Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!
📢 Newsroom Update
Apple’s all-new Mac mini is more mighty, more mini, and built for Apple Intelligence. Learn more >
Apple’s all-new Mac mini is more mighty, more mini, and built for Apple Intelligence. Learn more >
📢 Newsroom Update
Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >
Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >
Under "About This Mac", the Storage tab (Mac mini SSD) tells me "Other" is taking up 569 Gigs of space. What is "Other"?
I understand that it is "Anything" that is NOT "iOS Files", "Photos", "Music", "Documents", "Apps", or "Other Users and Others".
But with all of these categories identified, what "Other" type of files are there?
Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
“Other” storage on Mac is files that don’t easily fall into the defined categories of “Audio" “Movies” “Photos” “Apps” and “Backups”. The types of files found in “Other" would include: • macOS system files, • temporary files, • app plugins and extensions, • browser and Mail caches, • documents like .pdf, .psd, .doc, • disk images and archives like .dmg, .tar, .zip
You cannot directly manage the contents of this category. That is done by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
What you can do...
• Empty the Trash in the Dock.
• Empty the trash in the Photos app.
• Delete unused and unneeded installers from your downloads folder and desktop.
• Transfer files that you don’t use daily to an external drive. Files that take up the most room are movies, images and music.
• Force Time Machine to delete local snapshots:
About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
This from Apple on the subject of storage management:
Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
And this for a better, more thorough explanation:
What is “Other” and what can I do about it? - Apple Community (Kappy)
“Other” storage on Mac is files that don’t easily fall into the defined categories of “Audio" “Movies” “Photos” “Apps” and “Backups”. The types of files found in “Other" would include: • macOS system files, • temporary files, • app plugins and extensions, • browser and Mail caches, • documents like .pdf, .psd, .doc, • disk images and archives like .dmg, .tar, .zip
You cannot directly manage the contents of this category. That is done by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
What you can do...
• Empty the Trash in the Dock.
• Empty the trash in the Photos app.
• Delete unused and unneeded installers from your downloads folder and desktop.
• Transfer files that you don’t use daily to an external drive. Files that take up the most room are movies, images and music.
• Force Time Machine to delete local snapshots:
About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support
This from Apple on the subject of storage management:
Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
And this for a better, more thorough explanation:
What is “Other” and what can I do about it? - Apple Community (Kappy)
Thank you for the reply and helpful information.
You listed Mail caches. Would this be based on the number of Emails I have saved in the Apple Mail app?
Would PDFs be included as "Other" even with the PDFs are being stored in the "Documents" folder?
Many thanks again.
You're welcome.
I wouldn't know what the basis is for the Mail caches.
And PDFs are often included in various application installations and with other software as notes and help files. They can be found in many places on your Mac.
Storage on Mac Mini - Meaning of "Other"
