It's possible for data to accumulate in the annex that no files in any branch point to anymore. One way it can happen is if you `git rm` a file without first calling `git annex drop`. And, when you modify an annexed file, the old content of the file remains in the annex. Another way is when migrating between key-value [[backends]]. This might be historical data you want to preserve, so git-annex defaults to preserving it. So from time to time, you may want to check for such data and eliminate it to save space. # git annex unused unused . (checking for unused data...) Some annexed data is no longer used by any files in the repository. NUMBER KEY 1 SHA256-s86050597--6ae2688bc533437766a48aa19f2c06be14d1bab9c70b468af445d4f07b65f41e 2 SHA1-s14--f1358ec1873d57350e3dc62054dc232bc93c2bd1 (To see where data was previously used, try: git log --stat -S'KEY') (To remove unwanted data: git-annex dropunused NUMBER) ok After running `git annex unused`, you can follow the instructions to examine the history of files that used the data, and if you decide you don't need that data anymore, you can easily remove it: # git annex dropunused 1 dropunused 1 ok Hint: To drop a lot of unused data, use a command like this: # git annex dropunused 1-1000