How to manage hard drive storage space, specifically Other Storage

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

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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.

In short, you don't. The OS manages the 'Other' category.

Read this:

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/system-information/syspf9b375b9/11.0/mac/11.0

and note the following:

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.

Its not the operating system taking space, it's what Apple labels as "other".

No? Did you read what I posted above?

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

Restart in Safe Mode and then restart again.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201262

You're not screwed at all. Note hthis:

The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac

So the OS uses space if its available, and doesn't when it's not.

👍 What markwmsn said.

Optimize storage is a great option to save space on your Mac, or iOS device. It will help to alleviate some of your device storage, but isn’t a cure all, the storage will fluctuate with these options enabled, as you use your Mac, but the settings are a saver if you have more photos in iCloud or your other devices than storage you have on your Mac.

As in the article I posted before (And linked articles) there are also other “Optimize Storage” options, such as for your files and documents, and also settings you can configure to save local space. Hope it works out!

Hey again!

Okay then, we’ll hope it works out! 39gb however isn’t too bad actually for all System or Other storage. Regardless of what you do, storage will always be utilized for that category. I know with a small HD size, say 128gb that is a huge chunk of it though, and that’s where the Optimize Storage option is meant to help with, but again, is not a final solution.

In the end, you could just erase and reinstall the OS as new, set it up again and manually restore your data, but of course, this Other or System Storage will eventually grow again regardless as you use the Mac.

I’d say in cases like that, utilizing external storage is the best option, unless, of course, planning on ordering a new Mac with the amount of storage that you need. However you can buy external storage for fairly cheap in comparison if $$$ is an obstacle 🙂

I agree that it's too small, and I don't understand why Apple configured the 2018 mini as it did with 128GB soldered in and not cost-effective to upgrade storage. I love the speed of this mini, but the OS is 11GB and 'other' is 40GB.

Your drive is just too small, consider upgrading it. IMHO, 512 GBs should be the minimum sized SSD.

I agree that it's too small, and I don't understand why Apple configured the 2018 mini as it did with 128GB

There were larger options. I bought mine with 512GB.

Hi there!

You May have already come across Apple’s article:

How to free up storage space on your Mac:

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

If you have already and still can’t account for the large storage consumption, this may help:

As far as “Other” or “System goes, I’ve found in the past sometimes they are files you may not even need or want, here are some good spots to check, first I always recommend doing a Time Machine backup and/or iCloud or other similar backups:

First, the usual suspects, I’d check Finder:

On the top menu hit Go > Computer > Macintosh HD (Usually).

In there check Users to see if there is another user on your Mac you don’t need or want, I’d so delete in System Preferences > Users and Groups > Delete the home folder.

Also under Finder > Go > Home, I usually check for iCloud Drive Archive folders, which are backups of your iCloud documents, created when disabled. I’ve found that sometimes I see unnecessary duplicates of them and can delete them, (This won’t affect what you currently have in iCloud).

Also in there check folder sizes of other services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., you can highlight them and press Command i to see the size (On the top right of that window). And if you have that backed up, can clear them out if using too much storage.

Likewise, check to see if you have any extra partitions using space:

Open Disk Utility in Finder > Applications > Utilities.

When there click on View > Show All Devices, Most of the data should be shown as used on the by default “Macintosh HD - Data”, however if you see duplicates or triplicates of this “Data” partition, possibly there is another volume using data.

OTHERWISE, the data stored maybe hidden, if so:

Open Finder.

On the top menu select Go.

While holding Option on the keyboard select “Library” under the Go menu, (Its hidden by default).

In the ~/Library, select each of these folders, then press Command I (i as in info). On the top right of the resulting window, it will show the size of the folder, we are looking for folders of large size:

Of the folders, check:

Application Support

Caches

Containers

Group Containers

Logs

Mail

Messages

Mobile Documents

Screen Recordings (If there)

Not all folders are just expendable, but store data or have some essential function for the OS or some other program you have.

If you find a large sized folder above, check:

~/Application Support/MobileSync/Backups, (These are iOS backups, perhaps you have old ones you don’t need anymore and can remove).

~/Caches, (If this folder is large, you can safely delete all the contents, although initially it may slow things down, they will build up again as you use your Mac, but you will not lose any data).

~/Containers/com.apple.mail, (Or Mail), (If this folder is very large, most likely you have Mail logging enabled, and if it’s Mail logs using all your space, you can safely delete them and disable Mail logging to prevent this in the future):

Open the Mail app, On the top menu, select Window > Connection Doctor > Show Logs, once that Finder window opens, hit Command i again to get the size, of it is large, delete all the contents and empty the Trash.

You can them disable Mail logging in the Connection Doctor window by unchecking it.

~/Group Containers, (I’ve found this folder to hold important data, such as Office documents and more third party data, and some local data, if you find this folder to be larger than it should be, let me know).

~/Logs, (These are typically just diagnostic logs and can also be deleted if using too much storage).

~/Mail, (This folder does hold copies of all of your Mail, so is important, all though you may have an IMAP account, and they are safely stored on the server, your Mailboxes “On My Mac” are also here, so also wouldn’t want to delete them without that backup and/ or exporting them first. I have seen certain email providers cause a glitch to where the Mail folder just grows and grows, so you can monitor this folder to see if that’s the case.

~/Messages, (If you use the Messages app, they are stored here). If you don’t need all the Messages on your phone etc. to also be on your Mac, you can delete the contents of this folder. (Make sure if you’re using iCloud for Messages that you disable it on your Mac first so your other devices aren’t affected).

~/Screen Recordings. I’ve seen this folder blow up due to third party applications such as video conferencing programs that maybe set to automatically download a copy of every session, so if you don’t need, can delete.

Restart them empty the trash after each attempt.

Otherwise, sometimes keeping data stored on an external hard drive is the best way to go. They are fairly cheap especially ones that are large in size. You can store data like your Photos Library and even iTunes Music Library on the external drive, make that the default, and delete the original Libraries, which may come in handy.