What does others mean in storage?

My system has more than 20GB as "others", not sure what this is and how do i reduce this, please help me with the query as i am new to the Mac Family.

"Other" refers to system files, downloads, documents..., everything that doesn't fit onto other categories. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html

Similar Messages

  • What does 'other' mean in storage?

    In the 'about this mac>more info>storage' it says that there is roughly 80GB of 'other' sitting on my HDD. I can't work out what this is. It also says that there is 12GB of music, but the iTunes Music folder in Finder says there is 30GB, is the same for Photos (26GB in about this Mac and 40GB in Finder) and Movies. I rang up AppleCare and was on the phone for an hour and they basically said, that happens sometimes. But I am still confused as to what this other is as I can't pinpoint what to delete!

    "Other" is just anything that aren't photos, movies, apps, backups, etc. All your data files, system files, documents, etc. If it look as if it's too big, try doing a Get-Info on your Documents folder, for example, and see how much space the Finder  says that it is using.
    Apple's right - the Finder and Storage tab don't always agree. The Finder wil usually report more free disk space, for instance, than the Storage tab.
    Clinton

  • What does "other" mean regarding storage

    Hi. I am trying to download the new iOS7 and I don't have enough space on my hard drive to download. I checked the what is bein stored in my phone, but about 4.8 GB is stored under the category "Other." What's "Other?" I want to know what is stored in my phone so I can manage it and delete what I don't want.
    thanks for your help!

    See Here...
    maclife.com/how_remove_other_data_your_iphone
    More Info about ‘Other’ in this Discussion
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19958116

  • What does "other" mean at the bottom of the sync page? It is taking up a large amount of space on my phone.

    What does "other" mean at the bottom of the sync page? It is taking up a large amount of space on my phone.

    The other section contains temporary files, such as text messages, iMessages, voicemail, and other storage that is meant for small short term use.  If the other section of your phone has grown quite large and you can't account for what it could be then you may have experienced a syncing error to iTunes.
    I have experienced this problem frequently during my years with the iPhone.  The other portion of my phone grows with every sync of my phone to iTunes.  There comes a point where it takes up the majority of the space on my iPhone, making the device near unusable.
    When it grows to this extent is usually cased by an error during the syncing process.  Any information iTunes can't reconcile during the syncing process is saved out of sight, out of mind, in the 'other' section.
    You will never be able to see or recover this section unless you are very savvy and know how to poke around the archived iPhone back-up on your computer.  (if you are thinking of trying, stop.  It will not be worth your time and effort, or if using third party software, the money or spyware associated with it *cough* iTools *cough*).
    The only fix I have found that works is to back up your phone to iTunes, and preform a 'restore'.  This erases the content of your phone, and restores it to factory settings.
    That is you phone will be as if you took it fresh out of the box.  You can preform a restore from back-up through iTune, or iCloud to get your content back.
    Lo and behold your have trimmed the mystery meat.

  • What does "Other" mean when I sync my iPod touch 4G on iTunes?

    When I sync my Apple produtcs to my iTunes, "Other" appears on the storage bar. What does "Other" mean because it says that I have 5.13 GB of "Other"

    Other is usually around 1 GB...
    A  ' Large Other ' usually indicates Corrupt Data...
    First Try a Restore from Backup... But... if the Large Other Persists, that is an Indicator of Corrupt Data in the Backup... Then a Restore as New is the way to go...
    Details Here  >  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
    More Info about ‘Other’ in this Discussion
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19958116

  • What does "other" mean when syncing my device?

    i plug in my iphone 4s into my imac. there is over 2 GB labelled under Other in iTunes... how do i minimize it simply? what exactly is it? what does it mean? can somebody please let me know?

    "Other" is just that. All of the data on your phone that is not listed explicitly; everything except music, videos, photos, podcasts and apps. Examples include email, text messages, mms messages and their images, app data, Siri cache, Safari cache, maps, operating system settings such as mail accounts, WiFi settings and passwords, album art, etc, etc, etc.
    5 GB is a bit large, however, so you may have some data corruption also. Take a look at "More Like This" to the right of your post.

