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MacBook storage issue is still a relevant one in 2021. The promised 1 TB of storage — which is the capacity of the MacBook Air 2020 — will still be not enough for many. We generate more and more content on our devices and use apps that are bursting with cache files. This is what creates the cryptic category of “Other” storage on Mac.

On recent macOS versions, this storage category is labeled “other volumes in container.” Which, of course, doesn’t make it any less cryptic. This category contains junk files as well as important ones. That’s why you have to learn to check the storage on Mac properly.
So let’s figure out what Other Storage is and how to remove Other from your Mac.

What is Other on Mac Storage?

Simply, Other storage on Mac consists of files that do not easily fall into the clearer category labels like 'Audio.' The types of 'Other' files would include:

1. Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
2. macOS system and temporary files.
3. Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
4. Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
5. App plugins and extensions.
6. Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main macOS categories.

The memory consumption went from 4.5 GB down to 2.8 GB when it started up. Turn off your Mac. Turn it back on again and press & hold Command+Option+P+R (all at the same time) before the gray screen appears. Hold the keys until you hear your Mac start up for the second time (let it beeps twice). I had to repeat the process, one time right after. Answer (1 of 3): To free up physical RAM, what you need to do is to minimize the number of memory-intensive processes/apps you have running. Simply quit apps and kill processes that you don’t actively use (excluding essential system processes). MacOS uses memory compression and tends to keep as. Remove downloaded files from your Mac. Let’s clean out your Downloads folder and see if that makes a difference in that “other” storage. Select the Go menu. Choose Downloads. Select the file (s) you want to remove. Right-click (or control-click) to open pop-up menu. Select Move to Trash.

Like this file:

What’s this? A song? An unknown archive? Why on Earth does it weigh 200 MB?

How to check Mac disk space usage

A few years back, Apple introduced “Optimized Storage,” a great feature for finding out how your disk space is structured. This is how to check the storage on Mac.

1. Open the Apple menu (top right corner)
2. Now, click About this Mac > Storage

Is your disk approaching full capacity? Now, click “Manage.” The sidebar to the left is really enlightening. This is the only place where on your Mac, it shows the size of your apps, books, and documents in gigabytes.

Where is Other Storage on a Mac

To show you where it is, let’s look at your Library. This is where your macOS keeps application components, widgets, and various cache archives. This part of your Mac is hidden from view for a reason. Messing up a few folders here may break your Mac. But let’s take a look:
Click on Finder > Go (in the top menu).
Now paste in: ~/Library/Caches

See those small folders? This is where your “Other” storage is. You’ve found it. Now, we'll see what's possible to delete.

How to delete Other Storage on Mac

How Do I Free Up Memory On My Mac Mini

You can’t entirely get rid of Other on Mac, but you can reduce how much storage space it takes up. We’re now going to look at each of the six types of Other files and show you how to clean up your Mac. We’re going to walk you through deleting useless documents, junk system files, system slowing cache files, old backups, and all sorts of other junk.

1. Remove documents from Other Storage space

You might not think that pure text documents take up a lot of space, but you may be surprised at the size of some .pages and .csv files. And that’s before you start adding images, downloading ebooks, and creating big presentations. Soon your Other documents can start to get out of hand.

To find and remove large and unneeded documents from Other Storage manually:

1. From your desktop, press Command-F.
2. Click This Mac.
3. Click the first dropdown menu field and select Other.
4. From the Search Attributes window, tick File Size and File Extension.
5. Now you can input different document file types (.pdf, .pages, etc.) and file sizes to find large documents.
6. Review the items and then delete as needed.

Luckily, there’s a much quicker and more thorough way. By using a CleanMyMac X you are presented with a clear view of all the massive files occupying your Other space.

To locate large hidden files in all folders with CleanMyMac:

1. Download CleanMyMac X and click the Large & Old Files tab.
2. Click the big Scan button to start the search.
3. Now, review the results broken down into different categories: archives, documents, movies, etc.
4. Look through your files and delete the ones you no longer need.

