Windows 11 Disk Cleanup will not Remove Windows Update Cleanup

My Windows 11 Pro is up to 6.10 GB of reported Windows Update Clean-up which is uncleanupable.

Figure seems to constantly growing despite multiple attempts at cleanup over time, the last time I looked at it was 5.90 GB from memory. Whether all that data is really there or just a reporting error I have no idea, I will probably just wait for the 22H2 release later this year and see if that fixes it.

Interesting. Many of us here determined that the space was indeed freed, but that Disk Cleanup did not acknowledge it (nor did the storage cleanup in Settings). On two of my affected machines, the problem was resolved when I did a repair installation of Windows 11 to resolve a different problem. Interestingly enough, the third machine still exhibits this problem even after the repair installation, though the disk space is not being used as Disk Cleanup and Settings-System-Storage indicate.

There is a problem somewhere, but apparently it is a reporting problem and not a functional problem.

I recently ran disk cleanup on Windows 11 Pro to clear about 2 gig of Windows Update files. This has always worked in the past, but, now, it acts like it's working except that the process moves much too quickly compared to how it used to work. If I run it again, it says that the same amount of space is still present and available to be deleted.

I have tried all of the posted (here, in Microsoft docs, and elsewhere on the net) to try to resolve this issue, but nothing has worked. Those include renaming the Software distribution folder, rebooting and removing the old one, checking services to make sure the proper ones are running, running SFC and DISM and going through the Microsoft published process of manually resetting the Windows Update and cleanup systems.

I have a four computer peer to peer network. Three computers are on Windows 11 and one on Windows 10. The Windows 10 computer is working properly, but all three of the Windows 11 machines are exhibiting this problem. Is this something that Microsoft is aware of or is it a temporary thing because of the problems with the recent updates?

Any suggestions are welcome, but I have tried all of the things previously posted about this problem. Thanks.

Hi. I am having this issue too and have a partial work around. Deleteing shadow copies. In doing so, the space is made available, but windows update cleanup doesnt show it. I had 6.12 total temp files that supposedly can be removed, as well as after. However, my c: drive went from 263 gb free, to 271 gb free. To proceed with this, open an admin command prompt and type "vssadmin delete shadows /all" without quotes, press enter and type Y when prompted whether to proceed.

If you report the problem officially to the MS support then Yes, there is a chance!!!

I have exactly the same problem. Disc cleanup shows a wrong report of 2.1GB that can be removed but these files are not existing because I have deleted all files in SoftwareDistribution folder. Every time disc cleanup runs it finds the same 2.1GB that "can be removed".

Is there any chances of a fix by MS?