What Is Other on Mac Storage And How to Clean It Up?

If you have less than 512GB on your macOS computer, storage space can be very precious. If the storage drive is nearly full, the Mac will also become sluggish. So, you check the storage feature of your Mac. But what is other on Mac storage and how do you clean it up?

Checking the storage space on your macOS computer can be helpful if you want to know which apps or types of data are taking up too much space. If it says photos are taking up too much space, then you may want to put your images on iCloud instead.

But a lot of people ask the question, “What is ‘other’ on Mac storage”? What are the other types of files that cannot be given a category by Mac?

Fortunately, you’re in this article. We’ll talk about the other data types of your Mac storage space. In addition, we’ll talk about the top ways to clean up this other storage category on the computer. We will also talk about tools that will help you automatically clean up this category on your Mac.

Part #1: What Is Other on Mac Storage?Part #2: How to Check the Contents of Your Other Storage on MacPart #3: Top Ways to Delete the Other Category on Mac StoragePart #4: The Best Way to Delete the Other Category on Mac StorageSummary

Part #1: What Is Other on Mac Storage?

First of all, you need to know how to check the data types that are taking up a lot of storage on your macOS computer. To do that, you need to implement the following steps:

1. In the upper left corner of your interface, click the logo of Apple.
2. Visit the part labeled “About This Mac”.
3. After that, select the Storage section. Wait for the computer to calculate the graph or bar it’s about to show you.
4. A chart will be shown in the interface. It will tell you the different data types taking up space on your system and how much space they occupy. The categories may include Photos, Apps, Messages, Music, Mail, iCloud Drive, System, and Others.
5. Click the Manage button to open another interface. In this Manage section, you are given the ability to tweak your computer system to reduce the consumption of storage space and free up disk drives.

As you can see, the main categories are very easy to understand. Photos will refer to images while Music will refer to the songs or tracks you have in the system. But what is other on Mac storage in the About This Mac section?

Actually, the other label will refer to the different files that don’t fit the categories shown above. These include cache files, app extensions, installer packages, temporary files, and other similar data types that don’t fit the main categories. The other category is typically found in different locations within your system. Sometimes, they even take up a lot of space compared to the main categories on your computer.

You have to note that macOS Monterey has different kinds of data types included in their other category. These include snapshots of the Time Machine, browser plugins, app data, and junk files. The steps to remove these will be similar to the ones we will enumerate later.

Part #2: How to Check the Contents of Your Other Storage on Mac

So, you have to check what is other on Mac storage. To do that, you have to visit the Library folder on your computer. Follow the steps below to implement this and check the contents of the other category:

1. Launch a Finder window within your computer.
2. Within the menu bar, press GO.
3. After that, click GO TO FOLDER.
4. Within the search box, type “~/Library” without the quotes in it.
5. After that, press GO again to visit the Library folder.

In this Library folder, you will find different folders and files within them. Typically, the contents of the Library folder are deemed as the other types of storage category by macOS computers. It is important to note that you shouldn’t delete all the contents of the Library folder. A lot of them are crucial to the operation of your system.

Some of the folders you can delete include Application Support and Caches. Once you have done these, you can simply empty your Trash Bin. Again! Be cautious! Deleting important system files will alter the functioning of your macOS computer.

Part #3: Top Ways to Delete the Other Category on Mac Storage

Some can be found within the Finder window of your macOS computer. The other files in this category can also be found in the Library folder (as stated previously). Since we knew what is other on Mac storage, we will have difficulty removing them manually. Still, we will present it here.

Like other files on your computer, you can simply “Move to Trash” each of the files or folders you want to delete. Once you are done doing so, you have to Empty Trash on your macOS computer to ensure that it doesn’t take up space on your drive.

Deleting DMG Files Or Program Installers

To do that, follow the steps below:

1. Visit your Desktop within your macOS computer and launch a Finder window.
2. Click the option that says “This Mac”.
3. Within the window that appears, type “DMG” within its search box.
4. Once the list of DMG files appears, choose the option that says “Kinds: Disk Image”.
5. After that, press your keyboard’s Enter key.
6. The list of different DMG files or program installers will be shown within the interface.
7. Delete everything that you don’t need.
8. If prompted to place your admin password, simply input it into the window.
9. After the files have been moved towards the Trash, make sure you Empty Trash on your macOS computer.

Once you have done the steps above, repeat everything. However, in this case, you will be searching for other types of files in Step 3. Instead of typing DMG, you should type the data kind you want to delete. Some examples include CSV, PDF, ZIP, RAR, and more.

Deleting macOS Temporary Files

Typically, temporary files are important to help your computer perform faster and better. But once they accumulate, they can take up a lot of space within your system. As such, you can delete them using the steps below:

1. Launch a Finder window once you are on the macOS computer’s Desktop.
2. After that, in the menu bar, click GO.
3. Then, choose the option that says GO TO FOLDER.
4. Within the search box, type out “~/Library” and then press GO.
5. Locate the folder labeled “Application Support” in your main Library folder.
6. Look through the subfolders of the main Application Support folder. Delete the support files or temporary files you don’t need.
7. After that, empty your Trash.

