Mac Os X Library Folder Huge

MacBook storage issue is still a relevant one in 2020. The promised 1 TB of storage — which is the capacity of the upcoming MacBook Air 2020 — will still be not enough for many. We generate more and more content on our devices and use apps that are bursting with cache files. This is what creates the cryptic category of “Other” storage on Mac.

Large Log files in /Library/Group Containers I'm getting really large files with names very similar to: MicrosoftShipAssertLogONMC15599.txt in the Group Containers folder within my Library. The files are quite large, and quickly ballooned up to 15GB in size. Dec 12, 2016 The User Library folder is hidden by default in MacOS Catalina, MacOS Mojave, macOS High Sierra, and macOS Sierra, but some advanced users may wish to show and access the /Library/ folder, which contains preference files, caches, and application support data. Apple made the user library folder hidden by default with the 10.7 release. If it's necessary to access these files to perform Adobe-related troubleshooting, use one of the following methods to make the user library content visible. Access hidden user library files Mac OS 10.7 Lion.

On recent macOS versions this storage category is labeled “other volumes in container”. Which, of course, doesn’t make it any less cryptic. This category contains junk files as well as important ones. That’s why you have to learn to properly check storage on Mac.
So let’s figure out what Other Storage is and how to remove Other from your Mac.

What is Other on Mac Storage?

Simply, Other storage on Mac consists of files that do not easily fall into the clearer category labels like 'Audio.' The types of 'Other' files would include:

  1. Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
  2. macOS system and temporary files.
  3. Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
  4. Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
  5. App plugins and extensions.
  6. Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main macOS categories.

Like this file:

What’s this? Reset icloud music library. A song? An unknown archive? Why on Earth it weighs 200 MB?

How to check Mac disk space usage

A few years back Apple introduced “Optimized Storage”, a great feature for finding out how your disk space is structured. This is how to check storage on Mac.

  1. Open the Apple menu (top right corner)
  2. Now, click About this Mac >Storage

Is your disk approaching full capacity? Now, click “Manage.” The sidebar to the left is really enlightening. This is the only place where on your Mac it shows the size of your apps, books, and documents in gigabytes.

Where is Other Storage on a Mac

To show you where it is, let’s look at your Library. This is where your macOS keeps application components, widgets, and various cache archives. This part of your Mac is hidden from view for a reason. Messing up a few folders here may break your Mac. But let’s take a look:
Click on Finder > Go (in the top menu).
Now paste in: Library/Caches

See those small folders? This is where your “Other” storage is. You’ve found it. Now, we'll see what's possible to delete.

How to delete Other Storage on Mac

You can’t entirely get rid of Other on Mac but you can reduce how much storage space it takes up. We’re now going to look at each of the six types of Other files and show you how to clean up your Mac. We’re going to walk you through deleting useless documents, junk system files, system slowing cache files, old backups, and all sorts of other junk.

1. Remove documents from Other Storage space

You might not think that pure text documents take up a lot of space but you may be surprised at the size of some .pages and .csv files. And that’s before you start adding images, downloading ebooks, and creating big presentations. Soon your Other documents can start to get out of hand.

To find and remove large and unneeded documents from Other Storage manually:

  1. From your desktop press Command + F.
  2. Click This Mac.
  3. Click the first dropdown menu field and select Other.
  4. From the Search Attributes window tick File Size and File Extension.
  5. Now you can input different document file types (.pdf, .pages, etc.) and file sizes to find large documents.
  6. Review the items and then delete as needed.

Luckily, there’s a much quicker and more thorough way. By using a CleanMyMac X you are presented with a clear view of all the massive files occupying your Other space.

To locate large hidden files in all folders with CleanMyMac:

  1. Open CleanMyMac X and click on Large & Old Files tab
  2. Click big Scan button to start the search
  3. Now, review the results broken down by different categories: archives, documents, movies etc.
  4. Look through your files and delete the ones you no longer need.

What’s great about this method is that you can sort the files by their size and thus free up space most effectively. And there’s a special category for Other files that don’t fit into either category. These files can be also moved to another folder/separate disk or could be removed securely.

In addition to this, you can empty up a few more gigabytes taken up by Dropbox folder and your Trash.

You can download CleanMyMac X here (it's free to download from developer's site).
In the top right bar (where the time and language is displayed) you’ll find a small Mac icon that takes you to the CleanMyMac X’s Menu.

  1. Click on CleanMyMac X Menu icon (within the upper bar)
  2. Locate windows for Trash and Dropbox
  3. Click Empty to instantly free up space

No try it and see how it helps you slim down Other storage on Mac. Deleting your old files alone can recover you tons of space, but there are more space hoggers that fall under the Other data category.

