iPhone How to get rid of 3GBs of "other" data?

[BumpyFlatline]

Where does appbackup store it's backup files. I ran appbackup and took backup of all apps. But issue is that I am not able to find to be able to copy to the PC.

Could you please share the path? Thanks

Edit: I found it. Anyways thanks

Sweet! Let me know if you have any questions. You don't need to copy the entire AppBackup folder. You only need to backup the tarballz folder.

Here's some extra info...ignore this if it confuses you. I believe if you copy the plist file in the AppBackup folder (it's outside of the tarballz folder) and copy it to the new firmware, then it'll put the correct backup date in AppBackup when you go to restore a specific app. I however, a skip that file since I don't find it necessary. If you skip that file then the date it will display is the date you copied the tarballz folder to your device. The only thing you really need to copy is the tarballz folder.

Let me know if you have questions. Although I doubt you will now that you've reached this point!

 

[Enjoylife1788]

Sweet! Let me know if you have any questions. You don't need to copy the entire AppBackup folder. You only need to backup the tarballz folder.

Here's some extra info...ignore this if it confuses you. I believe if you copy the plist file in the AppBackup folder (it's outside of the tarballz folder) and copy it to the new firmware, then it'll put the correct backup date in AppBackup when you go to restore a specific app. I however, a skip that file since I don't find it necessary. If you skip that file then the date it will display is the date you copied the tarballz folder to your device. The only thing you really need to copy is the tarballz folder.

Let me know if you have questions. Although I doubt you will now that you've reached this point!

Thanks.

No I figured out most of the stuff. And I also got your point about the date thing. That comes handy to know when was the backup taken. So will keep in mind.

Thanks again.

 

[guinvere]

Update: I upgraded my 4s to 6.1.2 and from having 3.2 gb of "OTHER" it went down to 74 MB. So the 6.1.2 update must have gone backwards and cleared out a LOT of my old SMS attachments somehow. It also oddly added back a bunch of photos to my camera roll that I had deleted months ago. No idea where it pulled them from.

 

[imagineadam]

Is it safe to delete this entire SMS attachment folder? Or will it screw up my messages app somehow? I always thought the pics and stuff weren't really being deleted when I deleted a conversation. Now I know! Can I just swipe and delete this folder? Is it safe? I'm using ifile.

 

[xxxhackaxxx]

I don't know if you guys heard, but a while ago they found out iDevices are saving attachments even if you delete them. I will have to come back and update this post with the location, but I know mine was talking 1gb of data and was considered "other".

Edit: It was Var/Mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments and you can remove what is in the folder I believe... I'm big on not deleting past convos, so if you are the same, this may affect that if you ever want to go back and find old pictures you sent/received.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

I don't know if you guys heard, but a while ago they found out iDevices are saving attachments even if you delete them. I will have to come back and update this post with the location, but I know mine was talking 1gb of data and was considered "other".

FYI, the post right above you shows the file path in the picture. Attachments are saved to var>mobile>library>SMS. Unless of course you're saying iOS saves a duplicate copy somewhere else. If that's the case I do not know where they're saved. But the above posted file path is where you can find all the attachments from text messages.

 

[imagineadam]

So is it safe to delete the folder? Or go in there and delete them one by one? I want them gone! It's just a bunch of pictures that are taking up space

 

[xxxhackaxxx]

So is it safe to delete the folder? Or go in there and delete them one by one? I want them gone! It's just a bunch of pictures that are taking up space

You can prob delete the whole folder, then recreate a new one with the same exact name. For good meaure make you do a backup/zip of the folder (will take up more space but save you a headache if it messes with something) just to be sure.

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FYI, the post right above you shows the file path in the picture. Attachments are saved to var>mobile>library>SMS. Unless of course you're saying iOS saves a duplicate copy somewhere else. If that's the case I do not know where they're saved. But the above posted file path is where you can find all the attachments from text messages.

Yea that wasnt there when i made my post from my iphone haha

 

[BumpyFlatline]

You can prob delete the whole folder, then recreate a new one with the same exact name. For good meaure make you do a backup/zip of the folder (will take up more space but save you a headache if it messes with something) just to be sure.

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Yea that wasnt there when i made my post from my iphone haha

Haha yea I assumed that cause your posts are usually on point including the context of previous posts. Just figured I should let you know just in case you were about to start combing through iFile.

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So is it safe to delete the folder? Or go in there and delete them one by one? I want them gone! It's just a bunch of pictures that are taking up space

How many folders do you have inside the attachments folder? You could just tap edit in the top right, select each folder then tap the trash can at bottom. Or just tap and hold any folder, choose select all from the popup, then tap the trash can.

 

[imagineadam]

Haha yea I assumed that cause your posts are usually on point including the context of previous posts. Just figured I should let you know just in case you were about to start combing through iFile.

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How many folders do you have inside the attachments folder? You could just tap edit in the top right, select each folder then tap the trash can at bottom. Or just tap and hold any folder, choose select all from the popup, then tap the trash can.

I had lots. I impulsively deleted the whole folder kind of accidentally. I hope that doesn't mess anything up. I'm wondering if it actually deleted anything though? No more space available has shown up. Do I need to pay for the ifile app or something to have it actually delete things?

