How to clean Other Storage on Mac

You may still have files and documents that you may no longer need that are still save on your Mac. Find and remove these large and unneeded documents from your Other storage.

1. On your desktop menu bar, click File, then click Find.

   

2. Click This Mac to ensure that the scope of the search will be all directories in your mac, then click the plus sign to add a search attribute.

   

3. Click the first drop-down window, then select Others. From the Select a Search Attribute, check the option for File Extension and File size. Then click Ok.

   

4. Click the plus sign again to add a search attribute. You may select File Size and File Extension. You may enter different document file types (.pdf, .pages, etc ) and file sizes to find large documents.

   

5. Review the items shown, then delete them as needed.

Review all .zip and .dmg files on your Mac which you no longer need, then remove them on your Mac:

1. On your desktop menu bar, click File, then click Find.

   

2. Click This Mac to ensure that the scope of the search will be all directories in your mac, then click the plus sign to add a search attribute.

   

3. Click the first drop-down window, then select Others. From the Select a Search Attribute, check the option for File Extension and File size. Then click Ok.

   

4. Click the plus sign again to add a search attribute. Enter .zip and .dmg file types.

   

5. Review the items shown, then delete them as needed.

You can also do a general search and focus on files that have a big file size. Do the following:

1. On your desktop menu bar, click File, then click Find.

   

2. Click “This Mac” to ensure that the scope of the search will be all directories in your mac, then click the plus sign to add a search attribute.

   

3. Click the first drop-down window, then select Others. From the Select a Search Attribute, check the option for File size. Then click Ok.
4. We recommend choosing the search option of greater than MB or GB so the search scope will not include hundreds of small files in your mac.

   

5. Review the items shown, then delete them as needed.

Cache files are temporary data files created by apps, browsers, and many other programs to help your system work faster, but over time they get bigger and can affect computer performance. It is recommended to clear cache files on your Mac. Do the following:

1. Navigate to Go > Go to Folder. Type in ~/Library/Caches, then click Go.

   

2. Click-hold Option, then drag the Caches folder to your desktop as a backup in case something goes wrong.
3. Go into each of the folders and clean out everything or move them to the Trash.

   We recommend that you remove the insides of these folders, but not the folders themselves.

4. Once finished, make sure to empty out your Trash.
5. Restart your Mac afterwards so your Mac can begin to create new, fresh cache files.
6. Do the same steps for
   /Library/Caches
   (without the “~”) and
   ~/Library/Logs
   .

Every time we browse the internet, each site that we visit adds cache to your browser. Browser cache temporarily stores website data such as images, scripts, and other stuff, in order to make your browsing faster when you revisit the same site but it may consume more storage space oe time. It is recommended to clear browser cache files on your Mac:

For Safari

1. Launch Safari.
2. In the top menu, choose Safari, then click Preferences.
3. Click the Advanced tab, then enable Show Develop Menuin the menu bar.

   

4. You may now go to Develop in menu bar and choose Empty Caches.

   

For Chrome

1. Launch Chrome.
2. On the address bar, type chrome://settings/clearBrowserData, then press RETURN.

   

3. Select the time range you want to clear, then tick the box for Cached Images and Files.
4. Click Clear Data.

For Firefox

1. Launch Firefox.
2. In the top menu, choose Firefox, then click Preferences.
3. Click Privacy and Security. Scroll down until you see Cookies and Site Data, then click Clear Data.

   

4. Tick Cached Web Content, then click Clear.

Though Apps are categorized as Apps on the Storage bar, their add-ons are under the Other Storage Category. To manually remove app plugins and extensions, do the following:

For Safari

1. Launch Safari.
2. In the top menu, choose Safari, then click Preferences.
3. Choose the Extensions tab, then choose which extension you want to remove. Then click Uninstall.

   

For Chrome

1. Launch Chrome.
2. On the address bar, type chrome://extensions, then press RETURN.

   

3. Click Remove on the extensions you want to remove.

   

For Firefox

1. Launch Firefox.
2. Click the ☰ menu, then click Add-ons.

   

3. Choose the add-ons you want to remove. Click the ⋮ icon, then click Remove.

   

The Other Storage space can also include screen savers. You can also remove screensavers to free up more space as much as possible.

1. Navigate to Go > Go to Folder. Type in ~/Library/Screen Savers, then click Go.

   

2. Move to trash the screen savers you want to remove.

You may check if you have a lot of old unnecessary backups that you may remove to free up space on your Mac:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. Click iTunes in the menu bar, then select Preferences. Then select Devices.
3. Select the backup you want to delete. Then click Delete Backup.

   

By default, all files that you download on your computer are saved in this folder. From time to time, we need to check and clean this folder and remove download files we no longer need anymore.

1. Navigate to Go > Downloads.

   

2. Select the files you no longer need, then move them to trash.
3. Make sure to empty the trash after.