2. Clean up Other space of system and temporary files

Every second your Mac is on, the macOS creates and piles up system files — logs, for example. At some point, the system needs these files, but they quickly become outdated and just sit there wasting your disk space. And guess what, they are in the Other Mac storage category, too.

These files are mostly temporary but they never actually go away unless you do something about it. The difficulty is that Apple hasn’t made it easy to clear out system files. There’s a good reason for this – people often delete things they shouldn’t.

Let's inspect your Library folder

To manually find where a majority of apps temporary files live navigate to ~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/. In this folder you will find your applications and some searching will reveal a lot of space being taken up. For example, your may have gigabytes worth of old iOS backups in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

You could delete these manually but a much safer and faster method is to use a specialist cleaning app like CleanMyMac X. It has a System Junk module that specifically looks for useless system files and knows what’s safe to delete.

Here’s how to easily remove system files from Other Storage:

  • Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
  • Hit Scan.
  • Hit Clean.

That’s pretty much it. Seriously. If this is the first time you ever cleaned your Mac, you’ll see that the OS X Other storage tab has shrunk considerably after the system junk cleanup.

Using this method I was able to additionally delete 4.75 GB of 'System Junk' from my MacBook.

3. Delete cache files from Other data section

Cache files are not just another invisible storage hog. They are often one of the worst offenders, often taking up gigabytes of precious space. The three main types cache are – browser, user, and system. Cache files are meant to help your system work faster, but over time they get bigger and bigger, eventually slowing your system down.

To manually clear cache files on Mac:

  1. Navigate to Go > Go To Folder.
  2. Type in ~/Library/Caches and click Go.
  3. Click-hold Option and drag the Caches folder to your desktop as a backup in case something goes wrong.
  4. Select all the files in the Caches folder.
  5. Drag them to the Trash.
  6. Empty Trash.

Follow the same steps for /Library/Caches (without the “~”) and ~/Library/Logs. Cache files sit in numerous folders, and with a little patience, you can clean them out manually (read more detailed instruction on clearing cache).

Did you know: Each time you rotate an image it’s copy is automatically created on your drive. So, just 4 rotations are enough to turn a 2.5 MB file into 10 MB of disk space occupied.

For those who don’t have the time or are worried about deleting the wrong files, CleanMyMac can quickly and safely do the job.

If you already cleaned out system files from step 2, congratulations, in doing so you also cleared out your cache files. If you didn’t, here are the steps again:

  • Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
  • Hit Scan.
  • Hit Clean.


This will clear all the cache files on your Mac and considerably reduce Other storage on your Mac.

4. Remove app plugins and extensions from Other storage

Another cool way to manage storage on Mac.
While apps are, unsurprisingly, categorized as Apps on the Storage bar, their add-ons are under the Other storage category.Compared to some types of files, app plugins and extensions probably won’t take up as much of your Mac's Other space. Still, every bit counts. Since extensions can sometimes cause other problems on your Mac, why not remove the ones you don’t use to be safe and free up some extra Other storage space at the same time?

Mac Os X Library Folder Huge Box

Tracking down all your add-ons can be a hassle. Some you’ve forgotten you had (like that nCage extension for Chrome), others you didn’t know of in the first place.

Here’s how to manually remove extensions from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

To remove extensions from Safari:

  1. Open Safari browser.
  2. Click on Preferences.
  3. Click on the Extensions tab.
  4. Select the extension you want to target and uncheck “Enable” to disable or click “Uninstall” to remove.

To remove extensions from Chrome browser:

  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Click the three dot icon in the top-right corner.
  3. Click More tools > Extensions.
  4. Disable or remove as you choose.

To remove extensions from Firefox:

  1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
  2. Click on the burger menu in the top-right corner.
  3. Choose Add-ons.
  4. From the Extensions and Plugins tabs disable and remove whatever you want.

Important! If you’re not sure what a plugin does, don’t rush to remove it. Try disabling it first and see if your apps and your system work as expected. You can always remove that add-on later. Also note that Chrome extensions can’t be deleted automatically. But if you’d like to get rid of them, we’ll list these extensions for you and tell how to do that manually.

5. Clear Other space of disk images and archives

Normally, archives and images are files you keep for a reason. However, if you think you might have accumulated some useless .zip and .dmg files on your Mac, then you should definitely clear them out as well.

You can find these files using Spotlight search:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Type DMG/ZIP in the search field.
  3. Select Search: This Mac.
  4. Sort the results by Size.

Finder will show you all files of the format you’ve specified, sorted by size. You can clean out those you don’t need.

To safely and easily remove all your old unused disk images, CleanMyMac X has a dedicated tool within the System Junk module. Everything is categorized so you have a better understanding of what you’re removing.

  1. Go to System Junk module in CleanMyMac X
  2. Click Scan and when it’s done, click Review Details

Now you get a detailed overview of some ultra-specific categories of files that are normally invisible to you. Among those you’ll see Unused Disk Images (another name for DMG installations). Then, there’s Old Updates — you would like to remove those too. Old Updates are past versions of update packages that you already got installed.

Do you often use use graphic editors like Photoshop or Sketch? Then, you’ll probably be fascinated by Document Versions feature. If you click on Document Versions tab (System Junk > Scan > Review Details), you’ll be able to see how much of your space is taken by large document re-edits. Imagine a 60 MB Photoshop file cloned 10 times with just slight differences. In CleanMyMac X you can delete these intermediate revisions. And, handy enough, the program keeps just the original file and its final revision on the drive.

6. Get rid of everything else from Other disk space

Even Other storage space has its own “other” files and no, the irony of that statement is not lost on us.

Other storage on Mac can also include:

  • Files in your user library (screen savers, for example).
  • Files Spotlight search doesn’t recognize.

Typically, they won’t be as big of a share of Other data on your Mac as cache files and other items we’ve cleared out. However, if you’re determined to clean out as much Other Mac storage as possible, here’s how you can delete screensavers:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. In the Menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder.
  3. Type this: ~/Library/Screen Savers and click Go.

You’ll see the screen saver files now — they are lightweight, but for the sake of being thorough, you can trash them as well.

As for files Spotlight doesn’t recognize, they are rare. They could include files like Windows Boot Camp partitions or virtual machine hard drives. If you don’t recall putting anything like that on your Mac, you probably have nothing to look for.

7. See your disk contents through a Space Lens

Some apps, like Daisy Disk or CleanMyMac create a visual map of your entire drive. It’s an amazing way to see your Mac as it is under the hood — with bubbles of different sizes representing each file category. But what’s most important, you can delete your useless files right from there. It's so cool you can manage storage on Mac in a visual way:

  • Run the Space Lens tool in CleanMyMac X — A link to a free version from developer’s site
  • Explore the bubbles
  • Delete files you don’t need

How much can you expect to delete from Other storage on Mac?

You’ll never remove Other data section from Mac entirely, nor should you want to. It’s perfectly fine to have space taken up by necessary files, whatever category label they have. What is not okay is valuable storage space being wasted.

Download CleanMyMac and follow the steps in this guide to clean gigabytes off Other storage on your Mac.
Your lighter and faster Mac will love you for it. =)

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Troubleshoot font issues in Adobe applications on Mac OS X

This document can assist you in resolving problems that occur when you install fonts or when using fonts with Adobe applications in Mac OS X. Font problems can manifest themselves in many different ways, including (but not limited to) the following:

  • Fonts don't appear in the font menu of your applications.
  • Fonts don't print correctly.
  • Fonts in menus and dialog boxes have incorrect letters or characters.
  • Fonts don't appear correct onscreen.
  • Errors or crashes occur after installing fonts.
  • Fonts are available to certain users only.

To benefit most from this document, perform the following tasks in order.

If you use an unsupported font format, the system can't display or print the font in applications.

Mac OS X supports the following font formats:

  • .dfont
  • Multiple Master (Mac OS X 10.2 and later only)
  • OpenType (.otf)
  • TrueType (.ttf)
  • TrueType Collection (.ttc)
  • Type 1 (PostScript)

2. Make sure the font is installed in the correct folder.

Mac OS X includes five font folders that allow you to use fonts in different ways. You can install fonts to as many folders as required because Mac OS X permits duplicate copies of a font in the system. If fonts have duplicate names, Mac OS X uses fonts—without regard to font format—from the following locations in the order listed:

  1. Users/[user name]/Library/Fonts
  2. Library/Fonts
  3. Network/Library/Fonts
  4. System/Library/Fonts (Avoid changing this folder. It contains .dfont fonts that Mac OS X requires for system use and display. For more information, see Mac OS X: Font locations and their purposes.)
  5. System Folder/Fonts

Note: Fonts installed in System Folder/Fonts are available to all Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa applications.

Mac Library Folder Huge

To install a font in Mac OS X, do the following:

  1. Quit all applications (to use the font in those applications).
  2. Log in:
    • If you're installing fonts to the Users/[user name]/Library/Font folder, log in with your user name.
    • If you're installing fonts to the Library/Fonts folder, log in as Administrator.
    • If you're installing fonts to the Network/Library/Fonts folder on a networked server, contact your network administrator.
  3. Drag the font files from the original media (for example, a CD) to one or more of the following folders on the hard disk:

    Note: When installing PostScript fonts, drag both the outline font file and bitmap font suitcase to the appropriate folder. (In Mac OS X, font suitcases look and behave like other font files. You can't open them by double-clicking the file as you can in Mac OS 9.)

