“Other” Storage While Copying Files

[Jglez]

Hi,
For the past couple of days I have been copying on my M1 Mac Mini files from one external hard drive to another external hard drive. It’s approximately 500GB worth of data.

While the copying is taking place I noticed that the “Other” storage will take up all of the space in the Internal Hard Drive. This “Other” storage will keep taking all the space left in the internal HDD until I reboot the M1 Mac mini, then it will disappear.

Is this a common bug/issue? Is there a workaround?

All the best!

 

[appltech]

Were there any archives? When macOS unzips anything, it puts files in temporary folder in /private/tmp (I believe), so the storage counter might just lag behind.
Perhaps, something similar happens when you copy large amounts of data? Also, what file system is used on externals?
Anyway, I haven't noticed such behavior before.

 

[Jglez]

Some of the files were indeed Archives however this was a copy without decompression.
The external file systems are APFS Encrypted.

It is really bizarre.

 

[Loyola]

Did you ever figure out how to reduce the size of Other? I just transferred my files from my old iMac to my new Mac Mini using Migration Assistant. I am seeing 52 GB as other. That seems like a lot too me.

I found a couple of articles but I am hesitant to follow some of the suggestions. My concern is deleting things that I should not.

Here is one of the ones I found.

What is Other on Mac Storage and How to Delete It?

When you check the storage on your Mac, you might see a significant percentage of space occupied by something called 'Other.' macOS does not go into much

www.igeeksblog.com

 

[Jglez]

Did you ever figure out how to reduce the size of Other? I just transferred my files from my old iMac to my new Mac Mini using Migration Assistant. I am seeing 52 GB as other. That seems like a lot too me.

I found a couple of articles but I am hesitant to follow some of the suggestions. My concern is deleting things that I should not.

Here is one of the ones I found.

What is Other on Mac Storage and How to Delete It?

When you check the storage on your Mac, you might see a significant percentage of space occupied by something called 'Other.' macOS does not go into much

www.igeeksblog.com

A reboot did the trick for me. All other then went away.
Still don’t understand why it was there on the first place but oh well.

 

[Loyola]

A reboot did the trick for me. All other then went away.
Still don’t understand why it was there on the first place but oh well.

I was thinking that was all you did but figured I would check just to see if there was something else. When I restart it doesn't reduce the 52 GB of Other. I guess I will need to keep searching.

Thanks for replying.