SO thread for more. You can read more about orphaned volumes in this SO thread

edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

Community

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answered Apr 22 '16 at 20:11

Alkis Kalogeris

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What docker version are you using? – Alkis Kalogeris Apr 23 '16 at 07:57
`Docker version 1.11.0, build 4dc5990` – Thoran Apr 23 '16 at 08:02
Try `docker volume ls` – Alkis Kalogeris Apr 23 '16 at 08:43
I tried it before following the link you provided in the answer. There are no volumes. – Thoran Apr 23 '16 at 08:49
btw, I am testing using `ubuntu` image. – Thoran Apr 23 '16 at 08:50
Then maybe the logs are causing this behaviour? Do you have a lot of logs? Although I think deleting the container, deletes the logs as well, but I'm not sure. Check this http://serverfault.com/questions/637996/clearing-deleting-docker-logs – Alkis Kalogeris Apr 23 '16 at 09:01
I am actually not using these test containers. I simply `run -it --name ubu ubuntu` > `rm -v ubu` > `rmi ubuntu`. – Thoran Apr 23 '16 at 09:22

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 21 '20 at 00:33

4

After deleting all the unwanted containers and images using the commands below:

Docker container rm
Docker image rm
Docker container prune
Docker image prune
Docker volume prune

I couldn't see any disk space released. I found out the disk space was released after I restarted my Docker desktop.

answered Dec 21 '20 at 00:33

Nick Mehrdad Babaki

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Good to know. I deleted a huge image, but I got back my disk space only after restart my Docker. – Cristian Favaro Carriço Jan 07 '21 at 14:46
worked for me. Commands to restart docker on linux: `sudo systemctl daemon-reload`, `sudo systemctl restart docker` https://docs.docker.com/config/daemon/systemd/ – Markus Dutschke Apr 28 '21 at 11:42
I did all of the above, but I didn't get any disk space back after restarting Docker Desktop (on Windows 10). – outofthecave Oct 14 '21 at 14:13

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 13 '22 at 17:58

1

If anyone is struggling with this problem on Ubuntu:

In my case pruning and removing using the docker command did not help much.

The issue was docker/overlay2 folder.

febrin@laptop:/var/lib$ sudo du -sh docker/overlay2
361G    docker/overlay2

I had to delete it manually.

answered Jan 13 '22 at 17:58

Febrin

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I used, `sudo rm -r /var/lib/docker/overlay2`, freed so much space, thank you in GB – Hassan Kanso Jan 17 '22 at 16:45

Why removing docker containers and images does not free up storage space on Windows? How to fix it?

5 Answers5