'Other' files taking up a disproportionate amount storage space on iMac

You're probably wasting your time with the caches. They will be rebuilt. In very rare circumstances, the caches could become corrupt and just keep growing out of control.

Other are just items Spotlight could not identify as belonging to the named categories. It could be all of the items you've been trashing are now not identifiable. However, if you let it sit for a while (hours), a lot of the "Other" will find a home in the other categories.

Do you use mySQL for anything productive? If not, then deleting that file is likely ok. If you actually are using mySQL for something, you might want to see what the developers have to say about that file. mySQL is not part of the OS, so you must have installed it for some reason.

fdeboo wrote:

I've been having issues with storage on my iMac recently and am trying to manage it by deleting large batches of files from my User Library folder- caches etc. and moving photos and other large files over to my external hard drive. But I can't keep up with the amount of 'other' files being generated. Yesterday I noticed that within the space of 10mins, another 2GB of space was eaten up by 'other' files and it currently accounts for 406.18GB of 500GB storage on my iMac. Surely this is not normal?!

I free downloaded MacCleaner Pro and ran Disk Expert. This showed me my biggest file was a .err file located in MacHD > .usr > local > var > mysql. It seems to take up a significant amount of space so I am ready to shove it in the trash and empty the bin right away. I just wanted to check first if this would be a safe move?

See used and available storage space on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/see-available-storage-space-syspf9b375b9/10.14/mac/10.15

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

User tip: "Other and What Can I Do About It ?"

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142

Try something like OmniDiskSweeper for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more