The "Other" section

Good evening, I am concerned about the "Other" section in my storage on the Macbook Air (M1), this section takes 49 GB out of 245 GB, how do I free this section?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 15, 2021 10:33 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 15, 2021 2:11 PM

As the Learned Contributor @babowa has pointed out the Other Category is part of the OS can can not be just removed or managed like personal files.

I am hesitant to overload you with such detailed information but here it is.


The Other Category should not be altered, modified, move or deleted nor should it be attempted to be. Doing so may corrupt the OS and rendered the OS inoperative requiring a Wipe and Re-Installation.


The Other category is a potpourri of files which include:

• System temporary files

• macOS system folders

• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)

• Personal user data

• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)

• Cache files

• Fonts, plugins, extensions

• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search

• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package

They can be located anywhere on your hard drive. The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders.  You can use either of these two free apps, GrandPerspective  or OmniDiscSweeper, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.  

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 15, 2021 2:11 PM in response to Lucy_M_I

As the Learned Contributor @babowa has pointed out the Other Category is part of the OS can can not be just removed or managed like personal files.

I am hesitant to overload you with such detailed information but here it is.


The Other Category should not be altered, modified, move or deleted nor should it be attempted to be. Doing so may corrupt the OS and rendered the OS inoperative requiring a Wipe and Re-Installation.


The Other category is a potpourri of files which include:

• System temporary files

• macOS system folders

• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)

• Personal user data

• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)

• Cache files

• Fonts, plugins, extensions

• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search

• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package

They can be located anywhere on your hard drive. The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders.  You can use either of these two free apps, GrandPerspective  or OmniDiscSweeper, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.  

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The "Other" section

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