Annoying, useless "other" file

HBGNC wrote:

What's up with this file? I can never seem to get it empty. I have tried every "fix" with the exception of letting a "geek" squad touch it. I have 2 macs and 1 iphone. The macbook pro has 63.52 GB of Other which takes up most of my storage. I'm attempting to update, but I cannot do that because of this. Please help!

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?

Free up storage space on your Mac

OmniDiskSweeper

See used and available storage space on your Mac

The Final Word from Apple on Managing the " Other" Category

• 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.

HBGNC wrote:

What's up with this file? I can never seem to get it empty. I have tried every "fix" with the exception of letting a "geek" squad touch it. I have 2 macs and 1 iphone. The macbook pro has 63.52 GB of Other which takes up most of my storage. I'm attempting to update, but I cannot do that because of this. Please help!

User tip: "Other and What Can I Do About It ?"

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142

Empty your Trash — Delete files and folders on Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/delete-files-and-folders-on-mac-mchlp1093/mac

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

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

See used and available storage space on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/see-available-storage-space-syspf9b375b9/10.14/mac/10.15

Try something like OmniDiskSweeper for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more

> So what do I do?

Follow the good advice above.

Or just manually copy folders from you home folder to an external disk (MacOS Extended or APFS formatted) and delete them from the internal disk until you have over 50 GB free space so you can update. Then copy the stuff back. And keep doing backups.

" Annoying, useless "other" file " is actually the opposite of useless. Without it - the computer would cease to function. Now that Big Sur is on the computer - Apple has hardened the OS even tighter than previous versions of macOS.

In Catalina there were two Volumes that the OS and User saw as One. One Volume was Macintosh HD containing the OS and was Read Only - the other was Macintosh HD -Data containing the User Data.

In Big Sur - the OS - Big Sur is in a Sealed Read Only Volume in an Image Volume that can not be altered, change or removed - period.

Judging from the situation of this computer - so much software or upgrades from previous versions of macOS have been installed. So a lot has been assigned to the " Other " Category - unmanageable by the user as per Apple Statements earlier.

There might be an option but must mention - that option is drastic and will remove everything from the unit - and can not be recovered. It is not the best option but does exist.