About this Mac More Info Storage ... What is "Other"?

I am trying to figure out what "Other" means, because my HD is about full and there is 104gb worth of "other" in there. I need to clean house, but it's not the music/photos that's holding me down.
Any help?
Thanks!

other is what can't be clasified in the other categories. If stores OS X and system files among other things. Download OmniDiskSweeper and see if you can find out what is taking up the space and what is safe to delete.

Similar Messages

When I open about this mac - more info and I switch through the tabs (display,memory,storage,support,service) it lags (fps drops, animation looks choppy not smooth). Why does this happen? (over 300 gb free,same programs installed,free desk-downloads)

When I open about this mac -> more info and I switch through the tabs (display,memory,storage,support,service) it lags (fps drops, animation looks choppy not smooth) even though all the mac (programs , interface ) works smooth . Why does this happen? (over 300 gb free,same programs installed,free desktop-downloads -no garbage there- everything neat and tidy.) Need some help. Only there it the animations goes like 2 fps and is not smooth. I do not understand why because the programs are the same so its the usage. Nothing is changed, yet i experience this little issue for a couple of days.

OK, I'm confused. When I do About this Mac > More Info in OS10.9, I don't see any animation other than the window resizing. Is that the animation you are describing?
Which if any of the following apply to your computer:
1) Are you running any anti-virus/internet security applications?
2) Are you running any "cleaning/tune-up/optimizations" applications?
3) Any peer-to-peer or torrent downloading software?
4) Any third-party disk backup software that came bundled with an external hard drive?
5) Any online backup scheme other than iCloud (Carbonite; GoogleDrive; MS One Drive)?
6) Did your financial institution ask you to install Trusteer EndPoint Protection (also known as Trusteer Rapport)?

System Profiler won't launch/ About this Mac more info button grayed out

Panther 10.3.9 on 1.25 imac G4. I recently restored this mac to get ready to sell it and after the restore and Panther upgrade (from system discs) System Profiler no longer launches. I have run disk utility to repair permissions. The area in the dock opens up for the System Profiler icon but it just shuts right back down. I can't launch it directly from utilities and the "more info" button on the about this mac menu is grayed out. Anyone have a solution? Thanks!

Hi cornelius,
I posted the link to the thread due to the fact that there were a number of suggestions of troubleshooting the user could try to resolve their issue.
One was the standard Repair Disk/Repair Permissions, one was to reset PRAM (not sure why that was suggested in this particular case), and one was to check to see if it could be a font issue and one was to test with a new user account to see if the problem was system wide. And one was for reinstalling System Profiler by using Pacifist.
The OP in that thread did not post back to indicate if any of the suggestions helped but I thought that the OP here might benefit.
I wasn't suggesting anything specific as I personally have never had the problem but I thought those suggestions might help the OP.
Or am I misunderstanding what you are asking?
best as always,
littleshoulders

Please help me put about this mac more info back to the original setting

my macbook pro, when i click about this mac and when I click on more info it doesnt show the orignal screen about the mac instead it show a big screen with alot of info, please help me fix it to the original way

If the System Profiler application isn't in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, the More Info button will be dimmed. Look for this application elsewhere on your hard disk; if it isn't on the hard disk, use Pacifist to extract it from your Mac OS X installation disks and then run the combo updater for your version of Mac OS X.
(17644)

Is About this mac/more info/power reliable for battery capacity assessment

Hi,
I calibrated my brand new battery for my Alubook 15". Here are the results :
First cycle : 4200 mah
Second cycle : 4520 mah
Third cycle : 4370 mah
Fourth cycle : 4220 mah
Fifth : 3920 mah.
The battery was sold for 4700 mah.
1. Does this get any sense ? would you worry about future battery performances based on this capacity decrease from the third cycle ?
2. I have read that resetting PRAM may reset this battery power assessment to more reliable data : Any experience about this ?

