How do you free up disk space on a Mac? It seems that solving the problem of a lack of free space is easy: you find the biggest files and remove them, or you buy an external drive to store files there or use a “cloud” based storage. In reality, there are many junk files that can be cleared as well.
- Free Space On Macbook Air
- How To Free Other Storage On Mac
- Free Space On Mac
- Find Free Space On Mac
- Free Up Disk Space On Macbook Air
- Free Up Other Space On Mac
The Optimized Storage features of your Mac help you save storage space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:
- When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically.
- Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it.
- Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.
- Securely Wipe the Free Space on Your Mac Using CCleaner. CCleaner for Mac has fewer tools available than CCleaner for Windows.But you can use it to securely wipe the free space on an HDD using the.
- If you were wondering what Other Storage on Mac is, and how to delete itin order to free up space, read this article to find out! 4 minute read Published 14 July 2021, 12:40 EDT.
- Get rid of everything else from Other disk space. Even Other storage space has its own “other” files, and no, the irony of that statement is not lost on us. Other storage on Mac can also include: Files in your user library (screen savers, for example). Files Spotlight search doesn’t recognize.
- Having a low free disk space on a Mac usually makes the system work slowly. You should be very careful when removing service files. Deleting important system service files might cause damage to your Mac. This article will explain how to find and safely remove unneeded files from Other Storage on Mac.
If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimize Storage
Click the Optimize button to save space by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from Apple and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
Your Mac will also save space by keeping only recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Trash Automatically
Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.
You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
- If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
- In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”
Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimized Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
- Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
- The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.
By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: February 1, 2021
Having labels is one great way for us to work easier and that we would know things easily. Same through with using your Mac device. Everything that you have on your Mac device comes with a certain label wherein it will help you find sort of stuff easily.
However, when you go through the storage detail of your Mac, there is one that confuses a lot of users. And this is the one indicated with the “Other” label.
And with that, users would like to know how to delete other on Mac thinking that this is only a waste of space. But before we proceed with the process of deleting Other on Mac, let us go ahead and learn more about it.
Part 1: What Is “Other” on Mac Storage?
The Others file on your Mac device is known to where it contains files that no longer match those of the specific ones: ln such as the following.
- Archives and images from the disk that is in .zip, and .iso format.
- The personal user data.
- Files that are under the user’s library such as your iCloud files, Application support, your screen savers, and more.
- Your caches.
- Your plugins, fonts, and extensions.
- Your documents in PDF file, .doc, .psd, and more.
- Those files that cannot be recognized by the Spotlight app on Mac.
All of the files that are included in the Others folder are those files that are not movies, apps, music, or a backup so this means that everything that is under the Other folder is useless. And if you would like to remove some of them and free up space on your Mac, then here is what you need to do.
Before you go and remove them, you must first go on and check on the memory storage of your Mac. So with that, all you need to do is to go to your Apple icon from the menu bar and then select on About This Mac. And from there, go ahead and choose Storage.
Part 2: The Best Way on How to Delete Other on Mac
So, to remove those files that are under your Others folder in your storage, you will be needing a powerful tool to do so. This way, you will also be able to do the job as quickly and as possible. And with that, one of the most recommended Mac apps that you can use is the PowerMyMac by FoneDog.
The FoneDog PowerMyMac will be able to help you in deleting all of the unwanted files that you have on your Mac device and this will include items that you have under the Other folder in your storage. The FoneDog PowerMyMac is very easy to use and very powerful as it can remove anything from your Mac with just one click on a button. This program will make your Mac as good as new.
So to start cleaning up your Mac device here is a quick step that you can easily follow.
Step 1: Download PowerMyMac from FoneDog
Go ahead and open the FoneDog website and then download the PowerMyMac application. Then have it installed on your Mac.
Step 2: Run PowerMyMac
And then, after completing the installation process, go ahead and open the program. On the main interface, you will see the system status of your Mac. Aside from that, you will also be able to see three modules at the top of the program. From those modules, go ahead and choose on Cleaner.
Step 3: Choose Folder to Clean
Then, when you choose on Cleaner, a list of categories will appear on your screen. These categories are included under the Other folder in your Mac. So to begin with, let us go ahead and select on System Junk.
Step 4: Scan Process
Once that you click on a category under Cleaner, the FoneDog PowerMyMac will then let you scan your Mac. You can do that by clicking on the Scan button on your screen. From here, just wait for the program to finish the process.
Step 5: See the Scanned Result
After the process of scanning your Mac device, then you will be able to see the result on your screen. All you have to do is to click on the View button.
Step 6: Choose Files to Remove from Mac
Then on the result page, there is a list of another category that is under the System Junk option. You can click any of those for you to view each item that they contain. And from there, you can also choose those that you would like to remove from your Mac. Do that by clicking on them one by one or by using the Select All button at the top of your screen.
Step 7: Clean Up Your System Junk
And once that you were able to choose those files to remove from your Mac, then it is time to clean up. All you need to do from here is to click on the Clean button at the lower right corner of your screen and the cleaning process will begin. Just wait for it to finish and you are all done.
NOTE: You can do the same steps if you want to clean up other areas on your Mac
device aside from your System Junk.
Part 3: 4 Ways on How to Delete Other on Mac
Now that you know what the Other folder in your storage is, then it is now time for you to delete them or the files that you no longer need from your Mac device. This way, you will be able to free up more of your storage space on your Mac.
Free Space On Macbook Air
Way #1
Go ahead and launch the Finder app on your Mac. Press the Cmd + Shift + G button for you to go through each folder below.
- ~/Library/Caches
- ~/Downloads
- ~/Documents/Logs
So, by default, those folders that we have indicated above contains all of the downloads that you get from the internet, installations, pkg files, and more. So from here, all you need to do is to remove all of those that you think you no longer need or unnecessary to have on your Mac.
Way #2
Aside from the first method above, there is another way for you to delete other on your Mac device. And this is by using the Smart Folder Finder on your Mac. All you need to do are the following steps.
Step 1: Press the key Cmd + F on your keyboard. Then the search tab will then show up under “This Mac”.
Step 2: And from there, simply click on 'Other' folder.
Step 3: Then on the next window that will show up on your screen go ahead and click on the “Filesize” and then click the “OK” button.
Step 4: And from there, go ahead and enter the file size and this will allow your Mac to show you files that are under that size of files.
Step 5: So from there, all you need to do is to choose all of those that you no longer need and delete them.
Way #3
If you have not made any clean reinstallation on your Mac device, then the tendency is that your applications will make a huge folder of all of your system files. And if this is the case, you will be needing an application cleaner and uninstaller for you to go with this process. Those kinds of tools will help you in deleting your service files and at the same time, open any application that you have just like the first time you are doing opening it.
How To Free Other Storage On Mac
Way #4
If you were able to try all of the tricks that we have indicated above and you were not able to see any changes to your storage space on your Mac and in your Other folder from your storage, then what you will be needing to do is to search through your hard drive and look for all the files and folders that is eating up most of your memory storage.
Free Space On Mac
This is because there is a chance that some of them are hidden. So, for the benefit of your convenience, you will be needing an application that will help you in scanning the hard drive of your Mac device. This way, you will be able to find those files and folders that are eating up a huge space on your Mac and have them removed.
Part 4: Conclusion
Find Free Space On Mac
'Other' folder in your storage is not an alarming concern on your Mac that you need to eliminate. This folder just contains those files that do not recognize by your system. So if you would want to delete Other on Mac, then you have to do through your Mac to make sure that you are not removing any important files that you have. You can make use of the FoneDog PowerMyMac to make your job easier as well.