What Is 'Other' Storage on Mac and How to Clean It
Understand the difference between 'Other' and 'System Data' across macOS versions and reclaim your drive.
What Does "Other" Storage Mean on macOS?
On older macOS releases (Monterey, Big Sur), macOS used the term "Other". On modern macOS (Sonoma, Sequoia), Apple rebranded this to "System Data". Both refer to the exact same concept: any file on your APFS volume that does not match standard MIME types for Photos, Music, Videos, or Apps.
Common culprits categorized under "Other":
- Disk images (
.dmg,.iso) and zip archives. - Virtual machines, Parallels disks, and Docker containers.
- Font libraries, audio plugins (VST, AU), and custom app extensions.
- Cached application assets from Creative Cloud, Figma, and Slack.
How to Clean "Other" Storage
Wipe leftover disk images and downloaded packages:
find ~ -name "*.dmg" -type f 2>/dev/null
# Clear system application caches
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*
Clean "Other" Storage with XrayMac
XrayMac categorizes every byte of your disk accurately. Its 1-Click Smart Clean instantly identifies obsolete developer residues, broken caches, and orphan archives categorized under Other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I delete all of Other storage?
No, because Other also contains essential app databases, font files, and application frameworks required by your software.
XrayMac Engineering Team
Pure Swift 6 & APFS storage diagnostics for macOS Sonoma & Sequoia.