05-10-2021

How To Free Up The Other Space On Mac

Freeing Up Additional Disk Space on Mac. The “Other” space may be a bit of a mystery at first glance, but sometimes different types of files and data on the Mac is what is causing storage space to disappear. Here are some general tips to free up additional disk space on a Mac. You can free up valuable disk space by cleaning the 'Other' storage on your Mac. Read this article to learn how to delete all the useless files occupying your precious storage. Let’s take a look at the Mac 'Other' section and optimize your storage. 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. Find hidden junk and free up the unseen “Other” storage. Locate large old folders, background apps, and heavy memory consumers. Use CleanMyMac X to free up space on your Mac and tune it for. If you are concerned with how much storage space you have remaining on your Mac computer, you can check its usage folder to see how much space each category is taking up, including Other. Click on your desktop or the Finder icon from the Dock. Select the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen. Click on About This Mac.

October 11, 2019Nicole Jones

After drinking your first cup of coffee, it is time to start your day with your computer. However, the popping-up message says “Your disk is almost full”. You need to optimize storage to save space on Mac. The dreadful Mac storage is almost full message make you realize that how much stuff stored on your Mac. Well, you may get shocked that “Other” takes up the most storage space.

Cannot start the source application for this object excel. What is Other on Mac storage? It is easy to understand about “Audio”, “Movies”, “Photos”, “Apps” and “Backups”. But what does “Other” mean in Mac storage? Is there any way to clean up Other storage on Mac? Luckily, you can figure out what is Other storage on Mac and how to remove files from Other storage in details here.

  • Part 1: What You Need to Know about Other Storage on Mac
  • What Is Other on Mac Storage
  • How to Check Other Storage on Mac
  • Part 2: How to Delete Other Storage to Free Up Disk Space on Mac
  • 1. Remove Unwanted Documents to Free Up Other Storage on Mac
  • 2. Delete Cache Files in Other Mac Storage
  • 3. Clear Large Files and Folders to Clean Up Mac Other Files
  • 4. Clean Up App Plugins and Extensions from Other on Mac Storage

Part 1: What You Need to Know about Other Storage on Mac

Let’s solve the first question together. What is Other storage space in Mac OS X? Which category should Other belong to? Just read and get your answer.

What Is Other on Mac Storage

Generally speaking, all Mac files that cannot be divided into “Apps”, “Photos” and other categories are Other files. These are some data types that are stored in Other storage on Mac.

  • System and temporary files about macOS, like logs, preferences files and more.
  • Cache data from browser, apps, photos, system, etc.
  • Documents in pdf, doc, psd, csv, etc.
  • Personal information.
  • Browser history, cache, downloads and more.
  • Archives and disk images in zips, dmg, iso, tar, etc.
  • App support, app accessories, iCloud files, screen saver, fonts, updates and other file types not recognized by Spotlight.

How to Check Other Storage on Mac

Unfold the “Apple” menu.
Choose “About This Mac”.
Click “Storage” to check the Other storage space on Mac.

Part 2: How to Delete Other Storage to Free Up Disk Space on Mac

After knowing what is Other on Mac storage, you need to take measures to delete Other storage on Mac. It is impossible to entirely get rid of Other on Mac. But you can clean up your Mac Other storage in multiple aspects. It is true that you can find and delete each Other file manually. If you want to get a quicker way to clear Other storage on Mac, Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner is your first choice. You can download the free version from its official site.

1. Remove Unwanted Documents to Free Up Other Storage on Mac

Way 1: Manually Delete Other Documents on Mac

Close all windows. Press “Command” and “F” keys on the desktop.
Click “This Mac” on the top.
From the first drop-down menu, replace “Kind” with “Other”.
Choose “File Size” and “File Extension” in the popping-up “Search Attributes” window.
Input different document file types and file sizes to access large documents.
Check and delete the files you don’t need.

Way 2: Quickly Delete Large and Old Files from Other

Free download, install and run Mac Cleaner.
Click “Cleaner” to access all Mac cleaning tools. Then choose “Large & Old Files” in the main interface.
Click “Scan” to start the scanning process.
How To Free Up The Other Space On Mac
Click “View” to review the classified files via “> 100MB”, “5 MB to 10 MB”, “> 1 Year” and “> 30 Days”.
Click “Clean” to delete the selected files and delete Other files on Mac.

