Apple Toolbox

Tools and Fixes for Mac, iPad, iPhone & iPod

  • Mac
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • How-to
  • Q & A
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Forum
Home / Mac / Mac OS X: What is “other” storage and how to remove

Mac OS X: What is “other” storage and how to remove

Last Updated on February 24, 2014 by SK

Running out of space on your hard drive can be a big problem for many MacBook users. You can view how much space certain files are using on your hard drive by selecting About This Mac from the Apple menu. Where you can see different categories, such as Audios, Music, Movies, Apps, Backups and how much of your hard drive space is being consumed by these different file types. You may also notice a mysterious category known as “Other.”

Other files About This Mac

The “Other” category is a combination of files that are not recognized as one of the other file types (Music, Apps etc.). The Other category may include system files and caches, apps extensions, user logs, documents (e.g. powerpoints), zip/rar files, mail messages etc.  The “Other” category in the About This Mac window may sometimes be big. However this isn’t always a big problem. But if you’re running low on storage space on your Mac, there are ways to fix the “Other” category from taking up so much space. Here is how:

 How to remove “other” data in OS X

  • Restart your computer. This may help.
  • Empty your Trash.
  • Remove unused apps.
  • You may free up some hard disk space by deleting the Mac OS X sleepimage file. You may remove this file because it will just be created again automatically the next time when your Mac go to sleep. Launch Terminal (Launchpad >  Other > Terminal); then type: sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
  • Checking / verifying your hard drive with Disk Utility may also help (Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info… > Storage > Disk Utility).
  • Download and install OmniDiskSweeper. This software will help you see and find large and unused files that you may want to remove. But be careful, do not delete system folders or files. You may also want to backup first.
  • You may want to remove your iOS device backups (if you have any). The folder where your backup data can be accessed by going to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Related: How to remove “Other” data on iPhone / iPad / iPod

Related Posts:

  • Mac OS X: How to free up hard disk space
  • Mac OSX: Your startup disk is full or almost full, how to…
  • How to check your hard disk space on your Mac
  • Cannot download: There is not enough available storage to…

Filed Under: Mac Tagged With: Mac

Comments

  1. John Eivind Johnsen says

    February 1, 2015 at 3:42 AM

    Thanks for the explanation, still i don’t quite understand something. When i delete files, a part of the filesize of that file adds to the “other” thing, why does it do that and how do i make it stop doing that. “other” folder is 125 GB which i have no idea what is, the “omnidisksweeper” found 200+ gb of stuff, but it didn’t show it, it only showed maybe 10 gb of things, the other 190 wasn’t shown. Anyways thanks, have to see if i can figure more out

    Reply
    • Brock says

      October 6, 2015 at 8:34 PM

      Yeah, I’m in a similar circumstance, with about 300gb of unaccounted for ‘other’ space. I emptied trash can, have no iOs device backups, and did omni sweep already. any thoughts?

      Reply
      • Louisa says

        December 4, 2015 at 1:49 PM

        i have 300GB of other as well.. ive been trying everything they say with no success… just a few gbs got freed up..

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Having Problems? Need Help? Ask Your Questions On Our Forums

Got a tip? (We respect your anonymity.)

FOLLOW US ONLINE

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

Feedback

Have a fix? E-mail us.

Forums: Recent Topics

  • ipad air
  • whats wrong with my ipad
  • i pad wont turn on!!!!!! – Ethan
  • White Screen on iPad Air – Loreta
  • Mirroring won’t turn off since last update. – Christie

Like Us on Facebook

Appletoolbox

Follow Us on Feedly

follow us in feedly

About

  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use

iDevices

  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Mac (OS X)
  • iPod

Other

  • Messages (and iMessage)
  • FaceTime
  • AirPlay
  • Safari
  • Wi-Fi
  • Mail and Mail App
  • Applications (apps)
  • App Store
  • Siri
  • Camera
  • iTunes
  • Game Center
  • iBooks
  • iCloud
  • Apple ID
  • iOS
  • OS X
  • BlueTooth

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • FeedBurner 
  • YouTube
  • Google +

© Copyright 2010-2015 Apple Toolbox · All Rights Reserved

This site and its content are in no way affiliated or endorsed by Apple, Inc. · Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited