May 12,2020 • Filed to: Mac Recovery • Proven solutions
“How to delete Other storage on Mac? My Mac is running out of free space, but the Other segment is still holding a huge chunk of it. What is the Other in Mac storage consists of?”
Freeing Up Additional Disk Space on Mac. The “Other” space may be a bit of a mystery at first glance, but sometimes different types of files and data on the Mac is what is causing storage space to disappear. Here are some general tips to free up additional disk space on a Mac. Next, you can see the breakdown of used space versus free space on your local disk, with additional information about various file types. Click any of them to get more information and manage them.
As a friend of mine asked me, I realized that a lot of Mac users might suffer from the same situation. I searched for it on the web and could see thousands of similar queries about the other storage on Mac. Truth to be told – it can get a bit complicated to manage storage on Mac. If you are also running low on your Mac’s storage, then you should diagnose the “Other” segment in it. In minutes, you can get rid of unwanted junk and free up space on your system. To help you do the same, I have come up with this extensive guide on how to delete other on Mac in different fast and smart ways.
Part 1: What is Other in Mac Storage?
If you have been using macOS for a while, then you might be familiar with its storage manager. By default, Mac segregates the stored data on it in different categories like photos, movies, audios, backup, etc. One of the categories in storage management is “Other”. Ideally, any kind of data stored on Mac that can’t be listed under these pre-defined categories falls in the Other segment. Surprisingly, most of these files are not that important and can be removed to get more free space on Mac.
Part 2: What Contains in the Other Storage on Mac?
Why you might see a new “Data” disk in Catalina. While the other has “- Data” appended to it. This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Bill. The Finder search function works reasonably well for this purpose, but for many Mac users they will find one of the above third party utilities to be easier to quickly scan for large groups of files on a drive with. Know of any other great utilities to analyze disk storage space and files on a Mac? Let us know in the comments! Part 5: Bonus Tips for Deleting Other Files on Mac Following are some of the expert tips that will further help you delete Other storage on Mac easily. Apart from the above-listed suggestions, the Other storage on Mac can constitute of log files, unwanted apps, documents, etc. Therefore, you can consider deleting them from Mac too.
In order to learn how to get rid of Other on Mac, it is important to know what can fall under this category. As stated above, anything that can’t be listed as photos, movies, audios, apps, and the pre-listed categories, can be the “Other” storage in Mac. Some of the common files that constitute the Other storage in Mac are as follows:
- Temp files, log files, and system junk that can easily be removed
- System and iTunes backup can also be a part of the Other storage at times
- It can consist of documents like DOC, PDF, PPT, CSV, and so on
- Plugins, extensions, browser data, history, and cache
- Setup files and disk images like ZIP, RAR, EXE, etc.
- Deleted app-data, system trash, or anything unwanted
Part 3: How to Delete Other Storage on Mac?
Since the Other storage on Mac can be ambiguous and disintegrated, it is important to note different methods to delete it. If you want to get positive results, then consider following these suggestions to delete Other on Mac from different aspects.
1. Check the Other Storage Status
Before you take any drastic measure, it is important to diagnose the Macbook storage other segment. In this way, you can learn how much storage the Other data is occupying and what necessary measures you should take. To check the status of Other files on Mac, follow these steps.
Step 1 Watchguard vpn mac download. Firstly, go to the desktop on your Mac and click on the Apple menu on Finder. From the list of the options, click on “About This Mac”.
Step 2 This will launch a dedicated window with an overview of Mac. Go to the “Storage” tab of the window.
Step 3 Here, you can view the overall storage management of Mac’s internal drive (mostly named as Fusion or Macintosh HD).
Step 4 The occupied space would be segregated into different categories like photos, movies, apps, etc. One of these categories would represent the Other storage on Mac.
2. Delete Cache Files
While processing, Mac stores certain temporary and cache content in the background. Although its aim is to speed-up the processing, it can accumulate a lot of unwanted cache content in Mac’s storage. It has been noticed that cache data forms a major part of the Other segment and should be erased regularly. Not only will it free-up space on your Mac, but would also protect your privacy.
