What is "Other" in "About This Mac/Storage"?

[aspermont]

On my Mac Mini, under "About This Mac/Storage" it shows about 75% "Other" and all my audio, photos, backups, and apps squeezed into the remaining 25%, with very little unused space. What goes under "Other" and is there a way to recover some of this as usable disk space? (I back up onto TimeCapsule.)

 

[warcraftWidow]

Some of the Other may be flexible space. OS X will make it available if needed. Look in Finder to see how much free space you have. If it's flexible space then Finder and About this Mac will show different amounts.

 

[kch50428]

Other can be lots of things... app data, documents that aren't in 'Documents'... and multimedia files that have metadata that don't identify what they are to the operating system. On iOS devices, a backup/restore can reduce the size of "Other"... not sure on a Mac... you might enquire of an AppleStore GeniusBar, or AppleSupport on-lne.