  • What does "other" mean on an iphone?

    I can't figure out what "other" means as far as how much is in the phone. 

    "Other" is all of the data on your phone that is not music, videos, photos, apps, or books. So it includes iOS metadata, email messages, text messages, notes, calendars, Safari cache, Siri cache, iPod database index, plus all of the data from all of your apps. And probably a few things I missed.

  • What does "other" mean in system report, storage

    the indicator bar on the system report, storage reading "other" uses a tremendous amout of space - Does anyone know what is inside "other"

    By cleaning out user data - anything that's not photos, music, video, apps, etc. I wouldn't just indiscriminately begin trashing files - if there are those you want to keep, back them up first. If there are documents, etc., that you no longer need, you can trash those, though. "Other" is usually going to take up the most disk space - if you've still 15% or so free on your hard drive, I wouldn't worry about it too much.
    Clinton

  • What does "Other" mean in data usage for iPhone storage?

    I have a 32 GB iPhone 5S and when I got it, I did NOT restore it from a backup and when I plugged in my phone to sync music, it says:
    Audio: 8.94 GB
    Photos: 6.37 GB
    Apps: 1.48 GB
    Documents and Data: 648.2 MB
    Other: 7.08 GB
    What's the other category consist of and how do I delete its data?

    Take a look at this link, http://osxdaily.com/2013/07/24/remove-other-data-storage-iphone-ipad/

  • What does "Other" mean for iPhone storage?

    My other section in the iPhone keeps on growing every week. Now it's 4.7 GB, more than apps, audio, video, photo... how do I understand what's in there? Any way to see the detail?

    goldfilm wrote:
    My other section in the iPhone keeps on growing every week. Now it's 4.7 GB, ...
    Other is usually around 1 GB...
    A  ' Large Other ' usually indicates Corrupt Data...
    First Try a Restore from Backup...
    But... if the Large Other Persists, that is an Indicator of Corrupt Data in the Backup...
    Then a Restore as New is the way to go...
    Details Here  >  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
    More Info Here...
    maclife.com/how_remove_other_data_your_iphone

  • What does other mean in itunes summary?

    On IPhone summary tab in itunes it shows other as 2.61GB, is there any way i could reduce this amount? what is contained in other?

    Greetings raundel,
    The "Other" memory area contains things such as Settings, Siri voices and other system data. See this article -
    See how much storage you've used on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Be well,
    Brett L 

  • What does "Other" mean?

    The other section on my iphone 4s takes up 9 GB and i have no idea what it is that takes up all the space. ive tried to delete several things but nothing seems to really clear up the space. Can someone please help? Thanks.

    Other = Files that do not fit into the Listed Categories...
    A  ' Large Other ' usually indicates Corrupt Data...
    First Try a Restore from Backup...
    But... if the Large Other Persists, that is an Indicator of Corrupt Data in the Backup...
    Then a Restore as New is the way to go...
    Details Here  >  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
    More Info Here...
    maclife.com/how_remove_other_data_your_iphone
    More Info about ‘Other’ in this Discussion
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19958116

  • What is "other" on the storage bar? I have hardly any storage left and it's mainly taken up by "other"

    What does "other" on the storage bar? I have hardly any storage left and a lot of it is taken up by "other" but I'm not sure what to delete to make more room.
    My trash is empty.
    Hope someone can shed some light on this for me.
    Thanks.

    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.

  • HT1711 At the bottom of the itunes main page, the colored bar graph indicates what amount of media i have on my iphone.  What does"other" stand for?!

    can anyone tell me at the bottom of the itunes main screen, on the color graph what does "other' mean?

    It is whatever does not fit in the remaining categories.
    Could be app data, contacts, calendars, favorites, recents, etc

  • When syncing iPhone what does 'other' storage mean?

    When syncing my iPhone with my mac. what does 'other' contain for my storage?

    How to Remove “Other” Data Stored on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

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