how i free up storage space in "others"

If you use Time Machine to backup your data, it's very likely that the OS is creating "local snapshots" that are used by the TM process. These local snapshots can easily take up dozens of GB or more. Size is variable and will fluctuate.

About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

The linked document describes a method for deleting these local snapshots.

"If you want to delete local snapshots manually, turn off Time Machine temporarily:

1. Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu  in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
2. Deselect ”Back Up Automatically” or click the Off/On switch, depending on what you see in Time Machine preferences.
3. Wait a few minutes to allow the local snapshots to be deleted. Then turn on Time Machine again. It remembers your backup disks."

Also from the link...

"Your Mac counts the space used by snapshots as available storage. Even so, Time Machine stores snapshots only on disks that have plenty of free space, and it automatically deletes snapshots as they age or as space is needed for other things."

There is some disagreement among users as to the veracity of this statement.

Hello, juanideas.

What is Other on Mac Storage?

“Other” storage on Mac is files that don’t easily fall into the clearer category labels like “Audio" or “Photos”. The types of "Other" files would include: 

• Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.

• Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.

• Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.

• macOS system and temporary files.

• App plugins and extensions.

•Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main macOS categories.

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.

What you can do...

• Make sure you have emptied the trash.

• Empty the trash in the Photos app.

• Delete unused and unneeded installers that may be cluttering up your downloads folder and desktop.

MacOS Big Sur. Ver 11.4

128GB Hardrive

MacBook Pro - Early 2015.

I also have this problem.

"Other" file = 50GB.

I have all my storage set to the cloud, either iCloud or OneDrive.

All pdf, photos and any other files are store in the cloud.

I cannot understand what can possibly be using 50GB of space.

My hard drive free space tends to vary day to day from 4Gb to less than 1GB even if I do not download or create any new files.

Can there be 50GB of cache files? and if so how do I remove them.

I carried out a complete hard drive clean and reinstalled the operating system, along with everything else I use, which ended up being almost exactly what I had installed prior to the clean. That freed up about 40GB. Now a few months later I'm back to 1GB.

I was watching my hard drive fill up on a daily basis without actually installing any new software or storing any files on my MacBook.

Please help.