VS Code for Linux may be secretly hoarding trashed files

Linux users who installed Microsoft's Visual Studio Code as a Snap package may want to check to see whether files they sent to the trash with the app have actually been deleted.

A handful of Linux-based developers have found large amounts of supposedly deleted data on their computers, in some cases consuming hundreds of gigabytes of storage.

The reason for this is Snap – a Linux application packaging format – creates a local Trash folder for each VS Code version, one that's separate from the system-managed Trash, according to a VS Code bug report dating back to November 11, 2024.

Not only that, but Snap keeps older versions of VS Code after updates, potentially multiplying the number of local Trash folders and the trashed-but-not-deleted files therein. Emptying the system Trash folder doesn't affect the local instances.

Neither VS Code nor Snap offers a way to manage these local trash ...