150gb data stored in "other" in macOS Catalina, as soon as I free storage space the data in other increases until free space is again close to 0 mb. Any idea on the cause and possible fixes? Does not seem to be the hidden Time Machine snapshots problem. Thanks.
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15
Hello!
I know this can be a slightly irritating issue on Mac. Below you will find the official help article from apple regarding freeing up space on your Mac. You will also find an article from a third party blog detailing more steps you can take to try and free up the other space.
How To Free Up Storage Space On Your Mac (Apple): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996
Complete Guide on How to Remove Other Storage in Mac (igeeksblog): https://www.igeeksblog.com/what-is-other-on-mac-how-to-remove/
Also here is a video that might help as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBiXCNRdiGA
Please let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance!
Hello pieterlab and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
I see you are facing some difficulty with a category of data just called Other consuming a very large portion of the space on your Mac's drive.
See used and available storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
The Other category contains a multitude of things and what is there depends on the particular user. Other is a term that encompasses any file on the Mac that does not fall into one of the other general heading in About This Mac > Storage. You already mentioned the Time Machine snapshots so you are aware that those can be an issue. Other examples include data that is stored in the user library if you are using the Microsoft Office app that are not visible in the Finder.
Make sure that you are running the most recent "dot" version of maOS Catalina (10.15.4 at the time of this post).
Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support
If you are already updated or if an update does not resolve the issue, reach out directly to Apple Support for additional options.
Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support
Cheers.
Hi, thanks for your reply. I still seem to have the problem, as I deleted 10gb of data yesterday night and this morning another 8gb of storage was lost to the "other" category. I need to be able to identify the source to delete these files and determine the cause, so that I can rectify and stop the accumulation of data in this fashion.
I believe it not to be the time machine issue as I believe I cleared the snapshot backups (I cannot access them any more) and only backup on an external harddrive. Regarding your statement of: "data that is stored in the user library if you are using the Microsoft Office app that are not visible in the Finder", how would I able to access this data and monitor if this is causing my problem. I am running maOS Catalina 10.15.3, which is the only version available for me at this time in Cape Town, South Africa.
I am considering running a third party software such as daisy disk, in order to try and isolate the problem. Would this be considered a good/safe option. I do not necessarily want to grant third party software access to all my data, but I cannot continue without resolving this issue.
Kind regards
Glad you were able to find a solution!
Hi, thank for your reply. The problem is not only that the "other" category is taking up such a large amount of space, but also that the free space is actively getting less and less as soon as I delete anything, meaning that data is being generated and stored in the "other category. I need to find the cause and resolve this problem, not necessarily just delete unused files. I am contemplating investigating which files are getting bigger and bigger using a third party software such as Daisy Disk and then remediating this problem by deleting the culprits, but this would be my last resort.
Kind regards.
Found the problem. Culprit was a third party AU audio plugin that was writing huge logs. Deleted all 120gb of it and all is again well in the world. Thanks.
"Other" actively taking up significant storage (150GB plus)
