What is "Other" Storage on Mac and How to Delete It

If you've ever checked your Mac's storage tab, you've seen it. That massive, mysterious yellow bar labeled simply: "Other".

It’s infuriating. Documents? I get that. Apps? Sure. But what on earth is Other, and why is it taking up 90GB of my hard drive?

A few months ago, my "Other" storage got so out of hand I couldn't even download a software update. I dug into the file system to figure out what was going on.

Here is what I found out, and more importantly, how to get rid of it.

The truth about "Other" Storage

Apple isn't trying to trick you. macOS just categorizes files it doesn't recognize as media, apps, or backups into a giant bucket called "Other."

What's actually in there?

• .pdf, .doc, and .psd documents.
• System and user caches.
• Disk images (.dmg and .zip archives).
• Application plugins and extensions.
• Anything else spotlight indexing doesn't know how to label.

You can't just click a button to delete "Other" because it's not a single folder. It's scattered everywhere.

Method 1: The Manual Purge (Takes 30+ mins)

If you're brave and have time to kill, you can hunt these files down manually.

1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Press Cmd + F to open the search tool.
3. In the search criteria, select File Size -> is greater than -> and type 500 MB.

This will show you the massive files hiding on your drive. You'll likely find old installer files, forgotten screen recordings, and massive archives. Delete what you don't need.

Next, clear the caches: Go to ~/Library/Caches (using Cmd + Shift + G in Finder) and delete the contents of the folders inside. Do the same for /Library/Caches.

Warning: Be extremely careful here. Deleting the wrong system cache can cause apps to misbehave.

Method 2: The "Just Fix It For Me" approach

I used to do the manual purge every few months. It was tedious.

Now, I let software handle it. But you have to be careful—half the "Mac Cleaners" out there are malware in disguise.

I stick to CleanDiskGo. It's sandboxed, safe, and available directly on the Mac App Store.

It specifically targets the junk that makes up "Other" storage:

• It safely wipes application caches.
• It finds massive, forgotten archives and disk images.
• It removes leftover files from deleted apps.

Click scan. Review what it found. Click clean. It takes about 10 seconds, and you don't risk bricking your Mac.

Stop letting the yellow bar dominate your storage.