Many of us have experienced the situation when we need to quickly delete some files on the Mac in order to free up some space for an important app that we want to install or important files we need to download.
This is the most annoying when we need free storage as fast as possible. This frustration occurs because it is just very difficult to find the files that we can and want to delete. This might even take hours of your important time.
But have you heard about what is other storage on Mac? If you haven’t, then believe me – it might save you tons of time and help find the files you want to delete. Here we will talk more about using it and taking the best advantage out of it.
Other Storage – What Is It?
Other Storage on Mac is a special place on your computer that includes all types of files that fall under the category of “Other”. These are files of irregular format. For example, what we would call a regular format is an audio format.
Therefore in Other Storage, you will find these types of files: .psd, .doc, PDF, temporary files that are created by macOS, system cache, user cache, browser cache, app extensions, all kinds of plugins, archives like .zip, disk images, and anything else that does not fall under the main category of macOS.
Checking Mac Disc Space Usage
There is another place on your Mac that is called “Optimized Storage” that has been with Mac users for a few years now. This is a brilliant way to visually see the structure of your Mac’s disc space.
If you are wondering where to find it and how to use it, here is a quick guide. Firstly, click on the Apple icon that is located in the upper left corner. Choose the option About this Mac and then click Storage. After, press on Manage, and you will see a sidebar on the left side. You will notice that it is very insightful – you can easily see which types of files take up the most space on your Mac.
This can help you make clever conclusions. For example, if you see that half of your computer’s space is used for pictures then maybe it is time to start thinking about an external hard-drive or a cloud-based service like Google Drive or any other alternative.
Finding Other Storage On Your Mac
The best way to find Other Storage on your Mac is by using the Library. Various cache archives and similar files are kept there and they are not so easy to find. And here is why – deleting or changing some of these files could completely mess up and break down your precious Mac.
But we can give it a look by being really careful. To go to the Other Storage, firstly click on Finder that can be easily accessed from the Dock. Then, choose the Go option from the top menu. Now you want to copy and paste this text: Library/Caches.
After you press Enter, you will see a bunch of small folders. This is where the Other Storage is kept. Further, we will show you what you can delete and what you should stay away from. Remember – you need to be very precise and careful when doing this.
Using Other Storage To Delete Files On Your Mac
Absolutely deleting the Other Storage is not going to be possible but you can choose some files you can delete with no harm to your Mac. This way, you will make sure these files won’t take up valuable storage on your Mac and it will work faster and more effectively.
So the first thing you need to do is remove the documents from Other Storage. To do so and delete unwanted large text files, follow these instructions: press Command + F from your Desktop, then click the option This Mac. Now, choose the first drop-down menu on the left and choose the Other option. Go to the Search Attributes window and choose File Size and File Extension.
Choose file types to locate and delete large text files. Review the items one more time, make sure they are really the ones that you want to delete, and then remove them.