2. Delete Cache Files in Other Mac Storage

Way 1: Manually Delete Cache files from Other Data Storage

Choose “Go to Folder” from the “Go” drop-down list in the Finder.
Type “~/Library/Caches” and press “Enter” to locate the “Caches” folder.
Make a copy of the Caches folder with your external hard drive if necessary.
Drag and drop all files within the Cache folder to Trash. Empty Trash on Mac.
Repeat the above steps with “/Library/Caches” and “~/Library/Logs” to clean up Other storage on Mac.

Way 2: Quickly Delete User Cache Files to Free Up More Space

Launch Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner.
In the “Cleaner” section, click “System Junk” in the first place.
Click “Scan” to find system cache, application cache and more junk files.
Choose “View” to have a check. You can preview and select the system cache and application cache you want to delete.
Click “Clean” to remove cache files from Other on Mac storage.

3. Clear Large Files and Folders to Clean Up Mac Other Files

Way 1: Manually Delete System and Temporary Files from Other on Mac

Open Finder. Unfold the “Go” list. Then choose “Go To Folder”.
Type “~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/” or “~/Library/Application Support”. Later, click “Go” to go to the destination folder.
Open the certain folder to find and delete useless system files.

Way 2: Quickly Clean System Files and Logs from Other Storage Space

Open Mac Cleaner. Choose “System Junk” in the “Cleaner” section.
Click “Scan” to scan for all system junk files in a short time.
Click “View” to access system cache, application cache, system logs, user logs and localization. You can see how many Other storage those files use.
Select and preview the outdated system files.
Click “Clean” to delete Other on Mac flexibly.

4. Clean Up App Plugins and Extensions from Other on Mac Storage

Way 1: Remove Extensions and Plugins from Safari

Open Safari. Choose “Preferences” from the list.
Click “Extensions” to access all Safari extensions.
Click “Uninstall” to uninstall a Safari extension.
Space

Way 2: Remove Extensions and Plugins from Google Chrome

Run Google Chrome.
Find and click the three-dot “More Tools” on the top right corner.
Choose “Extensions” from its submenu.
Disable any Chrome extension or plugin you do not want to use anymore.

Furthermore, you can also use the built-in app uninstaller, duplicate finder, file manager, unarchiver, file hider, system performance monitor and more here. In a word, you can delete Other on Mac and speed up Mac in clicks. Mac Cleaner is 100% safe to use. You can preview, filter, organize and select any Mac file before cleanup. The whole process will not cause data overwritten. You will never know how fast your Mac computer can be before running Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. Well, why not free download the program to have a try right now!

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When Apple released macOS High Sierra, it introduced a new file system, APFS, and brought lots of under-the-hood changes to the way your Mac stores data, but, thankfully, we don’t need to get into those. One thing we should talk about, though, is 'other volumes' in a container because it might be mentioned on screen from time to time, especially if you use the Optimize Storage feature.

Other volumes: what does it mean?

In HFS+, the file system replaced by APFS could split a disk into different partitions. APFS gets rid of the concept of partitions and replaces them with containers. Dmg loot tables. But containers differ from partitions. As well as having multiple containers on a physical disk, a container can have multiple volumes. For example, in macOS, your startup container has the main boot volume – usually called Macintosh HD – as well as the Recovery volume, Preboot volume, and volume for virtual memory like swap files.

Before we discuss what 'other volumes' in the container are, let’s look at where the message appears in the Storage tab of About this Mac.

  1. Click the Apple menu.
  2. Choose About this Mac.
  3. Select the Storage tab.

After a short time, when macOS has calculated it, you’ll see a colored bar describing how your storage is allocated. Most of the time, the box looks like the image above. But sometimes, you’ll see part of the box colored gray and the description ‘other volumes in container.’

Those ‘other volumes’ are the recover, preboot and virtual volumes. If you see that message, the other volumes likely take up much more space than they should because something has gone wrong. Unfortunately, reclaiming the storage space isn’t as simple as just getting rid of the other volumes since they are crucial to the OS.

