How to Clean the 'Other Storage' on Mac

If you have ever tried to free up some space on your Mac manually, then you have probably encountered the 'mysterious' Other Storage section, which appears to take a lot of hard disk space. But what files does it contain, and are they important? Simply put, macOS uses 'Other Storage' to show space used by all files that do not belong to any of the other categories like Photos, Apps, Movies, Documents, etc. This means that 'Other Storage' is not full of useless files, and you should proceed with caution if you try to delete some of the data stored there. 'Other Storage' may often contain important temporary system files, disk images, app caches, 3rd-party fonts, files from your library, and more.

How to Access 'Other Storage'?

To view the contents of 'Other Storage,' head to Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder. Type in '~/Library' and proceed. This is the place where all files from 'Other Storage' can be found. We do not recommend deleting anything manually if you are not 100% certain you do not need it – you may end up causing apps to malfunction if you delete the wrong file or directory.

What is Safe to Remove from 'Other Storage'?

Use the instructions above to reach the ~/Library directory, and then open 'Downloads.' There, you will find a lot of PKG and DMG files, which are part of old installers that you no longer need. These can be deleted safely.

You can also remove the caches of specific apps by going to the 'Caches' directory and then manually wiping the contents of app folders. Keep in mind that you need to do this after you quit the app whose cache you are about to purge.

What's the Best Way to Optimize 'Other Storage'?

Trying to delete all unnecessary files manually may be difficult but, thankfully, you do not need to do this. You can use automated macOS tools to clean up free space by automatically deleting unnecessary data from 'Other Storage.'