Step 1 To get rid of Mac’s cache, go to the desktop and click on Finder > Go > Go to Folder.
Step 2 You will be asked to enter a target address to open. Just enter the address of the Caches folder in Library, which is ~/Library/Caches.
Step 3 In no time, Mac will open the Caches folder where you can browse the cache content of all the apps in it.
Step 4 Simply select the cache files you wish to get rid of, right-click, and move them to Trash. Once it is done, restart your Mac to reset its cache.
Important Note:
Apart from app cache, you might wish to delete the browser cache as well. If you wish to delete Safari cache, then just launch the browser on your Mac and go to its “Develop” menu option. From here, you can choose to clear the browser cache.
3. Delete Downloaded Files
If you are an avid user of the web, then the Downloads folder on your Mac must be accumulated with too much content. As a result, it can reflect on the Other storage on your Mac as well. If you wish to delete Other on Mac, then start by reviewing your Downloads folder and get rid of all the unwanted files.
Step 1 In order to access the Downloads folder, simply visit Finder and click on Go > Downloads.
Step 2 This will load the Downloads folder on your Mac. From here, you can just select the files that are no longer important and move them to trash.
Even after deleting these files from the Downloads folder, visit the Trash, and make sure they are deleted from it as well.
4. Remove Temporary Files
Similar to Windows, Mac also saves temporary files in the background while running an application. For instance, if you are working with MS Word on Mac, then it will automatically save temp files related to it in the background. Though, after being in use for a while, these temp files can accumulate and take a lot of space. In order to learn how to remove Other from Mac, you should consider removing its temporary files as well.
Step 1 To access the temporary files, go to Finder from Mac’s desktop and click on Go > Go to Folder. Enter the address “~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/” to access its Library > Application Support folder.
Step 2 This will let you browse the stored application data on your Mac. To look for temporary files, search files with temp or tmp extensions.
![Mac storage space other Mac storage space other](https://sm.pcmag.com/pcmag_au/photo/r/remove-cac/remove-caches-and-other-temporary-files_qcx5.png)
Step 3 After finding the relevant temp files, you can move them to the Trash.
5. Clear Plugins and Backups
Last, but most importantly, both plugins and backup content can constitute a large chunk of the Other files on Mac. If even after following the above-listed suggestions, you are not able to shrink the Other storage on Mac, then you can consider removing some browser plugins. Additionally, there is some existing iTunes backup content that you can remove from Mac as well.
i. Get rid of Browser Plugins
Plugins are mostly used to add a certain feature to a browser, but it can backfire in the long run. The method to remove plugins is mostly the same in every browser. For instance, if you are using Safari, then launch it, and go to its Preferences > Extensions. View the available third-party plugins and remove the ones you no longer want.
In the same way, you can uninstall plugins from Chrome too. Launch it and go to its Options menu (the three dot icon on the top). Click on More tools > Extensions and delete the plugins of your choice from here.
ii. Remove iTunes Backups
If you own an iPhone, then you can take the assistance of iTunes to take its backup. While taking a backup is recommended, it can consume a lot of space on your Mac. Therefore, you should consider visiting the iTunes settings and getting rid of any unwanted backup file.
Step 1 Launch iTunes on your Mac and from its main menu, click on the “Preferences” option.
Step 2 Once the Preferences tab would be opened, go to the “Device Preferences” section.
Step 3 Here, you can view all the available backup files saved on iTunes. Just select a backup file and click on the “Delete Backup” button to remove it from Mac’s storage.
Part 4: How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Files on Mac?
After following this guide, you can easily learn how to clear Other storage on Mac. Sadly, there are times when users end up deleting some files by mistake. In this case, you can use a dedicated data recovery tool like Recoverit (IS). The Mac application is available for free and can get back all kinds of lost, deleted, or inaccessible content from your system. It features a highly sophisticated data recovery algorithm and supports almost all kinds of content. Since it is so easy to use, you don’t need any prior technical experience to recover your lost data using Recoverit (IS)y.
Recoverit (IS) for Mac
A Life Saver to Solve Your Data Loss Problems!
