{"id":42744,"date":"2017-10-31T09:22:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T14:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=42744"},"modified":"2017-11-02T11:04:21","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T16:04:21","slug":"the-files-that-make-up-the-other-storage-category-and-how-to-remove-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/42744-the-files-that-make-up-the-other-storage-category-and-how-to-remove-them\/","title":{"rendered":"The Files That Make Up the ‘Other’ Storage Category, and How to Remove Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the niceties in the Mac OS is the ability of the system to display how your storage space is being used. Originally introduced in OS X Lion as part of a feature upgrade to the System Information app, the Storage tab displays how much free space is available on each disk attached to your Mac<\/a>, as well as how a disk’s storage is being used, by category.<\/p>\n

If you’re not sure how to find the categories, click the Apple logo in the menu bar in the Finder, select About This Mac from the dropdown menu, and then click the Storage<\/a> tab. Mouse over a color bar, and a text balloon will pop up, telling you what the category is and how much disk space it’s using.<\/p>\n

The categories change as new versions of the OS are released, but the current categories include System files, Documents, Apps, iTunes, Backups, Other, Audio, Music Creation, Photos, Movies, and Purgeable space.<\/p>\n

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(The Other category, shown here in gray, shows my startup drive (Casey) with a small percentage of Other files, while my data drive (Casey Cat) contains nothing but Other file types.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Purgeable space is more or less unique to the Mac; you can find out more about it in the Rocket Yard Guide: What is Purgeable Space in macOS?<\/a> The next category that seems to get a lot of attention is Other. So, just what is included in Other?<\/p>\n

That’s a common question, one you may often ask yourself, especially when you need to free up space when your drive starts to fill up<\/a>. When that happens, I think most of us tend to look at the Other category and think, there’s a lot of space being used by Other. If I don\u2019t know what it is, and the system doesn’t seem to know either, then why can\u2019t I just delete those files?<\/p>\n

What’s in the Other Category<\/strong>
\nThe type of files the operating system assigns to the Other category in the Storage display changes a bit from OS version to OS version, but there was a big shakeup in storage management when Apple introduced macOS Sierra, which caused the Other category to become better defined.<\/p>\n

Because of the changes, we’re going to provide two lists for the type of files that are assigned to the Other category: pre macOS (OS X) and post macOS.<\/p>\n

Other File Types in OS X<\/strong>
\nThe Other category in OS X was a catchall; it included the following:<\/p>\n