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What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how do you clear it?
If your Mac runs macOS Monterey or earlier, the storage bar shows a slice called Other. On Ventura and later Apple renamed it System Data, but it is the same thing: everything macOS could not file under Apps, Documents, Photos, Music, Mail, iCloud Drive or macOS itself. It is often the largest slice on the disk, and Apple gives you no button to open it.
Updated 2026-08-02 · Written by the CleanerMac team · macOS 13–15 tested
Other is a leftover category, not a folder
This is the single most useful thing to understand. macOS classifies files by type and location. A .pages file in your Documents folder is a Document. A .app in Applications is an App. A disk image, a virtual machine, a database file, a plug-in, a font, a cache, a log, a device backup — none of these map cleanly to a named category, so they all land in Other.
That means there is no “Other folder” to open and empty. Clearing it means identifying the specific large things inside it and dealing with each one. The good news is that a small number of culprits account for the vast majority of the space on almost every Mac.
The usual contents of Other
- Caches —
~/Library/Caches,/Library/Caches, browser caches and streaming media caches from Music, TV and Podcasts. - Time Machine local snapshots — APFS snapshots stored on your own startup disk when the backup drive is not connected. List them with
tmutil listlocalsnapshots /. - iOS and iPadOS backups —
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup, one folder per device backup, frequently 10–60 GB each. - Disk images and archives —
.dmg,.iso,.zipfiles, usually sitting forgotten in Downloads. - Mail attachments and downloads — inside
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail. - Application Support data — Docker images, virtual machines, Xcode simulators, Adobe cache, Slack and Discord workspaces.
- Logs, crash reports and diagnostic data —
~/Library/Logsand/private/var/log. - Fonts, plug-ins, extensions, dictionaries and screensavers.
- Virtual memory swap files —
/private/var/vm.
If you are on Ventura, Sonoma or later and the label reads System Data instead, our dedicated System Data storage guide covers the same territory with the newer terminology.
Inspecting Other before you delete anything
Start at Apple menu → System Settings → General → Storage (Apple menu → About This Mac → Storage → Manage on macOS Monterey and earlier). The pane gives you a rough split and a few useful built-in tools, but it will not open Other for you.
For real numbers, Terminal is faster than any amount of clicking:
du -sh ~/Library/* | sort -h— every folder in your user Library ranked smallest to largest. The last few lines are your answer.du -sh ~/* | sort -h— the same for your home folder, useful for spotting a bloated Downloads or an oversized Photos library.df -h /— the authoritative free-space figure.tmutil listlocalsnapshots /— snapshot inventory.
You can also point Finder at hidden folders: press Shift-Command-G and paste a path such as ~/Library/Application Support, then switch to list view and sort by size after enabling Calculate All Sizes in View → Show View Options. It works, but Finder computes folder sizes slowly. A purpose-built disk space analyzer gives you the same map in seconds.
Clearing Other, step by step
- Thin local snapshots. Run
sudo tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 999999999999 4. This asks macOS to reclaim as much snapshot space as it can at the highest urgency level. Your external Time Machine backups are not touched. - Delete old device backups. Open
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup, check modification dates, and remove backups for devices you no longer own or have already restored. - Empty Downloads. Sort by size, delete every
.dmgand.pkgfor software you have already installed, and every archive you have already extracted. - Clear caches. Quit the app, then empty the contents of its folder in
~/Library/Caches. Never clear a running app's cache. - Prune Application Support. Look for folders belonging to apps you removed years ago — dragging an app to the Trash never removes these. See how to completely uninstall apps on Mac.
- Reclaim Docker and VM disk images. These grow to a high-water mark and never shrink on their own. Use the app's own settings to prune or reduce the virtual disk.
- Empty the Trash. Nothing above counts until you do.
Manual versus assisted cleanup
| By hand | With a cleaner | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | One-time purchase |
| Time for a full pass | Usually an hour or more | Minutes |
| Finds hidden Library folders | Only if you know the paths | Automatically |
| Protects running apps | Your responsibility | Handled for you |
| Reversible | Only if you use the Trash | Your own files go to the Trash |
| Repeatable next quarter | You redo the whole hunt | One scan |
Both approaches genuinely work. The manual route above is complete on its own — nothing here is withheld. CleanerMac exists because most people do not want to memorise tmutil flags twice a year; it performs the same inspection visually, flags each item with plain-language advice, and skips anything currently in use.
Why Other refuses to shrink
Three recurring reasons:
- Snapshots are holding the blocks. Deleted files stay on disk while a snapshot references them, appearing as purgeable space rather than free space.
- The Storage pane is stale. It caches its figures. Quit System Settings completely and reopen, or trust
df -h /instead. - Something is regenerating. A sync client, a backup task or a build system may be recreating what you just removed. Watch the folder size over a few minutes before concluding the deletion failed.
Preventing Other from ballooning again
Connect your Time Machine drive on a schedule so snapshots flush instead of piling up. Delete an iOS backup the moment you have finished restoring from it. Keep Downloads empty by habit. Uninstall apps properly rather than dragging them to the Trash. And check du -sh ~/Library/* | sort -h once a quarter — it takes thirty seconds and tells you immediately if something has started growing.
If Other is large because of genuine duplicates scattered across folders, our guide to removing duplicate files on Mac covers finding identical copies by content rather than filename. And if your disk is already throwing warnings, work through startup disk full on Mac for the emergency sequence.
Turn “Other” into something you can actually see
CleanerMac maps every hidden folder and clears it safely.
Download CleanerMac — free for 3 daysmacOS 13+ · Apple Silicon & Intel · $24.99 once, no subscription
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Other and System Data on a Mac?
They are the same category under two names. Apple used Other through macOS Monterey and renamed it System Data in Ventura. The contents — caches, snapshots, backups, logs, Application Support data — are identical.
Can I delete Other storage on my Mac?
Not as a single action, because it is a category rather than a folder. You clear it by removing the specific items inside it: local snapshots, old iOS backups, caches, logs and forgotten disk images. Each of those is safe to delete individually.
Why is Other storage on my Mac 100 GB?
Almost always Time Machine local snapshots or old iOS device backups, sometimes a Docker or virtual machine disk image. Run tmutil listlocalsnapshots / and check the MobileSync Backup folder first — those two checks resolve most cases.
Does emptying the Trash reduce Other storage?
It reduces the Trash category, and it is a required step before any deletion frees real space. But if the files were held by an APFS snapshot, the space stays occupied until that snapshot is thinned or expires.
Is Other storage a virus or malware?
No. It is a normal macOS storage classification and every Mac has one. A large Other figure means you have accumulated caches, backups and snapshots, not that anything is wrong with the machine.
How often should I clean Other storage?
Once every few months is plenty for most people. Developers, video editors and anyone running Docker or virtual machines will want to check monthly, since those tools generate large amounts of uncategorised data quickly.