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TJ61

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 16, 2011
811
3
I know the drill with the "Other Data", and how it may reflect real app data, or possibly orphaned data from some corruption. But, I just restored (and set up as new) an 8GB iPod Touch 4th gen, and it shows over 0.4GB "Other Data" right out of the box.

The device has iOS 6.1.2 on it now, and iTunes shows the device has a capacity of 6.36GB, with 431.4MB "Other", and 5.94GB Free. There's not an app, song, video, imessage, or e-mail on the thing, nor has any website been visited.

Am I right to assume that there should be no "Other Data" at this point? (If the new iOS is bigger, that should be accounted for in the stated capacity, right?) Anyone see this behavior before? Any other remedy to reclaim this memory?

Thanks,
Tom
 
Wish my "other" was as low as 0.5 gigs. I've got 1.5 or something on a 16 GB
 
I know the drill with the "Other Data", and how it may reflect real app data, or possibly orphaned data from some corruption. But, I just restored (and set up as new) an 8GB iPod Touch 4th gen, and it shows over 0.4GB "Other Data" right out of the box.

The device has iOS 6.1.2 on it now, and iTunes shows the device has a capacity of 6.36GB, with 431.4MB "Other", and 5.94GB Free. There's not an app, song, video, imessage, or e-mail on the thing, nor has any website been visited.

Am I right to assume that there should be no "Other Data" at this point? (If the new iOS is bigger, that should be accounted for in the stated capacity, right?) Anyone see this behavior before? Any other remedy to reclaim this memory?

Thanks,
Tom

There will always be "Other" data on the iPhone.
 
Wish my "other" was as low as 0.5 gigs. I've got 1.5 or something on a 16 GB

But that's with apps/music/etc., right? Did you have ANY "Other" data the first time you plugged your brand new device into iTunes?

Like I say, I know the drill, and have GB's of "Other" on my iPhone and iPad. What I'm trying to figure out is why there's "Other" on a freshly restored device.

Tyler23 said:
There will always be "Other" data on the iPhone.

As noted above, I'm pretty sure that's not true, but I'd be grateful if you could prove me wrong.

Regards,
Tom
 
As noted above, I'm pretty sure that's not true, but I'd be grateful if you could prove me wrong.

Regards,
Tom

Take your phone or iDevice, any iDevice.
Restore it, choose set up as new
Do not restore to backup.
As soon as the first reboot after the restore, it will appear in iTunes with an "other" folder.

Search the Apple Knowledge Base if in doubt.
 
Take your phone or iDevice, any iDevice.
Restore it, choose set up as new
Do not restore to backup.
As soon as the first reboot after the restore, it will appear in iTunes with an "other" folder.

Search the Apple Knowledge Base if in doubt.

Sorry, I wasn't being quite clear. I didn't mean that there shouldn't be a placeholder called "Other", I meant that there shouldn't be nearly half a GB earmarked as "Other".

Regards,
Tom
 
And it is used for things like temp internet files, contacts data, internet cache, iTunes artwork, the list goes on and on.

Again, this is on a freshly restored, set up as new device. There are no apps loaded, no music, no contacts, internet never accessed, etc. etc.

Tyler23 said:
"Other" consists partly of iOS system files. It will never be at 0.
I'm pretty sure the entire OS is taken into account before the capacity of the device is reported on the iTunes device summary page. In this case, the capacity is listed as 6.36GB on an "8GB" device.

Regards,
Tom
 
Again, this is on a freshly restored, set up as new device. There are no apps loaded, no music, no contacts, internet never accessed, etc. etc.


I'm pretty sure the entire OS is taken into account before the capacity of the device is reported on the iTunes device summary page. In this case, the capacity is listed as 6.36GB on an "8GB" device.

Regards,
Tom

There are temporary files part of stock iOS that are stored in Other not accounted for in the initial available capacity shown. Ask around and search, no one has ever had "Other" be 0GB. It's just part of how iOS does its thing.

Feel free to email Apple and hopefully receieve a response if that'll set your mind at ease.
 
Again, this is on a freshly restored, set up as new device. There are no apps loaded, no music, no contacts, internet never accessed, etc. etc.


I'm pretty sure the entire OS is taken into account before the capacity of the device is reported on the iTunes device summary page. In this case, the capacity is listed as 6.36GB on an "8GB" device.

Regards,
Tom

there will always be OTHER data in your iDevice.
Just restored mine. Got 400+MB of other data.
Had it Jailbroken and installed tweaks and packages. Got 900+ of OTHER data.
Whatever we do, there will always be OTHER data in your iDevice.
 
Again, this is on a freshly restored, set up as new device. There are no apps loaded, no music, no contacts, internet never accessed, etc. etc.

Then you just proved my post to yourself.


Take your phone or iDevice, any iDevice.
Restore it, choose set up as new
Do not restore to backup.
As soon as the first reboot after the restore, it will appear in iTunes with an "other" folder.

Just the way iOS works
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty sure the entire OS is taken into account before the capacity of the device is reported on the iTunes device summary page. In this case, the capacity is listed as 6.36GB on an "8GB" device

It's because the capacity is calculated differently. Device manufacturers use base 10 and software uses base 2. iOS files should reside in the "Other" section.
 
Just restored mine. Got 400+MB of other data.

That's the kind of info/experience I was looking for -- thanks!

In the meantime, as I had a little time on my hands I took Tyler23's advice and chatted with Apple support. And guess who came on line first to help...Tyler! I kid you not! Here was Tyler's try:

Tyler : That Other space is actually the Operating system and the Application Data.

So we had quickly passed his level of expertise, and I got kicked up to his senior advisor, Luke. But this was the best Luke could do:

Luke: The operating system itself isn't part of that "Other" data. The OS takes up part of the room that you can't use, that isn't part of the Available space.

and

Luke: The "Other" space in this case is almost certainly going to be the installer packages for the OS

If that's indeed the case, it would seem like that space could be reclaimed after the OS is successfully installed.

Either way, my initial unstated concern, that this might be sequestered corrupt memory space, is somewhat allayed.

Thanks to all who responded -- wish I could have gotten us better info from Apple!

Regards,
Tom
("There will always be "other" data, there will always be "other" data, there will......") :D
 
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