    • System Folder/Fonts, to access the font in applications running in Mac OS X and applications running in Classic mode (Mac OS 9)
    • Library/Fonts, to access the font in all applications by all users in Mac OS X. (The font isn't available in applications running in Classic mode.)
    • Users/[user name]/Library/Fonts—used by a specific user in Mac OS X. (The font is available in all applications in Mac OS X only when you log in as the specified user.)
    • Network/Library/Fonts—accessed by remote users on a networked file server running Mac OS X over a local area network (LAN)

3. Check that both screen and printing files are installed. (PostScript fonts)

To use PostScript fonts in Mac OS X, install the bitmap (screen), or the suitcase containing the bitmap fonts, and outline (printer) fonts to the same folder. (Adobe bitmap font files use the font name. The outline files use a shortened, PostScript version of the font name [for example, 'Isabe' for the Isabella font].) If an outline font file isn't installed, the font can print incorrectly. If the bitmap font file isn't installed, the font isn't available in the font menu.

4. Use Adobe Type Manager (ATM) with Classic applications.

ATM prevents fonts from appearing jagged onscreen and therefore helps PostScript fonts print more smoothly on nonPostScript printers when running applications in Classic mode. You can download a free version of ATM Light 4.6 from the Adobe website.

5. Troubleshoot third-party font management software.

Deactivate all font management utilities, such as Extensis Suitcase Fusion, Insider FontAgent Pro, or Linotype FontExplorer X. Attempt to perform the action that previously produced the problem (launching your application, accessing the font menu, and so on). Then do one of the following:

  • If the problem recurs, move on to the next section below.
  • If the problem doesn't recur, reactivate your font management utility. Use it to perform a binary isolation of the fonts by disabling 50% of your fonts and comparing the results with both halves. Then, continue this process for the half that reproduces the problem.

Move font files from the Fonts folders in the Users, Library, and Network folders to the desktop or other location, and restart the computer. If the problem doesn't recur, one or more of the font files you moved is causing the problem. Replace font files a few at a time to determine which font is causing the problem. (For example, replace font files that start with A-E to the System/Library/Fonts folder, and then restart the computer. If the problem doesn't recur, add another small group of font files. If the problem does recur, one of the font files you just added could be the cause. Remove the font files, and add them back one at a time. Restart the computer each time until you find the particular font file that causes the problem.) When you find the font file that causes the problem, reinstall the font from the original media.

Make sure you are using the latest version of the font.

To check a font from the Adobe Type Library, select the font file, and choose File > Get Info > General to check the creation date. (If you're using PostScript fonts, check the creation date for each outline and suitcase file.) If the font's creation date is before 1992, a new version of the font could be available. For upgrade information, contact Adobe Customer Support at 1-800-833-6687.

Corrupt font cache files cause fonts to appear damaged even if they are not. A common symptom is garbled text onscreen. Once the cache has been cleared, a corrupt font cache can be eliminated as the possible source of the problem.

A system error can occur if an application accesses a damaged font.

  1. Drag the contents of the Library/ Fonts folder to a new folder on the desktop. (If you manually added fonts to the Library/ Application Support/ Adobe/ Fonts folder, also drag those fonts to the new folder.)
  2. Type AdobeFnt.lst, select the system drive, and then press Return.
  3. Delete all AdobeFnt.lst files found (for example, AdobeFnt10.lst).
  4. Restart InDesign. InDesign creates new AdobeFnt.lst files.
  5. Try to re-create the problem. Then, do one of the following:
    • If the problem doesn't recur, move one font back to the Library/Fonts folder, and then repeat steps 5-6 until you identify the problematic font.
    • If you have a font management utility, restart it and activate fonts in small groups or individually to identify the problematic font.
    • If the problem recurs, move the contents of the new folder on the desktop back to the Library/Fonts folder.

Note: If no adobefnt.lst file is found in the search, make sure the search criteria are set to 'any' in the Find dialog box.

To troubleshoot fonts if you use Font Book, do the following:

Important: Do not empty the Trash before the final step in this process.

  1. Navigate to Home/Library/Preferences and remove the following files:
    • com.apple.fontbook.plist
    • com.apple.ATS.plist

    Note: The first file is the preferences file for Font Book. The second file specifies the fonts you disabled in Font Book. After you delete com.apple.ATS.plist, all previously disabled fonts load when you next log in. If you installed hundreds or thousands of fonts, the performance of your system could be slow when all previously disabled fonts are loaded.

  2. Delete your font cache. To delete your font cache, do the following:
    1. Locate and delete your font cache folder. For example, if you are the first user defined on your Mac, the folder is named 501. If you are the second user, the folder is named 502.
      Note: If you use Fast User Switching, several 501.xxx, 502.xxx folders could be in the ATS folder. Move them to the Trash.

  3. If requested to authenticate trashing any of these folders, provide your Administrator password.

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