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User profile for user: Delysid
Delysid Author
User level: Level 1
37 points

Free up "Other" category on HD to upgrade to Big Sur

We've got an early-2014 MacBook Air with a 128 GB SSD, running macOS Catalina. We want to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, but that requires 35.5 GB free space, and we only have 8.35 GB.


When I go to About This Mac and look under Storage, about half the used space is taken up by a dark grey category called "Other", but it's a different size for each user.


Here's what About This Mac > Storage looks like in my girlfriend's account:



And here's what it looks like in my account:



First, ignore the change in space available from 8.35 to 6.89 GB -- it's due to totally unrelated cause.


The problem is the Other category, around 50 GB in size. That's the space we are lacking in order to upgrade to Big Sur, but how do we get at it?


If that Other category is unavailable to either user, then in effect nearly half the entire SSD is gone. Instead of a 128 GB SSD, we've only got a 78 GB one!


Clearly that can't be right. How do we free up all this disk space currently occupied by the mysterious dark matter that is Other?

MacBook Air

Posted on Jul 30, 2021 11:11 PM

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User profile for user: PRP_53
PRP_53
User level: Level 10
91,837 points

Posted on Jul 31, 2021 2:43 AM

See used and available storage space on your Mac and the Final Word from Apple on Managing the " Other " category


" Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac. "


This computer will be very hard pressed to upgrade to Big Sur especially since it has the smaller possible internal SSD - 128 GB. IMHO even if one could free up enough Empty Space to upgrade - there after one would have to constantly be monitoring the empty space available almost all the time. For good Apple Computer Space Management - the drive should always have at least 15 % of the drive Empty for the computer to function normally and the OS also to work.


Perhaps Clone the Existing Drive to an external drive and thus have Catalina on the external. Then consider making a Bootable Installer of Big Sur. Boot from the Bootable Installer and Erase the Entire Drive - no do overs - and installed Big Sur as clean as if it was a computer just purchased with Big Sur installed.


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User profile for user: PRP_53
PRP_53
User level: Level 10
91,837 points

Jul 31, 2021 2:43 AM in response to Delysid

See used and available storage space on your Mac and the Final Word from Apple on Managing the " Other " category


" Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac. "


This computer will be very hard pressed to upgrade to Big Sur especially since it has the smaller possible internal SSD - 128 GB. IMHO even if one could free up enough Empty Space to upgrade - there after one would have to constantly be monitoring the empty space available almost all the time. For good Apple Computer Space Management - the drive should always have at least 15 % of the drive Empty for the computer to function normally and the OS also to work.


Perhaps Clone the Existing Drive to an external drive and thus have Catalina on the external. Then consider making a Bootable Installer of Big Sur. Boot from the Bootable Installer and Erase the Entire Drive - no do overs - and installed Big Sur as clean as if it was a computer just purchased with Big Sur installed.


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Free up "Other" category on HD to upgrade to Big Sur

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