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what is others in available storage on my Macbook pro?

when i check available storage for myMacbook pro, i find that "others" has taken over 50% of the storage. what is "others" and how can i delete this to release space?


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 27, 2020 7:58 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 27, 2020 9:14 PM

Get Correct Storage Information


Do not use the information from the Storage section of the About This Mac dialog. Ignore the Storage information as it is typically wrong. To find out the correct information for any disk: Select a Desktop disk icon. Press Command-I to open the Get Info window and look at the topmost panel displayed. You will find the disk information displayed for Capacity, Available, and Used. If you have more than one disk/partition then repeat for each one on your Desktop.


The categories found in the Storage section of About This Mac are simply an arbitrary way of displaying files on your drive. There are no such categories actually on the drive.


There is an "Others" data file maintained by macOS. You may also see space labeled "Purgeable." For more about this see What is 'Other' and 'Purgeable' in About This Mac? Do not confuse these with any of the artificial categories listed in About This Mac's Storage summary.




1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 27, 2020 9:14 PM in response to prasadhonnavalli

Get Correct Storage Information


Do not use the information from the Storage section of the About This Mac dialog. Ignore the Storage information as it is typically wrong. To find out the correct information for any disk: Select a Desktop disk icon. Press Command-I to open the Get Info window and look at the topmost panel displayed. You will find the disk information displayed for Capacity, Available, and Used. If you have more than one disk/partition then repeat for each one on your Desktop.


The categories found in the Storage section of About This Mac are simply an arbitrary way of displaying files on your drive. There are no such categories actually on the drive.


There is an "Others" data file maintained by macOS. You may also see space labeled "Purgeable." For more about this see What is 'Other' and 'Purgeable' in About This Mac? Do not confuse these with any of the artificial categories listed in About This Mac's Storage summary.




what is others in available storage on my Macbook pro?

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