How to delete other volumes in a container?

However, there are other ways you can fix the problem to free up space on your Mac or get rid of the other volumes in a container message. Let’s look at the options.

1. Get rid of purgeable space with CleanMyMac X

CleanMyMac X is one of my favorite tools for freeing up space, as well as doing general maintenance on my Mac. Don’t take my word for it, though, well-known tech blog iMore.com called CleanMyMac X ‘the simplest way to keep your Mac clean.’

One of the new features in CleanMyMac X is the ‘Free up purgeable space’ tool in the Maintenance utility. This tool identifies space on your startup disk that contains files that macOS doesn’t need but which are only deleted when your Mac is running really low on storage. If you want to release that space before then, you can’t. Unless you use CleanMyMac X. Here’s how it works:

  1. Download and install CleanMyMac X (there’s a free version available).
  2. Launch CleanMyMac X.
  3. Choose Maintenance from the sidebar on the left.
  4. Check the box next to Free Up Purgeable Space and press Run.
  5. Wait. Identifying space that can be safely purged takes a few minutes, but it won’t be too long.
  6. When it’s finished, you’ll hear an alert and see a message telling you it’s done. If there was a problem with other volumes in a container taking up too much space, it should now be fixed.

2. Create a new user account

Some Mac users have reported that creating a new user account allowed them to reclaim storage from other volumes in a container successfully.

  1. Click the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.
  2. Select the Users & Groups pane.
  3. Click on the padlock and type in your admin username and password.
  4. Press the ‘+’ at the bottom left of the screen.
  5. Select Administrator from the dropdown menu and enter details for the new account.
  6. When you have created it, restart your Mac and log in with the new Administrator account.
  7. Choose About this Mac from the Apple menu again and then click on the Storage tab.
  8. See if the ‘other volumes in this container’ disappeared.

3. Delete the extra volume

Apple's Storage tab doesn't give many details on what's going on with your drive and those other volumes. To find out what volumes your drive consists of, let's run this Terminal command: diskutil list

Look at the breakdown and see if there are multiple Macintosh HD - Data volumes. If you've found the extra volume, probably that's the one that eats out your space.

To delete this volume, follow the instructions:

How To Free Up The Other Space On Mac Hard Drive

Deleting a volume erases all data it contains. Back up your data to avoid losing any important files.


  1. Open Disk Utility on your Mac.
  2. Select the APFS Volume you want to remove.
  3. Click the Delete Volume button '—' in the toolbar. If the button is dimmed, the selected volume is in use, which means you can't delete it. To delete this volume, you need to enter Disk Utility in macOS Recovery.

To start up from macOS Recovery, press and hold Command-R when your Mac starts up. Release the keys when you see an Apple logo, spinning globe, or other startup screen. Go to Disk Utility from the Utilities window.

4. Erase your disk and reinstall macOS

How To Free Up The Other Space On Mac Computer

If nothing else helps, erasing the disk and reinstalling macOS may be the only way to fix the 'other volumes in container' issue. Don't forget to back up your data first.

To erase your disk:

How To Free Up The Other Space On Mac Laptop

  1. Start up your Mac in the Recovery mode (press and hold Command-R on Mac's startup).
  2. From the Utilities window, select Disk Utility and click Continue.
  3. Select Macintosh HD in the sidebar of Disk Utility and click the Erase button.
  4. Use Macintosh HD as the name.
  5. In the Formal field, choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
  6. Click Erase.
  7. After the erase is complete, delete all the volumes that may be left in the sidebar. (keep the Macintosh HD volume you just erased).
  8. Quit Disk Utility.

You will see the Utilities window again. Click Reinstall macOS and wait till it's done. The other volumes should be gone.

macOS has made lots of improvements to the way it deals with storage space on your Mac, partly due to the lower capacity of the SSDs found in most Macs compared with physical hard disks. However, sometimes these features go wrong, and it’s then that you may see the ‘other volumes in a container message.’ Happily, fixing the problem is not usually difficult, and it’s even easier if you use the Free Up Purgeable Space tool in CleanMyMac X.