Luc --
You raise some interesting points, at least one of which we debated (without resolution ;-)) prior to the change over to the New Discussions -- that concerned whether the batteries used by the new revision of PowerBooks were qualitatively different than the ones used by previous revisions. I don't think we came to a firm conclusion on this.
But on two other points you raise we did at least draw some firm observations, if not flat out conclusions.
The first has to do with the 10.4.3 update and whether it may have had power management effects for the better. I personally noticed a slight increase in my battery life since the update, which I have attributed (at least in part) to the fact that a process that runs almost all the time in the background (having, I think, something to do with the trackpad and related functions) called "kernel_task" now runs at about half the CPU usage that it used to. It used to regularly consume 7-8% of my CPU resources. Now, when I check in Activity Monitor, "kernel_task" regularly consumes about 2.5-3.5%.
The second relates to the new PowerBook revisions, their greater stated battery life and any hardware changes made in them that may be responsible therefor. Here, I remember reading in several places on these Boards and elsewhere that the type of RAM used by the new PowerBook revisions, i.e., PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM (running at 333 MHz), while it may not necessarily be faster than the type of RAM used in the previous PB revisions (PC-2700 DDR SDRAM) (since both types of RAM are running at the same 333 MHz in each model), the DDR2 RAM used in the new revision PBs does consume significantly less power to run. Therefore, it seems to have heavily contributed to the new revision PB's claim to longer battery life. Indeed, I've read that since both RAM types run at the same speed in the PB, it was precisely because of the low power consumption signature of the DDR2 RAM that was the reason it was chosen for the new revision PBs.
Well, good luck testing out your new PB and it's battery. Let us know how it all turns out and, of course, feel free to post back if we can be of any further assistance.
Bonne chance! A bientôt.
Oh, by the way, as for battery capacity and degradation over time and with use, you might find my own statistics to be of interest. I've run off battery power quite extensively since I got my PB in March of this year, and, after 164 complete cycles in about 9 months of use (including may times where the battery was completely drained), my original stated capacity of 4400 mAh has only decreased to 4228 mAh (using the same Apple battery that came with my PB when I first got it). I think that's pretty decent from what I've heard and seen with others.
Later.
-- JDee

I want to check my storage but my "About This Mac" will not launch. Any other ways to view my storage? (Not iCloud)

Like I wrote above I just want to see how much storage I have left, any other methods on how to view it?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try to open About This Mac. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

In OSX Mountain Lion, In "About This Mac", On the "Storage" Tab: What types of files (e.g. file extensions) are grouped as "Backup" type files?

There's about 60Gb of "Backup" type files shown on my hard drive, but I don't beleive that I have created any such files. Can anyone tell me the types of files I should be searching for on my drive? (I'm trying to reduce clutter on my drive and eradicate any unnecessary files).
TIA
ScottO

If you see "Backups" category on the internal drive, it means that Time Machine is creating local snapshots. Read > http://pondini.org/TM/30.html
Local snapshots are deleted when the internal drive is getting full, so you don't have to worry about local snapshots

"About This Mac" Storage Screen and Time Machine Question

Hello,
I've been poking around in Lion a bit, and noticed something odd...
When you go to About This Mac >> More info >> Storage, my external hard drive that only has my Time Machine backup on it is displayed entirely as "other" in the file-type breakdown. Thusly, all utilized space is shown as yellow, as opposed to the purple that would designate it as "backup" information.
Is there something wrong with my Time Machine backup, or are other people experiencing this as well? It just seems strange that the results of the built-in backup application are not recognized as a backup by Lion.
Thoughts?
Thanks,
-Kevin

spartykjc wrote:
Hello,
When you go to About This Mac >> More info >> Storage, my external hard drive that only has my Time Machine backup on it is displayed entirely as "other" in the file-type breakdown.
Yes. The purple Backups refers to (some of ) the storage used for Local snapshots (on laptops, see #30 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions), and, apparently, Versions.
There are many other misleading and inaccurate things there, too.

Applications folder 19 gigs out of 120 on macbook air, but shows 40gigs on About this Mac Storage

- when I select "Get Info" on the folder containing my applications, the disk usage amount is given as 19.42gb;
- when I go Apple > About This Mac > More Info > Storage I get readings of between 40gb and 80gb (on a 120gb macbook air disc)
- does anyone have any ideas why?
- is there an amount of application data cached somehow?
I've tried / used Daisy Disk, Disc Doctor, and cCleaner. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks in advance.
cheers

If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Why do About This Mac and Finder give different values of available space on my MacBook Pro?

About This Mac is reporting over 150 GB of disk space usage for backups on my MacBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7, mid 2011) (About This Mac|More Info|Storage). Disk Utility shows the same usage as About This Mac.
When I check the available disk space in Finder, it reports approx 150GB more available (i.e. does not seem to see the backups).
I have never used the MacBook for backup - I back up to a Time Capsule.
I bought the MacBook second-hand - I have deleted the old users from Users & Groups. Is it possible that there is a hidden backup lurking on the disk? If so, how can I access it and delete it?
Is it possible that there is a bug in the Mountain Lion About This Mac storage reporting (but if so, why does the usage reported by Disk Utility agree with Abouth This Mac, but not with Finder?)
I really don't want to have to format my disk and restore from Time Machine. I'm not sure that the Time Machine backup does not include the 150GB of "hidden" files...
Any help would be appreciated.
Craig

It is local snapshots that Time Machine makes. Even when not connected to TM disk, TM creates local snapshots on your HD. Finder does not consider local snapshots essential and will use the space if necessary.

Why does my Aperture library show up as "Other" in About This Mac?

I go to About This Mac- More Info- Storage, and it says I only have 2.99GB of photos when my Aperture library is close to 200GB. The Aperture library gets thrown into the Other portion.
I have tried using terminal to delete the current index and re-index, but that didn't work.
I did not have this problem when I was using iPhoto, it has only been since I switched to Aperture months ago. All my software is updated to the most recent versions. I had an early 2008 15" MBP and upgraded to a 2012 15" MBP, same problem on both machines. Is there any way to fix Spotlight Indexing?