Deleting macOS Cache Files

The other category on your macOS storage includes cache files. You can delete these files, but you have to be cautious. A lot of cache files are important to your system’s proper functioning. To delete cache files, follow the steps below:

1. Launch Finder on your computer.
2. After that, press the GO button within the menu bar.
3. Click the option that says GO TO FOLDER.
4. Then, type out “Library/Caches/” on the search box and press GO.
5. Check out the Caches folder and check the files and subfolders you can delete.
6. Then, empty the Trash afterward.

Again, you have to do the steps above for application caches. However, in Step 4, you have to type in “~Library/Caches/” with the tilde sign (see the difference in Step 4 above). Once you have opened this other Caches folder, delete all the files you don’t need and empty the Trash.

Deleting Your Mac’s Snapshots of the Time Machine

The snapshots of Time Machine will surely take up a lot of space within your computer. After all, it’s a backup of the previous state of your macOS machine. To delete the snapshots of Time Machine, you simply turn off the Time Machine utility on your computer. That’s it!

It can be difficult to use the Terminal or to locate the Time Machine snapshots themselves. That’s why we recommend that you use a tool to help you remove the other category on your computer.

Part #4: The Best Way to Delete the Other Category on Mac Storage

You can optimize and purge your Mac with the aid of TechyCub Mac Cleaner after learning what is other on Mac storage. It allows users to implement easy clicks to speed up their MacBook or iMac and free up storage space on their Mac. Keep your Mac running at its best condition by removing unnecessary files, including the other category on your macOS computer.

Mac Cleaner Scan your Mac quickly and clean junk files easily. Check the primary status of your Mac including the disk usage, CPU status, memory usage, etc. Speed up your Mac with simple clicks. Free Download

This is why TechyCub Mac Cleaner is necessary. It is a cleaning-oriented program that tries to assist users in getting rid of unnecessary files and programs so that their Mac has more storage.

By eliminating system clutter, detecting and removing unnecessary objects like old iOS backups, huge and old files, locating duplicate or similar photographs, uninstalling unnecessary programs and their residues, etc. TechyCub Mac Cleaner manages to save a respectable amount of disk space.

Protection is pre-installed in this tool. Only files that may be safely deleted will be chosen. However, TechyCub Mac Cleaner even makes your Mac faster. It gives your Mac a boost by cleaning up the Mac garbage files.

Why should you get TechyCub Mac Cleaner?

• Particularly if you receive the "Your disk is almost full" warning, your Mac is running out of disk space.
• You are a novice and find it challenging to clean your Mac alone, but you can learn how to handle the situation on your own.
• You are aware of how to manually clean your Mac, but it is not worthwhile.
• On your Mac, you want to identify any duplicate files or photographs that are identical.

The application also includes a number of tiny utilities that you can use to clean up your macOS machine so that it runs more efficiently and is less congested. The greatest alternative for customers searching for a quick approach to optimize their Macs is TechyCub Mac Cleaner.

TechyCub Mac Cleaner, an optimization application for Mac intended to make sure you have adequate storage space, is the greatest tool you can use to make your machine quicker and more efficient. It enables you to find unnecessary files on your computer and eliminate them with a few quick mouse clicks.

The procedures for using TechyCub Mac Cleaner are as follows:

1. Use this package to install the program on your Mac computer after downloading the installer from the tool's official website.
2. Simply start the TechyCub Mac Cleaner on your computer after the tool has been installed.
3. You will find many modules that may be used to improve and clean up your macOS computer's performance on the left side. We'll choose Junk Cleaner for informational purposes.
4. Press the SCAN button after that. You may find and delete all superfluous system files with the aid of the application.
5. Choose the information you want to remove. Alternatively, you may choose all of the useless data from the list that displays by clicking Select All.
6. Next, select CLEAN from the interface.
7. The process of cleaning up your macOS machine won't be complete until the program displays the message "Cleaned Completed".

People Also Read 6 Ways to Fix “iMovie Not Enough Disk Space” Error [2023] Best Way on How to Clear System Storage on Mac

Summary

This guide has talked about the question, “What is other on Mac storage”? We talked about how to locate the amount of space taken up within your computer through the Apple logo and About This Mac. We also talked about how to check out which data types are taking up much space in your computer.

After that, this article gave you some of the different types of the other category on your Mac storage. These include caches, temporary files, DMG files or program installers, and more. The manual steps to delete these files were given. However, the manual way of doing it isn’t recommended, because you may delete important system files.

That’s why we recommended TechyCub Mac Cleaner at the end. It can help you safely remove another category of file types on your computer through a few simple clicks. You don’t have to worry about deleting important system files. The program has protection built into it that enables it to select which ones are junk and which ones are important. Grab the tool today to optimize your macOS computer!