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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,478
43,405
Its stuff that doesn't fit the other categories. Since there is no exposed file system its really difficult to say what's on your iPad. I'd venture a guess and say cache, settings, an temporary files needed
 

Atrin1

macrumors regular
Oct 4, 2012
185
0
Dallas
So how do you delete it ?

the way i've done it on my iphone, is backing it up to itunes first, then completely restoring the phone. but i believe over time the "other" will come back. i believe its where the cache for safari and other apps is stored.
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 13, 2010
4,308
1,840
the way i've done it on my iphone, is backing it up to itunes first, then completely restoring the phone. but i believe over time the "other" will come back. i believe its where the cache for safari and other apps is stored.

Thus sucks then ...I have crap that will take up space that I can't delete

I've done restore to backup and it is still there (through iTunes )
 

Atrin1

macrumors regular
Oct 4, 2012
185
0
Dallas
Thus sucks then ...I have crap that will take up space that I can't delete

I've done restore to backup and it is still there (through iTunes )

don't do the restore to backup. just do the complete restore. as if its a new ipad. then when its back on, open itunes and restore from back up
 

mpayne2k

macrumors 6502a
May 12, 2010
876
63
Welcome to Apple...the "other" section has been a nuisance for years now on iDevices.

The main way I manage it now is by jailbreaking my device and running iCleaner which does a good job telling you how much space was freed. Usually this cuts my "other" section in half.

I've seen it go up faster of late with the release of iTunes Match/Radio as the temporary files such as album art, etc are stored in "other."

Keep in mind, however, if you jailbreak, the jailbreak files are also stored in "other" so it will inflate just from whatever tweak you install!
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 13, 2010
4,308
1,840
Welcome to Apple...the "other" section has been a nuisance for years now on iDevices.

The main way I manage it now is by jailbreaking my device and running iCleaner which does a good job telling you how much space was freed. Usually this cuts my "other" section in half.

I've seen it go up faster of late with the release of iTunes Match/Radio as the temporary files such as album art, etc are stored in "other."

Keep in mind, however, if you jailbreak, the jailbreak files are also stored in "other" so it will inflate just from whatever tweak you install!

I never had this problem with my iPhone 4 but then again that was the iPhone 4... This is my first idevice back and I simply don't jailbreak ( I am fine in the "walled garden" )
 

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
7 GB's worth ? this is getting annoying ... I can't delete this ever growing size of Misc crap

Yes it can be deleted, once you determine what it is.

You asked what was in other. I told you. Now use that information to figure out what needs to be deleted.

Two places to start. Streaming video apps and email. Video apps that aren't optimized properly don't always dump their cache. Force quit the apps and then reboot your device.

Email is another, especially if you use gmail. Google borked their iMAP support in the native mail app and flipped local hosting of the archive folder on by default. That folder contains every email ever sent or received since the account was started so it can be very very big.
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 13, 2010
4,308
1,840
Yes it can be deleted, once you determine what it is.

You asked what was in other. I told you. Now use that information to figure out what needs to be deleted.

Two places to start. Streaming video apps and email. Video apps that aren't optimized properly don't always dump their cache. Force quit the apps and then reboot your device.

Email is another, especially if you use gmail. Google borked their iMAP support in the native mail app and flipped local hosting of the archive folder on by default. That folder contains every email ever sent or received since the account was started so it can be very very big.


As an android user this just makes it much harder and just wish for android simplicity (Irony there lol) for deleting the files I want to ....I don't use Gmail ( even though I am an android user my main account is my outlook account ) and I don't use the native app and just use the mail app from apple
 

redman042

macrumors 68040
Jun 13, 2008
3,051
1,629
I have found that "Other" category of storage is a huge problem particularly since OS 7 came out.

I do not think it is data associated with any app. That should show up on the list of storage space consumed by apps when you go to Settings>General>Usage.

I have had 5 or more GB consumed by Other, then done a full backup, wipe device to factory settings, then restore backup and seen many GBs of space be recovered by this procedure. In fact, the first few times this happened, I was surprised by the sudden increase in free space and thought the restore operation didn't fully complete. I frantically searched the device to find what was missing, but everything seemed to be there, and eventually accepted it. Now I know that Other is mostly or completely junk data that, for some reason, iOS can't take care of itself. Which is really annoying. A backup/wipe/restore is time-consuming and I don't like doing it.

