Disk space not being freed when deleting games from the Xbox app

Hello,

I am not able to find any threads in this forum after searching using many different keyword combinations for the problem I am having. I am able to find articles on reddit and other communities and I've tried what they've suggested without success.

I have a brand new laptop with 512GB of storage space. I needed a computer right away and the model that I wanted/needed was out of stock for the 1TB and 2TB versions. I have another DEV laptop that also has 512GB of space and it's fine with almost all of the same apps installed on it (VS 2019, SQL Server, R Studio, Power BI, etc.). The only difference of note is the Xbox app. After installing the apps and deleting temp files and restore points, I was left with over 120GB of space.

I decided to install a few games from Game Pass Ultimate on my machine to test the experience and then deleting them; however, not all of the space that they took was reclaimed. After searching online I found some old posts that listed out the same problems - here are the things I've tried:

1. chkdsk and Disk Management to see total disk space, space used, etc. and compare. They are roughly the same,
   
2. showing all files and folders, even hidden and protected, in file explorer, selecting all folders, and clicking properties. Size is ~90GB, Size on disk is ~60GB, both much less than what is showing up on chkdsk and Disk Management,
   
3. wsreset.exe,
   
4. disk cleanup with/without cleaning system files,
   
5. going to System -> Storage -> Temp Files and selecting all of the options, including Delivery Optimization Files, and removing the temp files,
   
6. deleting files manually from the user account's local and roaming temp folders, and
   
7. deleting the Xbox app and reinstalling.
   

Also, of note, I have an external SSD drive where I now have Game Pass installing games through the Xbox app on my PC. Although I specify that I want all games installed on the external drive, some still install on C: (not sure why). A couple things about this:

1. A few games, Flight Simulator, Minecraft Dungeons, and Grounded, were installed on my C: Drive, while Forza and Streets of Rage 4 were installed on D. The games that ended up on the C: Drive are ~110GB in total and I only had ~50GB showing in Disk Management / System -> Storage. My machine can't see that I have the space, but the Xbox App can
   
   1. To test if they were actually installed, I ejected the drive and only those games that were installed on the C: Drive showed in my Xbox app's library and were playable. I deleted them and only ~10GB were reclaimed (Minecraft and Grounded). The space from Fight Simulator wasn't, but Xbox knows there's space
      
2. I ended up uninstalling some of the dev apps and installing them on the SSD, instead, because the last thing I need is that the machine thinks there is no space for Windows Updates. Less than ideal, and I would prefer them to be on the C: Drive, but they work and the speeds are fine. However, the point is that even the space that has been reclaimed is not really showing up when checking disk size because I think that the Xbox app issue is masking the free space, in general.
   

Any help would be appreciated.

:)