Our resident Mac Help guru, Peter Cohen, previously told us about the 'Other' storage category on Mac computers and what it catalogs: In short, you're seeing space taken up by plug-ins, documents, and caches stored by OS X.
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It's worth noting that these files aren't normally harmful or wasteful to your computer's system; most are intended to help your Mac run efficiently, and ideally, you shouldn't ever have to clear out your Other files. Unfortunately, they can quickly clog up a computer low on storage — especially if you're storing a large number of iPhone or iPad backups.
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Whether you're looking to free up space on your hard drive or just want to do some spring cleaning, here are some simple steps to get your Mac free and clear.
Sep 07, 2017 Clean up your iCloud storage and make the most of your free 5 GB. Open a photo on any of your Mac devices. Hit the garbage can icon and then select Delete Photo. Delete multiple files in one go by opening the Photos app and tapping Select at the top right corner. Choose the tiles you want to delete and then hit the garbage can a the bottom.
A note on what happened to 'Other' space in macOS Sierra and higher
When Apple added its storage management feature to macOS Sierra, called Optimize Storage, it reorganized what 'other' storage is and where it's located on the Mac. Much of it has been divided out through other categories so it's easier to find and remove.
The 100GB of Other storage I used to carry on my iMac is whittled down to just 5GB. You can still clean out old and unnecessary content from your Mac with macOS Sierra and High Sierra by using Optimized Storage. It's just a little easier to find those unused files than it was before.
A lot of the features of Optimized Storage remove content from your Mac and store them in iCloud. If you're concerned with how much storage you're using up in iCloud, you can customize or disable some Optimized Storage features to keep a balance between what's on your Mac and what's in iCloud.
What's this 'Purgeable' category all about?
If you check your system storage graph in macOS, you'll probably discover a category called Purgeable. This is part of Apple's Optimized Storage service. When you move your Documents into iCloud (part of the Store in iCloud component) and your hard drive gets low on storage, only recently opened files are kept on your Mac. Older documents are stored in iCloud, while a shortcut icon is kept on your Mac (files are automatically re-downloaded to your Mac as soon as you open them). The Purgeable files are what Optimized Storage will move to iCloud and delete from your hard drive only if your hard drive starts to get full. Purgeable files also include caches and temporary files that used to fit into the Other category, which will also be deleted as your hard drive starts to fill up.
Though your Other storage might have been spread out across categories in macOS Sierra and higher, you can still follow the below steps to manually clean up your Mac and get rid of unnecessary files.
How to check your storage space on your Mac
If you are concerned with how much storage space you have remaining on your Mac computer, you can check its usage folder to see how much space each category is taking up, including Other.
- Click on your desktop or the Finder icon from the Dock.
- Select the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Mac os drive journaled or not. Click on About This Mac.
- Select Storage.
Your Mac breaks down its storage categories as follows: Apps, Movies, Photos, Audio, Backups, and — that annoying, undescriptive category — Other.
How to remove cached files
Now that you know how much space your Other files are taking up, it's time to reduce their footprint on your Mac. You can start by removing items you don't need, including caches for your web browser, saved Apple Music streams, and photo previews.
A note on deleting cache folders: You only want to delete old and unnecessary files, as current cache files store your preferences. We strongly recommend only deleting cache files from old apps.
- Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
- Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Click on Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/caches into the text box. A list of caches from active apps will appear on your desktop.
- Select the app folder you wish to remove the cache from.
- Right-click (or control-click) on the app folder.
- Select Move to Trash.
How to remove downloaded files
Chances are, your Downloads folder is stuffed with Other-type files, including installer packages, documents, and folders you have already made copies of somewhere else. If you want to make some room on your Mac, it may be time to clean out your Downloads folder.
- Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
- Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Click on Downloads.
- Select the file you wish to remove.
- Right-click (or control-click) on the file.
- Select Move to Trash.
If you want to save a file from the Downloads folder but don't want it clogging your drive, consider moving it to an external hard drive or flash drive, or uploading it to an online storage option like Dropbox.
How to delete old device backups in iTunes
If you tend to get new iOS devices fairly regularly, you may have unnecessary device backups stored on your computer via iTunes. Backups take up 4-5GB each, on average; there's no need to hold on to older device backups if you no longer have the device or have it stored in iCloud.
Third-party software that can help
While you don't need any third-party app to 'clean' your Mac, there are some very handy system access tools out there that make it easier to regularly remove unwanted files.
CleanMyMac 3
With CleanMyMac, you have easy access to a list of features that help you keep your Mac free of unnecessary junk. It scans your entire system and recommends files you should delete based on how old they are and whether they are considered unnecessary to your workflow. It's a lot like Apple's Optimized Storage, but with a few additional features. My favorite is the recommendation to delete all content related to an application. Sometimes, you'll end up with a couple of files left behind by an app when you delete it. CleanMyMac provides a one-button purge of everything associated with that app.
DaisyDisk
DaisyDisk scans your Mac and gives you a pie chart that makes it easy to see what files are using up the most space. You can identify files that are in the Other storage category and drag them to the delete box.