What’s great about this method is that you can sort the files by their size and thus free up space most effectively. And there’s a special category for Other files that don’t fit into either category. CleanMyMac X also locates .DMG files and archives the Other storage often comprise. These files can be moved to another folder/separate disk or could be removed securely.

Now, try it and see how it helps you slim down Other storage on Mac. Deleting your old files alone can recover you tons of space, but there are more space hoggers that fall under the Other data category.

2. Clean up Other space of the system and temporary files

Every second your Mac is on, the macOS creates and piles up system files — logs, for example. At some point, the system needs these files, but they quickly become outdated and just sit there, wasting your disk space. And guess what, they are in the Other Mac storage category, too.

These files are mostly temporary, but they never actually go away unless you do something about it. The difficulty is that Apple hasn’t made it easy to clear out system files. There’s a good reason for this – people often delete things they shouldn’t.

Let's inspect your Library folder

To manually find where a majority of apps temporary files live, navigate to ~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/. In this folder, you will find your applications, and some searching will reveal a lot of space being taken up. For example, you may have gigabytes worth of old iOS backups in
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

You could delete these manually, but a much safer and faster method is to use a specialist cleaning app like CleanMyMac X. It has a System Junk module that specifically looks for useless system files and knows what’s safe to delete.

Here’s how to easily remove system files from Other Storage:

• Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac X.
• Hit Scan.
• Hit Clean.

That’s pretty much it. Seriously. If this is the first time you ever cleaned your Mac, you’ll see that the OS X Other storage tab has shrunk considerably after the system junk cleanup.

Using this method, I also deleted 16.69 GB of 'System Junk' from my MacBook.

3. Delete cache files from the Other data section

Cache files are not just another invisible storage hog. They are often one of the worst offenders, often taking up gigabytes of precious space. The three main types of cache are – browser, user, and system. Cache files are meant to help your system work faster, but they get bigger and bigger over time, eventually slowing your system down.

To manually clear cache files on Mac:

1. Navigate to Go > Go To Folder.
2. Type in ~/Library/Caches and click Go.
3. Click-hold Option and drag the Caches folder to your desktop as a backup in case something goes wrong.
4. Select all the files in the Caches folder.
5. Drag them to the Trash.
6. Empty Trash.

Follow the same steps for /Library/Caches (without the “~”) and ~/Library/Logs. Cache files sit in numerous folders, and with a little patience, you can clean them out manually (read more detailed instructions on clearing cache).

4. Remove app plugins and extensions from Other storage

Another cool way to manage storage on Mac.
While apps are, unsurprisingly, categorized as Apps on the Storage bar, their add-ons are under the Other storage category. Compared to some types of files, app plugins and extensions probably won’t take up as much of your Mac's Other space. Still, every bit counts. Since extensions can sometimes cause other problems on your Mac, why not remove the ones you don’t use to be safe and free up some extra Other storage space at the same time?

Tracking down all your add-ons can be a hassle. Some you’ve forgotten you had (like that nCage extension for Chrome), others you didn’t know of in the first place.

Here’s how to manually remove extensions from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

To remove extensions from Safari:

1. Open Safari browser.
2. Go to the Safari menu and click Preferences.
3. Select the Extensions tab.
4. Select the extension you want to remove and click “Uninstall.”

To remove extensions from Chrome browser:

1. Open Chrome.
2. Click the three-dot icon in the top-right corner.
3. Click More tools > Extensions.
4. Disable or remove as you choose.

To remove extensions from Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. Click on the burger menu in the top-right corner.
3. Choose Add-ons.
4. From the Extensions and Plugins tabs, disable and remove whatever you want.

Important! If you’re not sure what a plugin does, don’t rush to remove it. Try disabling it first and see if your apps and your system work as expected. You can always remove that add-on later. Also, note that Chrome extensions can’t be deleted automatically. But if you’d like to get rid of them, we’ll list these extensions for you and tell you how to do that manually.

5. Clear Other space of disk images and archives

Normally, archives and images are files you keep for a reason. However, if you think you might have accumulated some useless .zip and .dmg files on your Mac, then you should definitely clear them out as well.

