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How To Clean Up "Other" Storage on MacBook Air?

Hello,

I am a happy MacBook user but recently, I've noticed the "Other" storage takes almost a half of my small 64GB Mac storage.

I tried Google for the solution, I tried talking with my cousins, but none of the attempts above helped me.


I found 1 solution to figure out how to clean up a little Other space, opening iTunes up, going to Preferences, Device and cleaning all the devices backups except the last one. Sure, it cleaned up 1 GB for me and 4~6 for my cousin, but the Other storage still takes a half of our Mac storage.


I'll be glad for your answers and helpful comments.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Sep 18, 2012 1:42 AM

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30 replies

Sep 16, 2017 3:17 AM in response to Idanref

I had exactly the same problem, my Macbook Air is an early model with 2GB RAM and 60 (64?) GB storage, have had it for around 6 years and in the last year I have constantly been getting the warning that the disk is full. I checked the storage and it was almost entirely full of "other." So I deleted almost every single document, movie, picture etc I could find, and constantly cleared the browsing history etc, and there was a very slight improvement, it freed up about 2GB maximum. Finally I downloaded Omni Disk Sweeper and found the real culprit.... Mail! It was using up 33GB of my storage (i.e. about half of it.) I use my Macbook for business and have countless emails sitting on it with massive attachments, going back years, which I never delete in case I need to refer to them in the future. I have atarted the long process of sifting through and deleting all except those which I am really likely to need; in 30 minutes I have freed up an additional 1GB and I reckon if I keep eating away at them for half an hour each day to clear the backlog I will eventually clear half of my storage. All I need now is to replace the battery if that is possible (mine now only lasts about 5 minutes) and my Macbook Air will be reborn!

Jun 22, 2014 5:21 AM in response to Idanref

What Retired E and John G are trying to tell you is that having having 64GB of Other doesn’t mean anything in and of itself. Other is Apple’s way of saying “the stuff that isn’t music, movies, applications, backups, or apps” requires 64GB of drive space. It isn’t wasted space. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is stuff there you can delete. (Or maybe there is.)


If you need to free up some space on your hard drive download OmniDiskSweeper and find out what files are taking up space. Delete only those things you know about. If you aren’t sure what it is, don’t delete it. Come here and ask about it.


Good candidates for things to delete reside in these folders: Music, Movies, Pictures because these are files that tend to be huge. Also, if you use iPhoto launch the program, look for the trash can in the side bar and right click it. Select Empty trash. iPhoto has its own trash can and keeps the photos you delete until you’ve emptied the trash can.

Nov 27, 2014 5:42 PM in response to Idanref

If you go into library>Application Support>


Go through and right click>get info and see which application or folders are using up space.


I found on my after having 86GB in Other Data, That there was over 45GB in MobileSync, Which is your iPhone or iPad back ups.


You can move the back ups in this folder to an external HDD and delete the original files from your Mac, which will clear a huge space!


Also things calculated in other, are Items on your desktop and downloads folder.


Check through these to see if you can remove anything you no longer need.


Also, the mail folder, this can be quite large as well, if you have emails going back a few years like I do with attachments etc, this can take up a huge amount of HDD space as well.


Also go into iPhone, and empty the iPhoto Trash. I found I have about 10GB of HDD space wasted in there.


Hope this helps.

Feb 2, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Idanref

I had the same problem on a 128GB Macbook air. About 60GB was taken up by other. I emptied the trash and the downloads folder. But what really helped was Omni Disk Sweeper. It helped me figure out where to trim a lot of files and applications. 11GB was taken up by iTunes backup with my iPhone alone. Altogether I was able to get other down to 30GB of other. Still a lot in my opinion. I didn't realize when getting the Air that so much of the storage space would be taken up with baseline "noise" for the operating system and regular applications that come with the OS.


Ironically, I can't use iTunes to backup my iPhone on my Mac anymore with its fast (but minimal) flash storage. I suppose I could use iCloud or pony up for a beefier Macbook, but for now my solution is to use a Windows desktop for iPhone backup with its 1TB old school drive.

Mar 13, 2015 1:36 AM in response to Nancy Hayes Neill

Nope, don't delete the iNode files, it may crash your system. I also tried clearing storage space last year and deleted a file called iNode.... Next thing when i restarted my computer it was a blue screen. Had to clean the disk and reinstall OS. Thankfully i had a timemachine backup before i deleted the iNode file.


I think the question is whether we can actively and regularly clean up Application Support & Caches which takes up majority of the space.

Mar 13, 2015 3:00 AM in response to charlee0417

Apple has hidden the library folder for a reason, if you don't know what you're doing deleting things in the library folder is a recipe for disaster. If you want to delete caches restart your computer in safe mode. The only time you should consider deleting something from the application support folder is if you delete a program and you want to delete its support folder.

How To Clean Up "Other" Storage on MacBook Air?

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