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"Other volumes in container" Takes up my storage

As you see in the picture, my storage has been taken by other volumes in the container. This had happened when I formatted my macbook and reinstalled big sur. Is there a way to free up my storage without causing any harm to the drive? I really need some storage right now!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.3

Posted on May 27, 2021 9:17 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 28, 2021 4:52 AM

Open the Terminal Application and type the command " diskutil list ". This should present a readout of the internal drive including all the Volumes on the Drive. Copy and Paste the results back and we can have a look.


See used and available storage space on your Mac - specifically related to " Other " usage


  • Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.



7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 28, 2021 4:52 AM in response to w_w0_0

Open the Terminal Application and type the command " diskutil list ". This should present a readout of the internal drive including all the Volumes on the Drive. Copy and Paste the results back and we can have a look.


See used and available storage space on your Mac - specifically related to " Other " usage


  • Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.



May 28, 2021 5:15 AM in response to w_w0_0

When you formatted your Mac, you may not have removed the Data drive.

Look in Disk Utility.

You should have Macintosh HD (grayed out),

A snapshot of the OS volume,

and one Macintosh HD - Data volume.

If it shows any more than that, check each data volume. The current one will show a home badge and will have a mount point of /System/Volumes/Data.

An old one will be mounted to /Volumes. It can be removed.


If it doesn’t have an additional Data volume, then the Other Volumes in Container is your data.

Jun 1, 2021 11:11 PM in response to w_w0_0

Yeah you didn't erase your disk properly.

Boot to your Recovery HD

Open Disk Utility.

Click on View in the menubar and select Show All Devices.

Highlight the Disk not any of the indented Volumes

(the Disk will be called Apple SSD.... or something similar)

Click on Erase.

Give the Disk a name.

Format: APFS.

Scheme: GUID Partition Map

Click Erase.

When Done quit Disk Utility.


Now you are ready to reinstall the OS.

"Other volumes in container" Takes up my storage

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