With iOS 7, the rate at which Other increases in size seems to be much higher. I am hopeful iOS 7.1 solves this.
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 13, 2010
4,308
1,840
I have found that "Other" category of storage is a huge problem particularly since OS 7 came out.

I do not think it is data associated with any app. That should show up on the list of storage space consumed by apps when you go to Settings>General>Usage.

I have had 5 or more GB consumed by Other, then done a full backup, wipe device to factory settings, then restore backup and seen many GBs of space be recovered by this procedure. In fact, the first few times this happened, I was surprised by the sudden increase in free space and thought the restore operation didn't fully complete. I frantically searched the device to find what was missing, but everything seemed to be there, and eventually accepted it. Now I know that Other is mostly or completely junk data that, for some reason, iOS can't take care of itself. Which is really annoying. A backup/wipe/restore is time-consuming and I don't like doing it.

With iOS 7, the rate at which Other increases in size seems to be much higher. I am hopeful iOS 7.1 solves this.



I figured it was crap that iOS wouldn't just delete because I had a iPhone 4 with ios5 with no issue
 

redman042

macrumors 68040
Jun 13, 2008
3,051
1,629
Seems like a fundamental flaw or omission in iOS that it doesn't do its own housecleaning. Maybe it's a battery saving measure. It should do it when you plug it in.
 

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,916
4,844
Japan
Yes it can be deleted, once you determine what it is.

You asked what was in other. I told you. Now use that information to figure out what needs to be deleted.

Isn't "Other" also where over-the-air IOS upgrade files are stored? If so, then those can't be deleted without a clean restore — and those files can take up a huge chunk of the available space.
 

master-ceo

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2007
1,495
3
The SUN
You have to be a iFile/iFunbox ninja to delete those files. Sometimes .zips of apps get stored in a archive location on the iDevice and have to be manually deleted. If you have a HUGE "Other" file with no known App Data taking up that kind of space in apps 9 times out of 10 its the problem I stated above. :)
 

iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2011
3,792
906
iOS should just have an option to "Clear cache" or "Optimize storage space" to keep control of "other" files in it.

Stupid things like this are annoying. iOS is dead simple, easy to use, and offer great experience. But in the same time it's also hard/impossible to do maintenance or something a bit more advanced. If Apple doesn't want it, then it can't be done. The workaround like JB often do more harm than good.

For example, something like local file sharing is impossible. Whenever my friends aks me to share a simple photo, I can't do it easily. I have to put it on Dropbox or something. Whaat? :rolleyes:

iOS 7 has AirDrop but it's limited between selected iOS devices ONLY (Not even compatible with AirDrop on OSX, despite share an exactly same name).
See how stupid that is?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,478
43,405
iOS should just have an option to "Clear cache" or "Optimize storage space" to keep control of "other" files in it.

In theory I agree, but in reality the "Other" category contains permanent type data that apps rely on. If its removed, then you may lose data you want or need for those apps.
 
Last edited:

Lucille Carter

Suspended
Jul 3, 2013
1,266
4
7 GB's worth ? this is getting annoying ... I can't delete this ever growing size of Misc crap

You likely would regret deleting, even if you could. This "other" data has always been there. Restore will only decrease it for a while as it will grow again.

There have been so many threads about this:)
 

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
In theory I agree, but in reality the "Other" category contains permanent type data that apps rely on. If its removed, then you may lose data you want or need for those apps.

I agree. I wouldn't go around playing with the Other category. It's labeled so ambiguously for a reason. Quite frequently, there is saved app data that you use and don't know about or remember that's stored in Other.
 

iPodJedi

macrumors 6502a
Nov 28, 2013
711
0
Apple Store, USA
I've had as much as 6GB on an 8GB iPod touch. Found out that it was corrupt data so I resynced the iPod and it was all good-of course that was from corrupted data and the stuff u have is just normal other data...it is fine-
Other is just stuff like emails documents messages and other random stuff that is within the apps...
 
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