I have a very large "other" section on my hard drive. I've searched high and low and used several methods to try to clean out stuff on there and nothing has really worked. I'm thinking about wiping the hard drive clean (including HD Data) and restoring from backup (I have both Time Machine and Carbon Copy CCC). If I do so will it simply restore all the stuff that is in the HD Data portion (which likely has most listed as "other"?
First: Spotlight is a file indexing system that Apple uses to tag files according to their type. These tags include Music, Document, System, etc. Other is exactly that, anything else that isn’t specifically designated. Second: The Spotlight index is fragile and files can ‘lose’ their tag and become tagged as ‘Other’. This is why, over time, “Other” can appear to grow.
Check out this Apple document to see how to reindex your computer: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
First: Spotlight is a file indexing system that Apple uses to tag files according to their type. These tags include Music, Document, System, etc. Other is exactly that, anything else that isn’t specifically designated. Second: The Spotlight index is fragile and files can ‘lose’ their tag and become tagged as ‘Other’. This is why, over time, “Other” can appear to grow.
Check out this Apple document to see how to reindex your computer: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
Om addition, please read up on what "Other" storage is and learn more about the storage dialogue you are viewing in:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/system-information/syspf9b375b9/11.0/mac/11.0
The Other category is a potpourri of files which can 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: browser, Mail
• Mail messages & attachments
• Fonts, plugins, extensions
• Safari reading list
• iTunes backups
• Crud resulting from jailbreaking your iDevice
• Game data
• Saved data files
• Call history
• Notes
• Media
• Voice memos
• 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.
NOTE: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied. Many users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which are no longer needed.
Large "other" section on hard drive
