"other" category in spotlight results

Hello!
Starting with Mavericks I get some unwanted spotlight results.
I use spotlight only to search for applications, so that is the only category I have selected.
Now, when I search for something spotlight will show me a category named "Other" containing all sorts of files.
How can i get rid of this?
I have seen someone else having this problem and what he did is, he blocked all folders that would contain those results.
But that cant be the answer. I can't go and block a million folders all over my harddisk. (at least I don't want too )
Maybe someone has an answer to that!
Thanks!
J

You should check the answers here : https://discussions.apple.com/message/23637617#23637617

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How to remove "Others" category from OS X Spotlight?

Hi, guys.
I use Spotlight only to launch applications, so in Spotlight PreferencePane I have only Applications box checked (image 1). In Privacy Settings, I have blocked Spotlight from looking on any visible folder except the Applications one (image 2). Here there are two screenshots of my PreferencePane Spotlight settings, for you to check what I say.
However, the behaviour of Spotlight is strange on OS X 10.9, because it shows a category called "Others", which includes many useless files and folders, (such as .html, .sav, .webloc, .bundle...) that don't fit in any other category. I have re-indexed Spotlight, I have changed almost everything on the PreferencePane and the odd behaviour is still there. Here there are more screenshots, in which you can see the "Others" category marked with red ("Altres" in my language) whetever it is the App I'm looking for. This didn't happen before installing Mavericks, I guess.
Any suggestions?
Thank you all.

Hi,
I had the same problem but didnt want to select all the folder that was giving me some unwanted results.
Here is my steps :
install Xcode
open terminal and typed :
open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.spotlight.plist
Then Xcode open and u can see the com.apple.spotlight.plist file.
Here is mine :
As you can see, i added item 16 as a "Dictionary"... with "enabled" as a NO boolean and name a String containing "OTHER".
This should work in any languages.
Hope this helped.

My week old MacBook w/ retina has half of its storage taken up by the "other" category. I don't have any downloads or backups. How can I get rid of it?

I now no longer have any storage and it is only 1 week old!!

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
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Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
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See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
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Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
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Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
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First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so.
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
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Back up all data now.
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Launch the Terminal 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.)
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My disc is almost full. "About this Mac" says that I have 47 GB of "Other." What is this Other and how can I delete items from this?

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown asBackups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Reboot and it should go away.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the built-in Terminal 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. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

"Other" Category taking SOOOO much space

Hi Apple Community.
its been almost 2 years that ive had my imac and im very happy with it. NEVER going back to PC. However im always concerned about my memory, and just today i checked my storage and BANG there was 100GB of memory taken by the "other" category on my flash storage and 269.46GB taken by the "Other" Category on my 2TB SATA Disk. PLEASE help me get rid of these. i understand the SATA disk space because ive got Parrallels disktop using memory on sata disk but i dont understand how 100GB is taken by other category in my flash storage! HELP PLEASE

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB free on the startup volume for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved. ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To really see everything, you have to run it as root. Back up all data now if you haven't already done so. No matter what happens, you should be able to restore your system to the state it was in at the time of that backup. Launch the Terminal 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. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. After installing ODS in the Applications folder, drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
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I don't recommend that you make a habit of this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. When you're done with it, quit it and also quit Terminal.

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Message was edited by: Hotpressed

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Welcome to our community, gillt40
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!http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54486/122/A57996D55BE7ABB4A67DE686D381A27 4.png!

"other" category in spotlight results

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