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How to delete files from 'Other' folder?

I am facing space issue for My MacBook Pro and when I check my storage then I observe that 'Other' folder size is 91GB. I have no clue what is this and what files it is storing? I am not able to navigate to Other folder and due to this I am not able to delete it.


So please let me know how to clean this folder to fix the space issue.


Device Information:

MacBook Pro 2017 (2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7)

macOS Big Sur


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 5, 2021 7:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2021 7:39 PM

I think the "Other" category that is a catch-all that deals with files that do not follow into the "photo" or "music" of the other categories that are listed above it.


Some possibilities include...


  • PDFs
  • System, Cache, and temp files
  • Disk images (ZIP, DMG)


Undoubtedly there is more than this.


Perhaps this article from Apple will help...


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2021 7:39 PM in response to akhanu

I think the "Other" category that is a catch-all that deals with files that do not follow into the "photo" or "music" of the other categories that are listed above it.


Some possibilities include...


  • PDFs
  • System, Cache, and temp files
  • Disk images (ZIP, DMG)


Undoubtedly there is more than this.


Perhaps this article from Apple will help...


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Jan 5, 2021 7:58 PM in response to akhanu

Another thing you can try to see if you have large files taking up space is...


  1. Open a Finder window
  2. Display contents of the window as a list
  3. Press CMD+F to bring up the Finder's search options
  4. Choose "File Size" from the first pulldown. If it does not display, choose "Other" and select it from the much larger list of items
  5. Choose "Is Greater Than"
  6. Choose a Filesize you want to filter for. Maybe start with 1 GB files.


You can also use this method to see if you have old files you do not need anymore - replacing "File Size" with "Last Modified Date." Or you might play around with the much larger list and see if there are other things you can search for that might find the "other" files.


The problem is, those "other" files are likely not in one folder and are scattered all over your hard drive. Ideally you'd probably need a 3rd party utility that is designed to free up space to really get to the bottom of this.


FYI...I have 33GB of "Other" files on my Mac Book Pro. Guess I need to start looking also. :-)

How to delete files from 'Other' folder?

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