What is filling the Other category in macOS storage?
Short answer: macOS Other is a catch-all bucket for files that do not fit the named categories. It typically contains iOS and iPadOS device backups, Xcode (Apple's development tool) derived data and simulator runtimes, large email attachments cached by Apple Mail, virtual machine disk images, APFS Time Machine local snapshots, and application log files. On an Indian developer's or designer's MacBook — where iPhone backups, WWDC video downloads, and local Time Machine snapshots pile up — Other can reach 30–80 GB without the user ever explicitly creating those files. Clearing Other is the single fastest way to reclaim space on a full MacBook SSD.
Step-by-step macOS Other storage cleanup
Step 1: Open the Storage Management panel
Go to System Settings (the gear icon) › General › Storage. Wait 30–60 seconds for macOS to finish calculating category sizes. Click Info (ℹ) button to open the Storage Management window (on older macOS versions, click Manage). The panel shows a breakdown bar at the top — hover over segments to see exact sizes. The “Other” segment is typically grey. Click through the left-side list: Recommendations, Applications, Documents, iOS Files, and Others. iOS Files is a separate category in newer macOS versions but may appear inside Other on Monterey and earlier.
Step 2: Delete old iOS and iPadOS backups
In the Storage Management panel, click iOS Files. You will see a list of iPhone and iPad backups with device name, last backup date, and size. Delete all backups for devices you no longer own. A single iPhone backup runs 5–20 GB depending on photos and app data. If you use iCloud Backup for your iPhone (Settings › iCloud › iCloud Backup is on), the local Mac backup is redundant — delete it and keep only the cloud copy. For power users with a developer account: Xcode also stores device support files for each iOS version you have paired — these live at ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS DeviceSupport/. Delete support files for iOS versions you no longer test on. Each is 500 MB–2 GB.
Step 3: Clear Xcode derived data and simulator runtimes
If you use Xcode (Apple's IDE for building iOS/macOS apps), derived data balloons quietly. Open Xcode › Settings › Locations — click the arrow next to Derived Data to open the folder in Finder. Delete the entire DerivedData folder contents — Xcode recreates them on the next build. Next, in Xcode › Settings › Platforms, delete iOS simulator runtimes for versions you do not test on. A single iOS simulator runtime is 3–7 GB. If you have three or four old versions installed, deleting two of them can recover 10–20 GB instantly. Even if you are not a developer, macOS may have installed minimal Xcode tools — check via the terminal: du -sh ~/Library/Developer.
Step 4: Mail attachments, VM disks, and the India context
Apple Mail caches attachments for every message in every mailbox. In India, where office communication relies heavily on PDF-heavy email chains (GST invoices, compliance documents, project briefs), a Mail cache can reach 5–15 GB over a year. In Mail, go to Mailbox › Erase Junk Mail, then Mailbox › Erase Deleted Items. For large attachments in your inbox: in Mail, View › Message Attributes › Attachments sorts by attachment size — delete or move large ones to external storage. Virtual machine disk images (.vmdk, .sparseimage, .vmwarevm packages) from Parallels, VMware Fusion, or UTM are typically 20–60 GB each. If you no longer need a VM, delete the entire package from Finder. The India-specific note: APFS (Apple's file system on all M-series Macs) degrades write performance when the drive exceeds 90% capacity because it cannot maintain the copy-on-write metadata snapshots that protect your data during writes. Target at least 15% free space at all times. On a 256 GB base model MacBook Air — the most common storage tier sold in India — that means keeping at least 38 GB free.
When to call a MacBook service centre
When the storage audit is not enough
If your MacBook SSD is at 95%+ and you cannot free space through software cleanup, and performance is noticeably slow (spinning beachball, slow app launches), this is worth a professional assessment. On M-series MacBooks, the SSD is soldered — there is no upgrade path. If the drive is genuinely full with legitimate data, external NVMe storage is the practical solution. If the machine is slow despite adequate free space, the issue may be thermal throttling or an APFS metadata problem, not storage capacity — a separate diagnostic.
A note from the LRW Engineer Team
The most common macOS slowness complaint we see from Indian MacBook users — after battery drain — is “my MacBook has become slow.” In a significant portion of cases, the drive is at 95–98% full, mostly from undeleted iOS backups and forgotten VM disk images. A 30-minute quarterly cleanup keeps the SSD healthy, APFS metadata snapshots working correctly, and the machine feeling as fast as the day it was bought. For the full MacBook Air annual care checklist, the storage audit above is the Step 3 entry.