What is Other Storage on Mac Sonoma and How to Delete it?

Last Updated on Aug 11, 2023

If you are running out of storage on your Mac or MacBook Pro/ Macbook Air, then you must look at the “Other” category, which eats your MacBook’s notable amount of storage. There is a number of files of different formats occupying the space. We can’t delete it all at once because the important files are also in the “Other” storage. So to clean up “Other”, you need to dig up this category and delete the unused files on any MacOS Ventura, Monterey/Big Sur, Catalina, High Sierra, or Mojave..

Even we have mentioned the methods to remove junk files from the Mac, without harming your Mac health and data loss. First of all, we will check the “Other” storage on Mac. Here’s how to get rid of other storage on MacBook Pro.

Table of Contents

How do I clean up the Other on Mac running macOS Monterey & Earlier?

Why is another taking up my storage Mac? How to find and remove files from the ‘Other’ storage category on your apple mac computer. Get here Complete answer.

How to Check the Other Storage on Mac

On MacOS Ventura

1→ Go to the Apple Logo from the top menu > System Settings.

2→ Next, Click on General > Storage.

3→ See the Storage users by Other Volumes and Data Types.

Other Storage on Mac macOS Ventura & Later

On MacOS Monterey & Earlier

1→ Click on “Finder”.

2→ Next, Click on Apple Logo () From Top Mac Menu. Open “About This Mac”.

3→ Click on “Storage”.

Click on Manage to Delete Unused and Unwanted large files.

Now you can bifurcate how much storage is consumed by Apps, Videos, Audio, Documents, and others. When you move the cursor on the colors, you will see how much storage the particular category uses.

Now let’s see what is other on your Mac storage

What is Other on Mac Storage?

“Other” takes up a lot of space on the Mac, which is probably consumed by junk files, caches, supportive files, and much more. But we can’t say “Other” is total crap. A few files do not fit in the mentioned category and are placed in the “Other” category by the system, so clearing directly is a little bit risky.

Examples of “Other” Files on Mac

Documents of the formats such as.PDF, .PSD, and more.
Screensavers, iCloud files, Application supportive files, etc.
Cache files of the system as well as the browser.
App extensions, app plugins, Fonts, and so on.
Personal data.
Archives files such as zips, iso, tar, etc.
The System creates temporary files.
File formats that are not acknowledged by the Spotlight.

So, after reading the entire list of “Other” files, you don’t want to delete the Other category totally. Instead, we will delete some unused files step by step and free up some space on the Mac.

Use Optimize Storage on your Mac or MacBook

All the Macs with the latest version contain this feature Optimize Storage. Optimize Storage gives your Mac the ability to remove unused and old files, and from the Mac, it will transfer to iCloud.

Let’s head over to how to optimize Mac storage and delete other storage on Mac

On MacOS Ventura or Later

1→ Go to the Apple Logo from the top menu > System Settings > General > Storage.

2→ See the Different Optimization settings and Options.

Click on (i) button next to the list to optimize or remove/Delete unwanted apps, Files, Folders, and Data.

Find and Delete Large Files from Mac — Step 1:- View all Documents

On MacOS Monterey & Earlier

Step #1: Click on the “Apple” menu and open “System Preferences”.
Step #2: Select “About This Mac”.
Step #3: Click on “Storage” and then select “Manage”.
Step #4: Next, you will see the list of a few settings, read carefully, and tap on “Optimise” next to “Optimize Storage”.

Delete Other Data on Mac

Alternate Solution:-

The below steps are easy to manage all Data from Other stores, but it’s time-consuming, But for that, we have to clean up manually from time to time. But I found an alternate solution with the help of trusted CleanMyMac Data cleaning software without Deleting important data. Just analyze Other storage and Delete it.

If you are not interested in Install Cleaning software, then Skip this and follow the beneath steps,

How to remove cache files on Mac to get Precious Storage Space

Step #1: Click “Finder” and select “Go”.
Step #2: Click on “Go to Folder”.
Step #3: Type the command,
- ~/Library/Caches
Step #4: Tap “Go”.
Step #5: Go to folders and select all the files and “Move to Trash”.

How to Delete Old Apple Device Backup from Your Mac Disk Space

macOS Catalina or later macOS Version user can use finder inplace of iTunes for manage Apple Device Backup.

Open Finder on Mac.
Connect your Apple Device to your Mac using the Lightning cable.
Your Apple Device will appear on the sidebar app Finder window. Click on the iOS device and Go to the Device Summary page.
Click Manage Backup Button and See all backups, Select Backup file and Delete Backup.
That’s it.

For iTunes:

Step #1: Open “iTunes”.
Step #2: Click on the “iTunes” menu on the top and then open “Preferences”.
Step #3: Select “Devices”.
Step #4: Next, choose the backup file which you want to delete and tap “Delete Backup”.

How to Remove Downloaded Files From The Mac (Installation Files, Documents)

It is pretty straightforward to determine which files are of use from the Download folder. Here’s how to remove files from the Download folder. Also, move to the next section, where you’ll learn how to remove documents and installation files from Mac.

By default, all the downloaded files are stored in the Downloads folder. App Installation files that you might have downloaded earlier but deleted the app from the Mac. In such cases, those .pkg and .dmg files are useless. Deleting them will free Other Storage on MacBook Pro.

Step #1: Open “Finder” and select “Go”.
Step #2: Click on “Downloads”.
Step #3: Select the files or folders which you want to delete from downloads and right-click on them to “Move to Trash”.

Remove Documents to Clear Other Storage on Mac

Media-rich documents consume the storage in MBs, which includes the .csv, .doc, .pages, etc. Filter them from Mac and delete them if not needed. Learn how to delete other storage on Mac Big Sur or later.

Go to the Desktop of Mac.
Then, press the Command+F.
Select This Mac.
Click the first dropdown menu.
Choose Other.
Now all the files should be listed on the main screen, review their size, and delete one by one.

🔥Use Clean My Mac Software to Manage app data, Files, and Other storage.

Learn How to Clean up Other storage on iPhone and iPad guide.