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iOS 8 can't control other usage properly. Time to switch to Android.

jacobj

jacobj

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2003
1,124
87
Jersey
My other storage in iOS 8 is now up to 13GB. I have deleted all videos and ensured that anything I streamed was fully downloaded and then deleted. I have backed up and then restored.

This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge with this phone. I am off I a trip and want to take videos with me, but other is taking up all the space.

I'll take it to the shop tomorrow and if they can't help I'll take it on the trip and then return it when I get back. Really sad, but I think my iPhone journey has come to an end after 7 years.

Still love OS X though. Windows have a lot to do before I'd consider that.

If you havesny ideas then let me know.
 
Restore and set up as a new phone. Your other will be virtually zero after you do that.
 
bkends35 said:
Restore and set up as a new phone. Your other will be virtually zero after you do that.
Click to expand...

Thanks. But this happens all the time and I've done that 3 times since I got the iPhone 6. I can't keep doing it. I don't think it's realistic. But thank you for the tip
 
jacobj said:
Thanks. But this happens all the time and I've done that 3 times since I got the iPhone 6. I can't keep doing it. I don't think it's realistic. But thank you for the tip
Click to expand...

Make sure you're not restoring anything from iCloud or iTunes backup man.
 
Sorry I don't understand. Are you saying to start again from scratch again after having done that so many times already. I just can't be bothered to do it again. This thing cost me £700. A fortnightly rebuild shouldn't be required. I understand that you're trying to help. So thank you.
 
jacobj said:
Sorry I don't understand. Are you saying to start again from scratch again after having done that so many times already. I just can't be bothered to do it again. This thing cost me £700. A fortnightly rebuild shouldn't be required. I understand that you're trying to help. So thank you.
Click to expand...

There is def something taking up space. iPhone doesn't use 13 gigabytes of data just randomly. As the other poster said, check your Messages Data usage or something else that is taking up a lot of space. iTunes can give incorrect info sometimes. Check it on your phone.
 
jacobj said:
Thanks. But this happens all the time and I've done that 3 times since I got the iPhone 6. I can't keep doing it. I don't think it's realistic. But thank you for the tip
Click to expand...

I've had iPhones for 4 years and have literally never had this issue. Check under usage and see if something is taking up more space than you might have thought.
 
I had this happen to me once with the first ipad. Had about 10 gb in other. What solved it for me was using Ifunbox to file explore until came on to a folder with 10 gb of files names that made no sense. Deleted it, and issue was gone.

I think it was a duplication of apps, but its been so long can't really be sure. I was jailbroken at the time. Best of luck to you.
 
iOS 8 can't control other usage properly. Time to switch to Android.

Make sure you delete your old large imessage threads... They get huge!
 
Tyler23 said:
I've had iPhones for 4 years and have literally never had this issue. Check under usage and see if something is taking up more space than you might have thought.
Click to expand...

thinktunnel said:
Make sure you delete your old large imessage threads... They get huge!
Click to expand...

I have done both of these. This has become such a frequent issue for me that these solutions are my first port of call.


HolyGrail said:
I had this happen to me once with the first ipad. Had about 10 gb in other. What solved it for me was using Ifunbox to file explore until came on to a folder with 10 gb of files names that made no sense. Deleted it, and issue was gone.

I think it was a duplication of apps, but its been so long can't really be sure. I was jailbroken at the time. Best of luck to you.
Click to expand...

iFunbox wasn't the easiest tool to use, but it has worked a treat. I found 9GB of videos that I just couldn't find using my normal process.

Usually I have to:

  1. Turn off show all videos option in settings
  2. Go to videos application and any video there that is still showing (even if it is only showing an icloud icon) is actually stored on the device
  3. Redownload all items that show as no being on the device (i.e. the ones with the icloud icon)
  4. Delete all items

Downloading the items from iCloud in the above process doesn't use more storage because they are already stored. Once they have been deleted, the "other" space that they were hogging is freed up.

Alas the trick of finding the culprits by turning off show all videos doesn't always work.

Thanks all for your help. I still want to see this issue fixed in 8.1.1. as it is not that uncommon (search the net). If not then I really have to consider switching. It doesn't make sense to have a handicapped device.
 
jacobj said:
My other storage in iOS 8 is now up to 13GB. I have deleted all videos and ensured that anything I streamed was fully downloaded and then deleted. I have backed up and then restored.

This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge with this phone. I am off I a trip and want to take videos with me, but other is taking up all the space.

I'll take it to the shop tomorrow and if they can't help I'll take it on the trip and then return it when I get back. Really sad, but I think my iPhone journey has come to an end after 7 years.

Still love OS X though. Windows have a lot to do before I'd consider that.

If you havesny ideas then let me know.
Click to expand...

The problem is apparently caused by ios (inappropriately) cacheing video files you play in the video app. For some reason, ios is not purging this files once they are done, but storing them in your phone. You can read the full analysis here.

http://blog.jaredsinclair.com/post/83884174298/bug-in-videos-app-doesnt-clear-cached-data-for

One solution so far...