Onyx
Onyx is a robust Mac system access tool that, in-part, can delete caches, logs, temporary items, and other files that find their way into the Other storage category.
Cocktail
Cocktail is another useful system access tool that you can use to clear caches, purge memory, and manage hidden Apple app settings, which might be automatically sending files into the Other category abyss.
Questions?
Still having trouble with Other? Let us know in the comments.
Updated June, 2018: Updated the section on deleting iPhone and iPad backups in iTunes to direct people to the article about doing that. The rest of these steps are still correct.
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DowncordDiscord and others are down worldwide due to issues with Cloudfare
Discord appears to be down worldwide due to some kind of outage. The team at Discord has acknowledged the issue, and promises that a fix is on the way.
iCloud is gives you instant access to files and apps you need across all your devices. It has 5GB of space that you can use for free and additional storage is relatively inexpensive, so if you have multiple Apple devices, it’s definitely the most convenient way of file management.
But the question that brought you here is how do you actually manage files in iCloud? Further in this article we’ll go over paramount points like how to store files in iCloud, or the basic ones like how to save or delete anything and how to add or remove the apps you choose to sync, and lots of other useful tips.
How to store files on iCloud
Let’s start from the top. To open iCloud you need it to be turned on. We know it sounds obvious, but in case you haven’t done it yet, you can do in Settings > iCloud. Now, iCloud Drive should appear as other folders in Finder’s left menu.
Since the macOS Sierra, iCloud has had a major makeover. Now it can sync your Documents and Desktop folders across all your devices. It also has Optimized Storage, it’s a new feature that takes your old files and moves them into the cloud, but only when you’re running low on disk space. Read more about why moving files like that into the cloud instead of deleting is not the best idea.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that when you turn on Optimized Storage, anything that gets moved to the cloud is deleted from your Mac. So if you delete those files from iCloud as well, they’re gone for good.
Before you choose to sync your folders or store files in iCloud, make sure you’re not cluttering it with files you could’ve deleted and with system junk. This you can do manually by checking your hard drive or use a Mac cleaner to scan and clean the drive for you. CleanMyMac X is the best fit for the task, it digs out and removes system trash, as well as find old files you might be well off without on your drive.
How to save documents to iCloud storage
iCloud can and should be used as any other folder you’ve got on Mac. For instance, to upload files to iCloud Drive you simply take the files you need (be it images, documents, any other file) and drag them directly to the open iCloud folder. Now, give it a few moments to to upload. There’s a tiny progress bar right on the file’s icon where you can watch the uploading.
How to save photos to iCloud
Now, this is a separate point because you might want to sync the whole Photos library, not just move photos to the folder one by one. This requires a little different approach.
To sync Photos app with iCloud:
- Open iCloud in Settings, and find Photos.
- Click Options, it’s usually right next to the app icon.
- Check those libraries want to start syncing.
- Click Done and only then
- Check the app itself for the sync.
How to delete stuff from iCloud
For the most part, the answer to questions like how to delete data from iCloud storage, any data, is more than simple: just open the iCloud folder and delete files from it. That’s it’ these files will no longer show on other devices. To delete files, simply move the icon to the Trash or choose the file and press command(⌘)+delete.
How to delete photos from iCloud
As you might have guessed, there are actually different scenarios for photos stored in your libraries and streams. Deleting specific photos from iCloud can be performed in two simple ways:
- Delete images directly from the Photos app itself. Simply open the app, choose the images to delete, press command(⌘)+delete, and with the next sync they will be gone from your iCloud.
- Delete them from the iCloud website. To do it, sign in to icloud.com, go to Photos, find the images you no longer need and delete them.
If you don’t want any of your photos in iCloud anymore, unsync them completely. To do so, you’ll need open Settings > iCloud and unsync it by unchecking Photos app. This will untie all the pictures you had in Photos library from iCloud. You can tie them back by reversing what you’ve just done and checking the app back in.
How to delete movies from iCloud Drive
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The process is pretty similar to deleting photos from cloud storage, only you’ll have to opt for iTunes in the iCloud folder instead. Same with removing all music files and movies together — just unsync iTunes.
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You can also delete movies you’ve already watched and don’t feel like watching again directly in the iTunes app, from your Mac, they will also be kicked out of the cloud folder once it syncs again.
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How to delete apps from iCloud
This part is a little tricky. It actually depends on what you mean by “deleting apps”. In case what you need is to simply get rid of apps that are syncing against your will, so to speak, you can just open Settings > iCloud and uncheck those apps.
In case you have an installer of the app (just the icon, not the contents of it) in the iCloud folder, you can remove it as any other file, by throwing it to the Trash or command (⌘)+delete-ing it.
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As it’s plain to see now, using iCloud storage is simpler than it might appear in the beginning. Keep in mind to store only the files you need because accumulating space junk is a pretty bad habit (and the one you have to pay for, literally). That’s it for now, cheers.