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Trying to install Monterey but it says I don't have enough space. I've deleted a ton and/or put all my documents saved in the cloud. A ton of space is being taken up by "System" and "other" which I apparently have no access to. How do I free up this space and why is icloud taking up so much of my space?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14
The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders. You can use either of these two free apps, GrandPerspective or OmniDiscSweeper, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.
Note: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied. Many users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which were no longer needed.
The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders. You can use either of these two free apps, GrandPerspective or OmniDiscSweeper, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.
Note: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied. Many users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which were no longer needed.
What does the Info pane for the hard drive indicate as free space and used space?
You might have to rebuild the Spotlight index for your drive: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
I don't understand the point of having my files in the cloud (and paying for that service) if they still take up space and I still have to move them to a hard drive. I've cleared off a ton of space and my amount available keeps getting smaller and smaller. I've even deleted apps that I use regularly in order to try to clear it up.
Attached are two screenshots showing my storage.
Go into the Finder's preferences and under Sidebar check the iCloud Drive checkbox. Then click on the iCloud Drive in the sidebar and you'll see the files in it:
Also you can make the Library folder visible as follows: Ggo to Finder and select your User/Home folder.
With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’.
That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.
The Other category is a potpourri of files which can include:
• System temporary files
• macOS system folders
• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)
• Personal user data
• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)
• Cache files: browser, Mail
• Mail messages & attachments
• Fonts, plugins, extensions
• Safari reading list
• iTunes backups
• Crud resulting from jailbreaking your iDevice
• Game data
• Saved data files
• Call history
• Notes
• Media
• Voice memos
• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search
• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package
• Files created and modified by other user accounts on your Mac.
They can be located anywhere on your hard drive.
The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders. You can use either of these two free apps, GrandPerspective or OmniDiscSweeper, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.
Note: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied. Many users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which are no longer needed.
I have the same problem. I deleted my ios files (backup for ipads) which are about 5G each. But for every 5G I deleted, the Mac adds 5G to "other". I also deleted Monterey (12G), then the extra 12G shows up in "other". It is very frustrating.
If you're adding files to the iCloud Drive be aware that the iCloud Drive is just a syncing feature and every file in it is mirrored on your Mac in the User/Home/Library/Mobile Documents folder.
You'll have to delete files or move them to an external drive and then delete from the internal drive.
This tells me what are the biggest files but it doesn't help me clear out all that space used in "Other". Every time I delete large files, my available space keeps shrinking or only increases minimally and not near enough to update to the new operating system. I even deleted one of my Adobe software programs (that I use) in order to free up space and I don't have any space left to update several of the other Adobe programs that are out of date.
I know how to get to my iCloud files and I know how to delete them. I couldn't find a folder called Mobile Documents though ^^ and when I do delete them it either doesn't free up much space or it adds that space to "other".
My question is how do I get my cloud services to not take up space on my laptop and/or how do I delete items in "other"?
I can't find this folder on my computer
Thank you. I appreciate that but I still have over 67GB in "Other" and have no idea how to get to them so I can delete them - or even know what they are.
Freeing up storage to install Monterey