The Aperture library is a library package and not an image file, so Spotlight will not show the library as an image but as "other". Since the unified library format has been introduced, iPhoto images will not be shown in Spotlight either.
The usual way to search for images managed by Aperture should be to use the elaborate search tools provided by Aperture - smart searches and smart albums or the Media Browser to access them from applications that can browse iPhoto and Aperture libraries, like Mail, Preview, iMovie, ...
If you want Spotlight to be able to the original image files of your Aperture images, convert your Aperture library into a referenced library (see: Aperture 3 User Manual: Working with Referenced Images). This way, the original image files will be stored in a folder outside the package and Spotlight or Find will see them. Only, if you decide to do that, remember that it it not save to manipulate the original image files in any other way than using Aperture to do this - don't accidentally delete them, move them, rename them, edit them. Referencing is meant as a method to be able to store the bulk of your images on external drives, not to give access to the original image files.
Also, Spotlight will never be able to show you your edited versions, since they do not exist as rendered image files until you export or share them. So Spotlight can only show the originals.
Regards
Léonie

I don't know what it means "other" in "about this mac -- storage". Someone knows???

Like i said, when i'm at "about this mac --> more information --> storage" i don't know what it means "others". I want to know this cause i used 27 gb of "others". Thanks,
Francisco from Argentina

fran.catena wrote:
Like i said, when i'm at "about this mac --> more information --> storage" i don't know what it means "others". I want to know this cause i used 27 gb of "others". Thanks,
Francisco from Argentina
Hi, have a look at this Discussion...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16073912

What is "other" in "About this Mac"

I have a new MacBook Air and I'm showing 13.13 GB free out of 59.81 GB in my About This Mac and was wondering what is Other.
Audio is 998.4 MB
Movies is 6.89 GB
Photos is 3.8 GB
Apps is 7.2 GB
Backups is 161.1 MB
Other is 27.63 GB
Thanks,
Mike

About "Other" :
    http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
Hope this helps.
1. Empty Trash.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
2. Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
    Select "Library" from the dropdown.
    Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
    Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Empty Trash. Restart.
3. Repair Disk
    Steps 1 through 7
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836

Display Size Incorrect In About This Mac

Hi
I just noticed that in the About This Mac > More Info > Displays the size of my iMac display is incorrectly shown. The resolution setting is correct as is the video card model but the size is shown as 16.5 inches instead of the 24 inches it should be as a 2008 24 inch iMac.
Anybody have any thoughts on what this means and how to correct it?
Cheers
Jeff

Hi BDAqua
I may put this off a bit as the issue was present when booted in Safe Boot.
Seems that the issue is present for others. This thread is from someone who has an iMac with the same graphics card as mine:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4398260?start=0&tstart=0
and discussed here:
https://openradar.appspot.com/12016584
Interestingly, the jump from 10.7.4 to 10.7.4 feels about right for me in terms of the issue showing up.
Looks like there's no solution yet.
Cheers
Jeff

Question: I want to update to the new LION OSX, but it says that I need to at least have an Intel Core 2 Duo. When I click "about this Mac," it says that I have a 2.16 Intel Core Duo. Is there a difference between the "Core 2 Duo" and the "Core Duo"?

Well, my title basically asks the question that I am seeking an answer for. Im not sure what year my MB Pro is, and I cant exactly find it on the Apple site. Its a 2.16 Intel Core Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. All I see (dating back to 2007,) is Intel Core 2 Duo on the apple site. Im pretty sure (but not 100% positive,) that my MB Pro is a late 2008/early 2009. Just trying to figure out if I can install LION OSX or not, since it requires atleast intel core 2 duo, and mine says I only have the intel core duo. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Core Duo is 32 bit processor and Core 2 Duo is 64 bit processor
OS X Lion, will only on 64 bit Intel processor Mac's.
The following Mac's that have 32 bit Intel “Yonah” processorsthat won't run OS X Lion.
iMac 4,1 Early (Jan-Sept) 2006 17"
iMac 4,1 Early (Jan-Sept) 2006 20"
iMac 4,2 Mid (July-Sept) 2006 17"
Mac Mini 1,1 (Feb-Sept) Early 2006
Mac Mini 1,1 (Sept-Aug) Late 2006
MacBook 1,1 13" (May-Nov 2006)
MacBook Pro 1,1 15" A1150 (Jan-May 2006)
MacBook Pro 1,2 17" A1151 (Aprl-Oct 2006)
MacBook Pro 1,1 15" A1175 (May-Oct 2006)
There is a difference between “Intel Core Duo” and “IntelCore 2 Duo” processors.
Look under your Apple menu > About this Mac > more information for the details

About this Mac More Info Storage ... What is "Other"?

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