What Is 'Other' Storage on Mac and How to Delete It
What Exactly Is Other Storage on Mac
When you check your Mac's storage breakdown, you might see a mysterious category called Other or System Data on newer macOS versions. This category often takes up 10 to 50 GB or more, and Apple does not explain what is in it. Understanding what fills other storage mac helps you decide what to clean.
Other storage includes everything that macOS cannot categorize as apps, photos, music, movies, or mail. This means caches, logs, plugins, fonts, app data, disk images, archives, and system temporary files all get lumped into this catch-all category. Learning how to clear other storage on mac starts with understanding these file types.
What Files Make Up Other Storage
The largest contributors to other storage are usually application caches. Every app on your Mac creates cache files to speed up performance. Browsers cache website data, Spotify caches music for offline playback, and development tools cache compiled code. These caches grow continuously and are rarely cleaned automatically.
Log files are another contributor. macOS and every app write log files that record events, errors, and system activity. Over months, these can accumulate to hundreds of megabytes. System temporary files, Spotlight index data, and font collections also count toward other storage mac totals.
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How to Clear Other Storage on Mac
Start with the biggest target: application caches. Open Finder, press Command + Shift + G, and type ~/Library/Caches. You will see folders for each app. You can safely delete the contents of these folders. Don't delete the folders themselves, just the files inside them.
Next, clear log files at ~/Library/Logs. These are text files recording past events and can be deleted without problems. Then check ~/Library/Application Support for folders belonging to apps you no longer have installed. These orphaned support files can be quite large and serve no purpose. This is how to clear other storage on mac effectively.
System-Level Other Storage
Some other storage comes from system-level files you should not touch, like the Spotlight index, sleep image, and kernel caches. These are managed by macOS and deleting them can cause problems. However, you can rebuild the Spotlight index if it has grown too large by toggling your drive in the Spotlight Privacy settings.
Time Machine local snapshots also appear as other storage. Your Mac creates these snapshots periodically for backup purposes. To view them, open Terminal and run the tmutil listlocalsnapshots command. Deleting old snapshots can recover significant space when you need to how to clear other storage on mac.
Preventing Other Storage from Growing
To keep other storage under control, clear browser caches weekly or set your browser to clear cache on exit. Review ~/Library/Caches monthly and delete contents of folders for apps you use heavily. Keep your installed apps to a minimum, since each app adds to cache and support file growth.
Also, restart your Mac regularly. Restarting clears temporary files that contribute to other storage. A Mac that runs for weeks without restarting accumulates more temporary data. A weekly restart helps keep other storage manageable.
Why Other Storage Keeps Coming Back
Other storage grows back because your Mac constantly creates new caches, logs, and temporary files. This is normal behavior and not a sign of a problem. Think of it like cleaning your house — it gets dusty again even after you clean it. The goal is not to eliminate other storage completely but to keep it at a reasonable size through regular cleanup.
A healthy amount of other storage is 5 to 15 GB depending on how many apps you use. If it grows beyond 30 GB, it is time for a cleanup. Regular maintenance keeps this category in check.
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