- The application can get back lost data under all scenarios. For instance, it yields exceptional results for accidental data deletion, corrupt storage, Trash deletion, formatted disk, and so on.
- You can recover your photos, videos, documents, compressed files, and 1000+ different kinds of data.
- Since it will let you preview the extracted content, you can select the kind of data you wish to recover.
- The application can perform data recovery on the internal hard drive of Windows or Mac system. It also supports recovery on SD cards, USB drives, hard disks, digital cameras, and numerous other external units.
- You can download it for free from its website (the basic version). The tool runs on every major Mac system, including macOS 10.14.
3,015,629 people have downloaded it
If you have also deleted some data by mistake while clearing the others on Mac, then follow these steps to perform data recovery.
Step 1 Select a recovery mode
Launch the Recoverit (IS) application on your Mac and select a recovery mode, to begin with. From the provided options like deleted data recovery, lost partition recovery etc. you can click on the appropriate scenario.
Step 2 Pick a source location
Additionally, you need to select a location to perform data recovery. This can be an external device or a partition of the Mac’s internal storage as well.
Step 3 Recover your data
Simply wait for a while as Recoverit (IS) will scan the selected location and extract the deleted content. It will provide a preview of the data, letting you select the files you wish to save afterward.
Although the quick scan would be able to meet the basic data recovery needs, you can also do a deep scan as well. To do this, click on the “All-around Recovery” option instead.
Part 5: Bonus Tips for Deleting Other Files on Mac
Following are some of the expert tips that will further help you delete Other storage on Mac easily.
- Apart from the above-listed suggestions, the Other storage on Mac can constitute of log files, unwanted apps, documents, etc. Therefore, you can consider deleting them from Mac too.
- Simply getting rid of certain files is not enough. Even after deleting them, you should visit the Trash folder to remove them from Mac’s storage permanently.
- After when you clear the temp and cache content from Mac, restart the system to get better results.
- If you have multiple user accounts on Mac, then visit each of them to remove certain system component and unwanted junk.
- While getting rid of the Other component, make sure that you don’t remove any important system file.
- Always keep a data recovery tool (like Recoverit (IS)) handy to get back the lost or accidentally deleted content.
Now when you know how to delete Other on Mac, you can certainly make some free space on the system storage. Since the Other component on Mac can be scattered, you need to take some extra measures to delete it. From getting rid of cache to the browser history and plugins to backup files – there are so many things you should do to delete Other on Mac. Go ahead and follow these suggestions and always keep the Recoverit (IS) tool handy. A highly reliable recovery application, it will help you overcome an unwanted loss of data on your Mac.
Optimised Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, films, email attachments and other files that you rarely use are stored in iCloud automatically. Each file stays exactly where you last saved it, and will download when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimised versions of your photos.
* If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac and then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. This button is only available in macOS Sierra or later.
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimising your storage. If some recommendations have already been turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button and then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimised) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50 GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimise Storage
Click the Optimise button, then choose from these options.
How To Free Disk Space On Mac
- Automatically remove watched films and TV programmes. When storage space is needed, films or TV programmes that you have purchased from the iTunes Store and have already watched will be removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a film or TV programme to download it again.
- Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you have recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
- Don't automatically download attachments. Mail only downloads an attachment when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.
Optimising storage for films, TV programmes and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Bin Automatically
Empty Bin Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Bin for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Other Disk Space Mac
Reduce Clutter helps you to identify large files and files you may no longer need. Click the Review Files button and then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation or Bin.
You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Learn how to re-download apps, music, films, TV programmes and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control these settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimise Mac Storage setting on the right. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud and then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimise Mac Storage settings. - In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences and then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimise Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Files. Optimise Storage selects “Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes”.
In macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Advanced. Optimise Storage selects “Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes”. - In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimise Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Bin Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Bin Automatically selects “Remove items from the Bin after 30 days”.
Other ways that macOS automatically helps to save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
What Is Other On Mac
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimised Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
- Music, films and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, films and TV programmes from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Bin, then emptying the Bin. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you may no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Deleted Items mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
Mac Os Storage Other
- The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps may show storage categories, such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file only frees up the space required by any data that you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimise Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.