You can find these files using Spotlight search:

1. Open Finder.
2. Type DMG/ZIP in the search field.
3. Select Search: This Mac.
4. Sort the results by Size.

Finder will show you all files of the format you’ve specified, sorted by size. You can clean out those you don’t need.

To safely and easily remove all your old unused disk images, CleanMyMac X has a dedicated tool within the System Junk module. Everything is categorized, so you have a better understanding of what you’re removing.

1. Go to the System Junk module in CleanMyMac X.
2. Click Scan and when it’s done, click Review Details.

Now you get a detailed overview of some ultra-specific categories of files that are normally invisible to you. Among those, you’ll see Unused Disk Images (another name for DMG installations). Then, there’s Old Updates — you would like to remove those too. Old Updates are past versions of update packages that you already got installed.

Do you often use graphic editors like Photoshop or Sketch? Then, you’ll probably be fascinated by the Document Versions feature. If you click on the Document Versions tab (System Junk > Scan > Review Details), you’ll be able to see how much of your space is taken by large document re-edits. Imagine a 60 MB Photoshop file cloned 10 times with just slight differences. In CleanMyMac X, you can delete these intermediate revisions. And, handy enough, the program keeps just the original file and its final revision on the drive.

6. Get rid of everything else from Other disk space

Even Other storage space has its own “other” files, and no, the irony of that statement is not lost on us.

Other storage on Mac can also include:

• Files in your user library (screen savers, for example).
• Files Spotlight search doesn’t recognize.

Typically, they won’t be as big of a share of Other data on your Mac as cache files and other items we’ve cleared out. However, if you’re determined to clean out as much Other Mac storage as possible, here’s how you can delete screensavers:

1. Open Finder.
2. In the Menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder.
3. Type this: /System/Library/Screen Savers/ and click Go.

You’ll see the screen saver files now — they are lightweight, but for the sake of being thorough, you can trash them as well.

As for files, Spotlight doesn’t recognize, they are rare. They could include files like Windows Boot Camp partitions or virtual machine hard drives. If you don’t recall putting anything like that on your Mac, you probably have nothing to look for.

7. Remove application logs and support files

Apps on your Mac generate and store lots of files, which are mainly logs and support files. After you delete the application, those files lay still on your hard drive occupying space and doing nothing. So it’s a good idea to remove those.

1. Open Finder.
2. Press Command-Shift-G and go to ~/Library/Application Support

Look for the folders that have the same name as the app you’ve deleted. You can safely move those to Trash.

Then, go to the following locations to delete other app-related files:

~/Library/Logs

~/Library/Containers

And it's done! Hopefully, you managed to free up some GBs in the Other storage section.

How much can you expect to delete from Other storage on Mac?

You’ll never remove the Other data section from Mac entirely, nor should you want to. It’s perfectly fine to have space taken up by necessary files, whatever category label they have. What is not okay is valuable storage space being wasted. Having a monthly cleanup can help you remove old, unneeded files and keep your hard drive organized.

macOS is based on Unix, which means that its memory management is pretty robust. However, it’s not perfect, and so you may still see an error message telling you that “Your system has run out of application memory.” What does it mean, and why does it happen? We’ll explain what causes the error and what to do to fix it.

What does “your system has run out of application memory” mean?

macOS stores data used for active processes in RAM. If space in RAM runs low, macOS starts storing data on your main boot drive and swapping it between there and RAM as it needs it. This is known as virtual memory. For this reason, you should always have a decent chunk of free space on your boot drive — 10% is a good rule of thumb. If you don’t have enough space on your boot drive for an application to store temporary files, you will see the error message telling you your system has run out of application memory.

Why does it happen?

There are a number of things that can cause this error message to appear, although, as we said, macOS’ memory management is very good, so if you do see the message, you should take action.

