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How Do I Delete Files In the “Other” Folder?

Trying to update Xcode, but there is an error that says I do not have enough space, however I have about 38GB of space. After going through forums and other articles I found out that I need to have over 40GB for Xcode to be able to update, so I went to check what I can delete and found out that there is an “Other” folder that is 41.52GB and I can’t seem to understand why and when I google this other sites want me to download these mac cleaners and I once watched a video from Macmost that those apps are generally malware or might in fact do exactly the opposite of what they promise. Now to my question how do I free up the “Other” folder with 41.52GB.
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Ayanda

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Delete Files In the “Other” Folder?”

    3 years ago

    There is no such thing as an "Other" folder. What you are referring to, probably, is if you look at Apple Menu, About This Mac, Storage and then the list there. This is a categorized list of things on your drive, not a list of folders. There is no "Other" folder.

    To understand, think about a similar list for your home. It shows everything in your home. One category may be "books" and shows 300 books, all the books in your home. Yet you probably don't hav a single room in your house that holds 300 books and nothing else at all. The books are probably spread out around your house in different rooms. The same for everything else: furniture, food, clothing, etc.

    If you want to get rid of things on your drive, you don't start with a list of categories any more than if you were cleaning your house. So forget this list.

    Instead, in the Finder, go to the Computer level. Then down into your internal hard drive. Then switch to List View and turn on View, Show View Options, Calculate all Sizes. Then after some calculation time you'll see how much space is used by each folder. Then dig down. In your Users folder you'll find each account. Look at their sizes. Keep digging. In each account, you'll find folders like Music, Movies, etc. If you keep going you'll eventually get an idea of what takes up the space on your drive.

    One thing: When you are looking at an account's Home folder, the Library folder is hidden. You can unhide it with Shift+Command+. (period). The Library folder could be holding a lot of things if you have apps like audio creation apps and the like.

    Ayanda
    3 years ago

    I clicked the Apple logo, then Storage under the MacBook Air (main drive) it displays how my storage is use e.g Apps, Documents, Music, Photos, Books, System there's also Other (This is the one I'm asking about), maybe I was not able to explain it right or correctly but this "Other" is taking up a lot of risk space and I tried going folder by folder it just shaved off 2GB from the 41.52GB.

    3 years ago

    Ayanda: Re-read what I wrote before. "Other" is not a place. It is a category. To clear out things from your drive you need to look on the drive itself, not a simple categorized list. Read what I wrote carefully because I tell you exactly how to figure this out.

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