Frustated with "others" storage in mac.

This "Other" is not as tangible as a physical bin, with items held

inside; the concept isn't quite so static. When you need to have

more storage space, get and maintain a suitable external drive.

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

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

"..What exactly is that “Other” storage on a Mac? Essentially it’s any

thing that Mac OS does not allocate to the listed specified storage

types of applications, backups, audio, movies, backups, and photos.

That means a very broad list of items will be considered as Other,

including things like the following:

• Documents and file types, including PDF, doc, PSD, etc
• Archives and disk images, including zips, dmg, iso, etc
• Various types of personal and user data
• Anything in the system folders of Mac OS X, ranging from temporary

files, swap, voices, etc

• User library items like Application Support, iCloud files, screen savers, etc
• User caches and system caches, including things like browser caches and

locally stored message media files

• Fonts, app accessories, application plugins, and app extensions
• Various file and file types not recognized by Spotlight, for example

a virtual machine hard drive, Windows Boot Camp partitions, etc

As you can see, this is not unnecessary junk or clutter. Basically, any

thing that is not one of the media types that the Storage tab

specifies, will be shown as Other..”. [from 'What is Other storage..']

You can choose once their place is known, to categorize, store,

move; or delete any of these that are not System owned. Most

those would be protected by the newer macOS system integrity.

Be sure to use 4GB+ capacity external storage with Time Machine.

• How iOS and macOS report storage capacity - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201402

• Find and delete files on your Mac - Apple Support (toggle macOS 10.13/10.14/10.15/11.x via sub-menu)

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/find-and-delete-files-syspf5a64aa6/10.14/mac/10.15

• See used and available storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

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

Little to be frustrated about. Invest in several external storage drives;

extras for full system clones; few that can run a Mac from USB-C, etc.

Next time you upgrade, put the new system on an external SSD..

Good luck & happy computing!🌤⛵️☺︎

The best way to locate your Other storage is to track it down using Finder.

1. Open Finder and click Go > Computer from the menu bar at the top of your screen. Then double click Macintosh HD
2. Put finder into List View, rather than thumbnails or columns
3. Press Command and J to bring up View Options and checkmark "Calculate All Sizes", then click "Use as Defaults"
4. Double click Users, then double click your user home folder
5. Press Command and J again and check mark show Library folder. This is likely where your Other is hiding. Inside the user accounts library folder, what subfolder is using up the most space?

Unfortunately the Big Sur installer is a universal installer so it includes both the Intel & M1 code so you need a lot more free storage space to download the installer than you did with older operating systems. You may also find other apps to be "universal apps" so expect some newer apps will be larger than expected as well.

You have a couple of options to install Big Sur on a small 128GB (or rather 120GB) SSD. First make sure the Trash is empty and delete any unnecessary large files or temporarily move them to an external drive. Also make sure to have a good backup before you attempt the upgrade. Then make sure all APFS snapshots are deleted:

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/reclaiming-drive-space-by-thinning-apple-file-system-snapshot-backups/

If you cannot free up the necessary 35.5GB of storage, then create a bootable macOS Big Sur USB installer:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

After creating the USB installer you can delete the Big Sur installer from the Applications folder and empty the Trash. This will instantly free up another 12.6GB of space. Or you can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R), but I still recommend having the bootable USB installer as a backup option in case something goes wrong.

If this doesn't work for you, then make sure to have a backup of all your data. Then perform a clean install of Big Sur by first erasing the whole SSD. After installing Big Sur you can transfer your data back.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496#erasedisk

I hear you. I have the same MacBook Air as you, only difference is that mine has a 256 gb SSD instead of the 128 gb one.

Here other is eating nearly 57 gb.

Depending on how much data you have. I would recommend getting an external hard disk. Or an SD memory card for extra storage. Our Air's do have a build in card reader :) Used to have a 400 gb built in, which now resides in my smartphone. 128 gb storage size isn't cutting it anymore I fear. MacOS alone swallows a big chunk. Leaves very little room for something else.

I'm just going to encourage those upset with "Other" and say you will get used to seeing that after time.

Mi iPod shuffle has 5 songs, and 167MB of "other" which i just accepted.

when i used windows 10, my Dell XPS had 17 GB of who knows what i wish stated "other" ro just something.

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how… - Apple Community