Clear Other Storage in macOS

A macOS customer contacted me the other day asking how to clear other storage in macos. Some of the customer’s laptops were taking significant disk space in this ‘other’ mysterious storage.

While riding the New York City Subway I started researching how to clear other storage in macos.

There are some cleaning tools out there, but as usual I prefer to do things myself and learn while at it. I found out that Cache files, documents not needed, DMG files, Application logs and Support files, browser’s plugins and extensions form part of this ‘other storage in macOS’.

Delete cached files using the Terminal

1. Open your Terminal
2. Type ~/Library/Caches (this is the user’s path)
3. Remove the cache files you want to delete by using the rm command
4. You can also try /Library/Caches(system caches)

I highly recommend that you have a backup before running the above.

Remove unneeded files including DMG one

1. Open Finder and search using the upper right corner icon
2. Type .dmg in the box and select Disk Image for Kind
3. Delete any DMG files and remember to empty your Trash
4. You can do the same process for other files such as .pdf, .doc, .psd and more..
5. Always select ‘This Mac’ when searching for large files.
6. You can always sort by File size.

Remove Application Logs and Support Files

1. Open your Terminal or use Finder if you like
2. Browse to these locations:
   • ~/Library/Application support
   • ~/Library/Logs
   • ~/Library/Containers
   • /Library/Application support
   • /Library/Logs
   • /Library/Containers
3. Now delete what you don’t need.

Delete your browser’s plugin and extensions

1. Go to each browser and locate plugins/extensions
2. Delete the ones you don’t need.

Hopefully this can help someone having this issue. You can always contact me if you have any questions. Also, remember to see my T-Shirt and coffee mugs shop. I make my own designs. Enjoy!