Reasons include:

• Running low on disk space on your boot drive
• Having lots of apps open simultaneously
• Having lots of browser tabs open
• An application “hogging” memory

The best way to avoid seeing the error message is to make sure you keep as much disk space as possible free on your boot drive. The easiest way to do that is to run CleanMyMac X’s System Junk module regularly. This handy tool makes it easy to identify and remove all kinds of junk files. These include temporary files that should have been deleted but weren’t cache files and old logs. You can quickly free up several gigabytes of space with just a few clicks.

How to fix the “Your system has run out of application memory” error

There are other ways you can tackle the problem, too.

1. Restart your Mac

This is the first thing you should try. Restarting your Mac clears the cache and other temporary files and gives back disk space used as virtual memory.

2. Update macOS

Whenever you run into problems on your Mac, it’s a good idea to check if there is an update available, in case the problem is a bug and there is a fix for it in the update.

1. Click on the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.
2. Choose Software Update.
3. If there is an update available, follow the instructions on-screen to install it.

3. Use Apple’s Storage Management

Apple provides some useful tools to help you manage space on your boot drive.

1. Click the Apple menu and select About this Mac.
2. Choose the Storage tab.
3. Press Manage.
4. Select Recommendations, and you will see a list of things Apple recommends you do to free up storage space. Decide which recommendations you want to take and follow the instructions.

4. Update apps

As with macOS, it could be that one or more of the applications you’re running has a bug that causes it to hog memory. You should check whether there are updates available for those apps. For apps downloaded from the App Store, you can do that on the Store. For other apps, click the app’s name on the top-left corner of your screen (there should be a “Check for Update” option).

CleanMyMac X has an updater module that can update multiple apps simultaneously and is quicker than updating apps manually. It also has an Uninstaller module for removing apps that you no longer use and getting rid of all the files associated with them.

5. Close apps you’re not using

Keeping apps running in the background when you’re not using them uses up a lot of virtual memory. It’s good practice to quit apps when you stop using them. Press Option-Command-Esc to open the Force Quit menu. If there are programs you’re not currently using, quit them.

6. Close browser tabs

Modern web browsers can have so many tabs open simultaneously that many of us spend all day with dozens of them open. And then we wonder why our Macs are running slowly. Keeping tabs open means they update in the background, taking up memory and other system resources. Bookmark tabs you use regularly and then close them when you’re finished using them.

How to check the memory on your Mac using Activity Monitor

If you’ve completed all the steps above and are still getting the same error message, you’ll need to do some detective work to track down the source of the problem. macOS has a great tool for this work – Activity Monitor. It allows you to see all processes currently running on your Mac and list them according to the system resources they are consuming, including RAM. In this way, you can see which processes are hogging memory and possibly causing the error message, then quit them.

How Do I Free Up Application Memory On My Mac Os

1. Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Activity monitor.
2. Click the Memory tab to see a list of processes, including applications and browser tabs, that consume memory.
3. Select a process or app, and click the “X” sign to close it.

7. Review browser extensions

Obsolete or buggy browser extensions could be another cause of memory problems on your Mac that could lead to the same error message. Take a look at the extensions in each of the web browsers you use and decide whether you use them or whether they can be disabled or removed.

In Safari, you’ll find extensions in Preferences > Extensions. In Chrome, you can access them by typing chrome://extensions in the address bar.

8. Uninstall applications

Free Up Ram On Mac

Some applications take up several gigabytes of space on your Mac, so if you don’t use them, it makes sense to uninstall them. If they were downloaded from the App Store, you could always download them again when you need them. Or, if not, you should be able to re-download them from the developer’s website. Did you know, for example, that Microsoft Word takes up to 2GB of space?

9. Install more RAM

The last resort, and the most expensive option, is to install more RAM in your Mac if you can. Having more physical RAM will mean macOS needs to use your boot drive less often to store swap files. However, not all Macs can have RAM upgraded after purchase, and for those that do, it usually means a trip to an Apple Store or an authorized service center.

How Do I Free Up Application Memory On My Mac Computer

There are many reasons you might see an error message telling you that your system has run out of application memory. But they all point to the same thing — a shortage of space on your boot drive. So, the simplest solution is to free up more space. However, you should follow the steps above to identify whether there is a problematic app taking up more memory than it should.