Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
I have an iPhone 4 and it is running iOS 5.0.1.

I synced my iPhone to my iMac last night and it went as expected, except for one thing. In iTunes, my iPhone says there is a lot of "other" data that is taking up a substantial amount of memory. This is how everything breaks down:

Audio - ~7.1GB
Photos - ~5.0GB
Apps - ~4.0GB
Books - ~<1GB
Other - ~5.0GB
Free - ~6.7GB

I have noticed that when I click on "sync" that "free space" goes from 6.7GB to 11.1GB and that the "other" bar shrinks but goes back to "normal" after the sync finishes. I have checked the usage pane in my iPhone's settings and everything checks out except for this "other" data. I have restarted my iPhone and it is still showing 6.7GB free in preferences.

Aside from deleting all my data and apps and even restoring my iPhone, any ideas on how I can solve this issue?
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
The Other data is comprised of iCloud documents, iOS OTA update data, stock app caches, text messages, MMS pictures and videos, Safari web data, system caches, things downloaded but not yet transferred to iTunes, and many more smaller files. The only way to temporarily get rid of this data is to restore your iPhone, but it will return.
 

LAFUNGA

macrumors newbie
Jan 23, 2012
14
0
Restore your iPhone

I had the same issue with my iPhone, only way round it is to create a back up of your iPhone on iTunes, then restore to original settings and then re install your back up, i think you will find this works, i know its long winded but it worked for me, apparently the "other" folder is the result of a corrupted sync.

Hope that helps mate.

Incidentally i have an "other" folder on my mac now which is 70gb and growing, thats what I'm currently looking for a resolution for?
 

Mak47

macrumors 6502a
Mar 27, 2011
751
32
Harrisburg, PA
I've seen this happen with my iPad and iPhone occasionally. There is some real data in the "Other" category, but it shouldn't be large for most users.

From what I've seen, it tends to be a situation where items are deleted or removed during sync. Sometimes the iOS device doesn't quite register that the items are gone.

Every time I've seen it, unplugging from the computer, powering the iOS device off and then back on, then resyncing it seems to clear up the issue.
 

AnaA

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2012
1
0
My Experence RE: "Other" memory drain on iPhone

I have the iphone 4s with 64 GB of memory. It is factory unlocked and NOT jail broken. My "Other" memory suck was up to 7.4 GB. This occurred after I tried to download a movie then had to delete it through apple's reps because it got stuck. The "Other" memory usage, which prior to movie iFiasco had been 2 GB, increased by 5.4 GB. I decided to try a restore and backup reload of previous memory as multiple posts suggested this could remedy the issue. Pre-iFiasco my iPhone had 21 GB of free memory. Pre-restore/backup, Post iFiasco the memory on my iPhone 4S dropped from the substantial 21 GB to a sad 4.2 GB out of 64 GB. Significant iDrop. After finishing restore/backup the phone "Other" decreased from 7.4 GB to 6.2 GB. Not much freed up. The free memory left on the iPhone has now gone from the previous 4.2 GB to 5.9 GB, SOOO the restore/backup only served to restore 1.7 GB of space from the previous 21 GB I had free prior to iFiasco. I do not understand this at all and the people at apple were unable to provide an answer after helping to remove the stuck movie from my iPhone and laptop.
 

msaftw

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2010
53
0
Houston, Tx
It was mentioned somewhere in another thread that some of the "other" data comes from music...don't ask me how. But, if you delete music and re-sync I've experienced you'll get about 1 GB back even if you restore the exact same music back.
 

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
So I got my iPhone 5 last week and activated it over the weekend. I rolled over everything from my old iPhone 4 and synced everything and it seems that this issue with "other" data came with it.

I've done everything I could think of by not syncing music and no dice, I'm stuck with a few gigabytes "other" data that's sucking space from my iPhone. The only silver lining here is that I have a 64GB iPhone 5.
 

bandofbrothers

macrumors 601
Oct 14, 2007
4,779
328
Uk
So I got my iPhone 5 last week and activated it over the weekend. I rolled over everything from my old iPhone 4 and synced everything and it seems that this issue with "other" data came with it.

I've done everything I could think of by not syncing music and no dice, I'm stuck with a few gigabytes "other" data that's sucking space from my iPhone. The only silver lining here is that I have a 64GB iPhone 5.

Have you tried setting up as a new device and then restore from your iCloud backup !

You probably have a bunch if game save data etc. how important is this data to you is the question.
 

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
Have you tried setting up as a new device and then restore from your iCloud backup !


I have no intention nor desire to use iCloud at the moment.


You probably have a bunch if game save data etc. how important is this data to you is the question.


I doubt it's game data because I hardly game on my iPhone. And the games I play are low-level games that don't seem to require much in terms of system resources.
 

OC513

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2007
324
35
NYC
If you get alot of MMS texts and keep them that will cause your "Other" to be high. Save the pics you want and then delete all text threads that have a bunch of pics and you will get your other down quite a bit. I freed up 2GB's of other just last week by doing this.
 

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
do you frequently not hit eject after using itunes and your phone?


I always eject my iPhone or any device connected to my Mac before going too far.


If you get alot of MMS texts and keep them that will cause your "Other" to be high. Save the pics you want and then delete all text threads that have a bunch of pics and you will get your other down quite a bit. I freed up 2GB's of other just last week by doing this.


Yup, I have kept all my texts. Some dating as far back as 2008! :D
 

OC513

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2007
324
35
NYC
Yup, I have kept all my texts. Some dating as far back as 2008! :D

Well there is one of the culprits. Getting rid of them will free up quite a bit of space considering you have text threads going back to 2008.
 

JonMPLS

macrumors 68000
May 23, 2010
1,671
242
MN
An easy trick that worked for me

My "other" was 6 GB. The trick that worked for me was pretty simple. I backed it up in iTunes, then just did a restore from the recent backup. In my case, the "other" went from 6 GB to about 1.1, which is pretty standard.
 

iMikeT

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 8, 2006
2,304
1
California
Well there is one of the culprits. Getting rid of them will free up quite a bit of space considering you have text threads going back to 2008.


You know, considering how small of a footprint text has, I'm surprised that it takes up so much space.

Perhaps I'll clear this data, perhaps I won't. Then again, I'll do what I have always done with every iPhone purchase, buy the one with the most memory.


Other is the worst. Apple should make an easier way to clean it up.


Agreed. I wish they had a way of picking and choosing what data gets synced.

For example, I use my iPhone to record class lectures with the voice recorder app. When ever I sync my iPhone to my Mac, I can't pick and choose which voice memos go to my Mac and which ones stay on my iPhone. And while I'm at it, I wish Apple would automatically add voice memos to the Music app rather than keeping them exclusively in the voice recorder app.
 

theanimaster

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2005
319
14
Sync your photos and delete

Sync (download) your iPhone's photos with iPhoto and then re-sync your iPhone with iTunes.

If that doesn't clear it up, delete the photos off the phone with iPhoto (presumably after offloading the photos to iPhoto first).

You'll see the yellow stuff disappear.

Apple's way of non-destructive photo editing. And what-not. Whatever it is, Apple will never really let us know, but I do know it's tied to the photos. It seems to almost-mirror what I have for photos.

And when I did the above, it got rid of the yellow-stuff.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.