evanfromringgold

Q: What does "other" mean in storage info

When i check my storage on my mac, it tells me how much hardrive is taken. one category is other, which is 30 gigs. Does any one know what other is?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 2, 2011 5:14 AM

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Q: What does "other" mean in storage info

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  • by Cosmo.R,Helpful

    Cosmo.R Cosmo.R Apr 16, 2012 10:48 AM in response to evanfromringgold
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 16, 2012 10:48 AM in response to evanfromringgold

    I have been using my macbook pro alot since I got it in november last year. I now have 0ver 160gb of other alone, and I don't know if i should just delete all the files which dont mean anything anymore.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Apr 16, 2012 10:59 AM in response to Cosmo.R
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Apr 16, 2012 10:59 AM in response to Cosmo.R

    Yes, anything you no longer need can be deleted.   Likely candidates are photos and videos, but also emails (especially with large attachments), and anything else you're sure you don't need.

     

    If that doesn't gain a lot of space, see Where did my Disk Space go?

  • by scherel,Helpful

    scherel scherel Sep 20, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 20, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Pondini

    Hi,

     

    Can anyone help me with this: (see attached picture)

     

    Screen Shot 2012-09-20 at 11.18.33 AM.png

     

     

    I suppose there is a (preference) file to reset in order to display correctly the storage information ?

    Thank you for your help.

    Stan.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Sep 20, 2012 7:37 AM in response to scherel
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Sep 20, 2012 7:37 AM in response to scherel

    Most likely, the drive is either excluded from Spotlight indexing, or the index is damaged.

     

    Go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.  If the drive is listed there, select it and click the minus sign under the list to remove it.

     

    If it's not listed, click the plus sign and select it.  Leave it selected for a few moments, then remove it as above.

     

    That should trigger a complete re-indexing (click the Spotlight icon at the right of the menubar -- that should show the progress of the indexing).  Once that's complete, the Storage display should be correct.

  • by scherel,

    scherel scherel Sep 21, 2012 4:59 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2012 4:59 AM in response to Pondini

    Thanks !

  • by casco63,Helpful

    casco63 casco63 Sep 26, 2012 3:01 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 26, 2012 3:01 AM in response to Pondini

    Hi,

     

    I did the "Spotlight Indexing", deleted some video files and pictures, but my "other" still occupies 189.6GB of my memory.

    Does anybody knows how I can delete some of those files?

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Sep 26, 2012 7:53 AM in response to casco63
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Sep 26, 2012 7:53 AM in response to casco63
  • by P. Phillips,

    P. Phillips P. Phillips Sep 28, 2012 9:26 AM in response to scherel
    Level 2 (181 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2012 9:26 AM in response to scherel

    I just did an "erase and install" of osx 10.8.2. Without running any updates, downloads of purchases, no adding to documents, no moving itunes songs, videos, podcasts etc, no adding pics, just a clean install and my "other" category is showing 9.2 GB. I am guessing it is either a combination of the "restore partition and OSX" or only the OSX. I hope this helps others experiencing a similar issue.

     

    Pierre

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Sep 28, 2012 10:52 AM in response to P. Phillips
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Sep 28, 2012 10:52 AM in response to P. Phillips

    P. Phillips wrote:

    . . .

    I am guessing it is either a combination of the "restore partition and OSX" or only the OSX. I hope this helps others experiencing a similar issue.

    No.  It's OSX itself, system work files, indexes, etc; plus your documents, preferences, settings, caches, email, etc., etc.

     

    See The Storage Display for details.

  • by Mega__Panda,

    Mega__Panda Mega__Panda Mar 3, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 3, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Csound1

    I don't have this problem but my friend does it holds 169.90G of his 200G i want to know what the specific files are

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Mar 3, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Mega__Panda
    Level 9 (51,353 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 3, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Mega__Panda

    Mega__Panda wrote:

     

    I don't have this problem but my friend does it holds 169.90G of his 200G i want to know what the specific files are

    Email, Contacts, Calendars, Spreadsheets, Documents, Data Files, OSX and it's libraries, stuff like that.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Mar 3, 2013 8:35 AM in response to Mega__Panda
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Mar 3, 2013 8:35 AM in response to Mega__Panda

    Mega__Panda wrote:

     

    I don't have this problem but my friend does it holds 169.90G of his 200G i want to know what the specific files are

     

     

    You can't get a list of what's in "other" (OSX alone is several hundred thousand items).

     

    See The Storage Display for details, and Where did my Disk Space go? for ways to find the big stuff there.

  • by Sian90,

    Sian90 Sian90 May 26, 2013 6:05 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2013 6:05 AM in response to Csound1

    Thank you for that information! I have been struggling with my "other" memory for over a year and haven't had a clue and using the Omni Disk Sweeper has just made my life! It is free and so easy to use and super quick... nothing is quick my laptop. I would recommend it to anyone and I am someone that gets paranoid about downloading things onto my laptop x

  • by lucyharriss,Helpful

    lucyharriss lucyharriss Nov 14, 2013 10:14 PM in response to evanfromringgold
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 14, 2013 10:14 PM in response to evanfromringgold

    If you are having trouble and need more space on your computer, delete all your browser history (chrome, safari, firefox) that should clear up about a gigabyte or so of the 'other'

  • by zack198,Helpful

    zack198 zack198 Jul 25, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 25, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Pondini

    I need to delete files, but what does other refer to?

    Screen Shot 2015-07-25 at 9.34.34 AM.png

     

    As you can see most of my storage is under other.  What is other and how can I delete some of it?  Thanks so much for your help!

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