"As of tonight, the only way I’ve found to delete cached Videos.app content is to sign out of my Home Sharing account in Setting.app’s “Videos” screen, launching Videos.app, then signing back into Home Sharing again. When I followed those steps tonight on my iPad, 7.5 gigabytes of free disk space reappeared. I had not downloaded any videos. I only used the streaming feature."

Alternatively, you can try storing your videos in another app, such as VLC. I can't vouch that it works, but it does seem that the problem likes with the video app and the atypical way in which it handles streaming.
 
jacobj said:
My other storage in iOS 8 is now up to 13GB. I have deleted all videos and ensured that anything I streamed was fully downloaded and then deleted. I have backed up and then restored.

This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge with this phone. I am off I a trip and want to take videos with me, but other is taking up all the space.

I'll take it to the shop tomorrow and if they can't help I'll take it on the trip and then return it when I get back. Really sad, but I think my iPhone journey has come to an end after 7 years.

Still love OS X though. Windows have a lot to do before I'd consider that.

If you havesny ideas then let me know.
Click to expand...

Good luck. No suggestions about the "other" storage, but if you are getting an Android phone, better go Nexus.
 
Why not submit some feedback about this bug? http://apple.com/feedback

It seems you have some investment into the platform (7 years). I hardly think having to repurchase your apps on Android and having to get used to a new OS is worth such a small issue. If you do switch however, look into the new Moto X.
 
jacobj said:
I have done both of these. This has become such a frequent issue for me that these solutions are my first port of call.

iFunbox wasn't the easiest tool to use, but it has worked a treat. I found 9GB of videos that I just couldn't find using my normal process.

Usually I have to:

  1. Turn off show all videos option in settings
  2. Go to videos application and any video there that is still showing (even if it is only showing an icloud icon) is actually stored on the device
  3. Redownload all items that show as no being on the device (i.e. the ones with the icloud icon)
  4. Delete all items

Downloading the items from iCloud in the above process doesn't use more storage because they are already stored. Once they have been deleted, the "other" space that they were hogging is freed up.

Alas the trick of finding the culprits by turning off show all videos doesn't always work.

Thanks all for your help. I still want to see this issue fixed in 8.1.1. as it is not that uncommon (search the net). If not then I really have to consider switching. It doesn't make sense to have a handicapped device.
Click to expand...

OP- I'm on iOS 8.1 and my phone has 2.39 gig of 'other'. There have been some good suggestions about checking app storage. As I understand it, you went to Settings>General>Usage>Manage Storage and couldn't find any issue.

The best way to track it down, is set up your phone as a new phone, add apps and services slowly and monitor when there is a big change in 'other'.

I assume you double tap the home button, and clear your recently used apps.

Android is not the answer, trust me.


crashoverride77 said:
Good luck with Android
Click to expand...

No kidding, Android has a mind of it's own. I couldn't stand it. Apps I never opened or used would run on their own.
 
cmichaelb said:
LOL and eat up RAM.... oops me and my big mouth.....
Click to expand...

had a friend switch and he came back to me with "how come my android phone uses 50% of the RAM with no apps open?"

Told him to root it and load an AOSP version of Android or Cyanogen and he just stared blankly at me.
 
cmichaelb said:
LOL and eat up RAM.... oops me and my big mouth.....
Click to expand...


What ? My phone never does that .....Jee it's one thing to dislike android but don't make up lies about it really smh

----------
Armen said:
had a friend switch and he came back to me with "how come my android phone uses 50% of the RAM with no apps open?"



Told him to root it and load an AOSP version of Android or Cyanogen and he just stared blankly at me.
Click to expand...




Android just uses that much ram ....it will reallocate it where needed. Never ran into any ram issues with any android phone with at least 2gb of ram
 
Closingracer said:
What ? My phone never does that .....Jee it's one thing to dislike android but don't make up lies about it really smh

----------
Click to expand...

Well, my wife and friends come to me when their Android phones act up and I know what I find. I don't have to make anything up. just like iPhone issues, they aren't always universal to every user but in my experience, it's pretty common.

I'm glad you don't have that experience, but I've seen it many times and on several different phones.
 
The "Other" usage includes caches as well as botched downloads and other junk data. Restoring from a backup (without restoring the device as new first) will wipe much of the hidden cached data clean. This process shouldn't take long, if you're restoring from a local backup using iTunes (and if you want to keep your messages and other data intact, you'll want to use an iTunes backup anyway).

If the "Other" data largely consists of junk files, then the only way to recover the storage space is to restore the phone as a new device first. I found that when downloading large batches of music files using iTunes Match the download would occasionally freeze, and the phone would still allocate all of the space, even if not all of the music data got downloaded.

For example, if I tried downloading 7 GB of music, and the download froze after going through 2 GB of songs. The usage would show 2 GB of music, with an extra 5 GB added to "Other." Botched app downloads would do the same thing.

Because I use iTunes Match and occasionally see downloads freeze, I've just made it a maintenance routine to restore the device as new and then restore from a local backup, roughly once every other month or whenever a major interval iOS update comes out.
 
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