Help · Is it safe to delete?
What does “Other volumes in container” mean?
Your Mac's disk is an APFS container that holds several volumes sharing the same free space: your Data volume, plus System, Preboot, Recovery and VM. “Other volumes in container” is the space those others use.
Safe to delete? No. Never delete the System, Preboot, Recovery or VM volumes. Your Mac needs them to start up, update and recover.
Seeing the real numbers
Disk Utility shows each volume's size more accurately than Storage settings. If another volume is unexpectedly large, it's often a second macOS install or a volume you added yourself; only remove volumes you created.
Related: System Data and purgeable space.
Sources: Apple Support, macOS User Guide (Storage); Eclectic Light Company, 2 Apr 2024 and 20 Dec 2025. Checked October 2026.
Find out what's safe to remove.
Pangalin Space Manager's free scan shows what's using your disk, folder by folder, and labels each item: safe to clean, can move, or needs review. macOS's own files are marked so you don't delete what your Mac needs.
Free to scan · first 5 GB freed free · Notarised by Apple · Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later