Q: What does the light - blue "other" tab mean?

In my version OS X the "other" is not light blue...

• OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac? - Apple Support

You need to backup your important files to an externally enclosed drive

and then go about removing the originals you have duplicate of from

the computer. Also, look for alternatives in separate external storage

for music, video and image libraries so as to keep the small internal

hard disk drive (or solid state drive) free from clutter.

• Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:

http://www.pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-storage

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/hard_drives_and_SSD

There may be an upgrade available to increase the storage capacity

of the internal drive to something larger; that could help. To buy some

quality external storage drives for backups (not just Time Machine) is

the best advice. Also consider becoming acquainted with using Clones.

Good luck & happy computing!

There are ways to look for content other than Spotlight search, or Find in the OS X...

Some such as Grand Perspective can find and show the size of files and let you choose

to decide if you want to toss the files... These apps do not tell you what is important; so

it is really up to you to create duplicate backups so if you wipe out your originals, you'll

have duplicates in safekeeping.

Read more about Grand Perspective from this source page:

http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

A handy find utility I have and sometimes use, is Easy Find from DevonTechnologies.

http://www.devontechnologies.com/download/products.html

EasyFind (free)

4.9.3

Download

https://s3.amazonaws.com/DTWebsiteSupport/download/freeware/easyfind/4.9.3/EasyF ind.app.zip

App Store ($1.99 at app store, free from the maker site)

http://appstore.com/mac/easyfind

There is another (also free) that I downloaded but have not used:

Omni Disk Sweeper... see: https://www.omnigroup.com/more

{Avoid mackeeper, and ever so many other cleanmypc kinds of junk; and be very careful

when using these other legitimate items because they can destroy your Mac OS X.}

The idea is to learn about how to backup and totally restore (offline is best, to have duplicates)

before going into the realm of major repairs and troubleshooting issues you could easily avoid.

Clone utilities: (can run in limited mode, for free; read fine print) You could make a .dmg in the

OS X by use of Disk Utility, so that would in effect be a clone. These utilities can also make

automatic amended full system clones, if set up to do so...

SuperDuper by Shirtpocket software:

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

CarbonCopyCloner by http://bombich.com/:

http://bombich.com/download

http://bombich.com/kb/ccc4 - knowledge base

With the correct hardware enclosure with chipset, an externally enclosed hard drive can

support OS X boot so you could create a copy that can run your computer. Helpful if you

needed to restore a complete system including all your updated apps, etc. Or run an

older system (in future) on the same computer you may have upgraded to a later one.

Anyway, the time is about 2:30 AM local time & I thought to offer these items to study...

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing!

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, please see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

          iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

In Photos:

          File ▹ Show Recently Deleted ▹ Delete All

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space. A common waste of space is old iTunes backups of mobile devices. As illustrated in this support article, select the Devices tab in the iTunes preferences window, select the backups you want to delete, and click Delete Backups. Keep at least one backup of each device that you still use.

You can, if you wish, use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 ("Mountain Lion") and later versions.

IMPORTANT: This comment is neither a recommendation nor an endorsement of any third-party software. You must always do your own research to determine whether unfamiliar software is safe and useful. Don't take anyone's word for it, including mine.

Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any one of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.

The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.