 

[BumpyFlatline]

I had lots. I impulsively deleted the whole folder kind of accidentally. I hope that doesn't mess anything up. I'm wondering if it actually deleted anything though? No more space available has shown up. Do I need to pay for the ifile app or something to have it actually delete things?

No. I think by default iFile moves everything you delete to a folder called trash. After a period of time (I'm not sure what the actual trigger is) iFile will permanently delete the stuff in the trash folder. I assume that if you go to settings you'll see that "Use Trash" is turned on. Give me 1 second and ill post the file path to the trash folder.

Edit: var>mobile>library>iFile>trash

Navigate to that folder and delete everything inside "Trash".

Use the steps I posted above to delete everything.

 

[xxxhackaxxx]

I had lots. I impulsively deleted the whole folder kind of accidentally. I hope that doesn't mess anything up. I'm wondering if it actually deleted anything though? No more space available has shown up. Do I need to pay for the ifile app or something to have it actually delete things?

You will have to clean your Trash, choose Edit in the top right corner, tap any file on your current screen, tap the Trash Bin, then select Empty Trash. Respring and check.

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No. I think by default iFile moves everything you delete to a folder called trash. After a period of time (I'm not sure what the actual trigger is) iFile will permanently delete the stuff in the trash folder. I assume that if you go to settings you'll see that "Use Trash" is turned on. Give me 1 second and ill post the file path to the trash folder.

Edit: var>mobile>library>iFile>trash

Navigate to that folder and delete everything inside "Trash".

That works too! Beat me to it man! Then again im at work so i have to do SOME kind of work to feel slightly productive today.

 

[BumpyFlatline]

You will have to clean your Trash, choose Edit in the top right corner, tap any file on your current screen, tap the Trash Bin, then select Empty Trash. Respring and check.

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That works too! Beat me to it man! Then again im at work so i have to do SOME kind of work to feel slightly productive today.

Yea this way is probably easier. I always forget you can just tap the trash can icon. I am a huge fan of the bookmark feature in iFile so I just use bookmarks to navigate to all my frequently used file paths.

 

[imagineadam]

Thanks! That seems to have worked! I created an attachments folder in its place where it was before. Hopefully ill be fine!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Thanks! That seems to have worked! I created an attachments folder in its place where it was before. Hopefully ill be fine!

Awesome! If you're on the older iOS6 version you'll prolly have to occasionally do this manually. But with one of the iOS updates (I forget which iOS update it was) Apple fixed this bug. Good luck!

 

[imagineadam]

Awesome! If you're on the older iOS6 version you'll prolly have to occasionally do this manually. But with one of the iOS updates (I forget which iOS update it was) Apple fixed this bug. Good luck!

I'm on 6.1 so that must have been leftovers from before the upgrade? I though I read somewhere in this post that they fixed it in 6.1.

One more quick question. Is that where it kept the actual old deleted texts too? Like the imessage ones? Or does it just keep the pics there? (Attachments folder) Any idea?

 

[imagineadam]

I'm on 6.1 so that must have been leftovers from before the upgrade? I though I read somewhere in this post that they fixed it in 6.1.

One more quick question. Is that where it kept the actual old deleted texts too? Like the imessage ones? Or does it just keep the pics there? (Attachments folder) Any idea?

Did a full reboot and found out yes that does take care of ALL text messages as they are gone! Thanks for your help!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Did a full reboot and found out yes that does take care of ALL text messages as they are gone! Thanks for your help!

Glad I could help. Yea I think apple fixed the bug in 6.1. That sounds about right. If I'm not mistaken, once you delete an iMessage or text, the iOS deletes them from the device. It's supposed to delete any attachments too but somehow there was that bug where messages would get deleted but not attachments.

I could be wrong though. The only thing I know for sure was that attachments weren't getting deleted when they were supposed to.

 

[c0venant]

Do a clean restore to stock 6.1
Do not restore to backup

That will shrink the other file to the smallest size possible

I'm not sure I understand.. Instead of just doing an update to 6.1.2, I did a backup of everything on my phone then I restored the phone (all via iTunes). Then after the iTunes restore, while setting up the phone I had two options: "set up as new" or "restore from backup". I chose restore from backup, as I don't want to lose anything I had before. Isn't this a clean install? I restored the phone instead of simply updating it, so there's gotta be a difference there.

Also, where are you guys seeing how many GB you have in "other"? I'd like to check mine.

 

[nednarm]

I'm really struggling to understand what is taking up 4.73GB of other data on my 16GB iPhone 5. I've used iCleaner and deleted my SMS attachments folder but that only freed up 1.3 GB of data.

What are my options here? Can I used iFile to sort every item on my phone in size order? I really don't know where this data is being saved. Obviously a restore is out the question now 6.1.3 is out. Any advice is really appreciated!

 

[darricksailo]

I'm really struggling to understand what is taking up 4.73GB of other data on my 16GB iPhone 5. I've used iCleaner and deleted my SMS attachments folder but that only freed up 1.3 GB of data.

What are my options here? Can I used iFile to sort every item on my phone in size order? I really don't know where this data is being saved. Obviously a restore is out the question now 6.1.3 is out. Any advice is really appreciated!

You would need to copy everything over from your device onto a computer to sort every item in size order (at least I would imagine so)

Make sure you didn't put any files onto your device? For example, appbackup makes backup files and if you have an app that caches video, that'll be a big size