General iOS has major cache management problems.

[FatPuppy]

Every time I see my "other" going up to 3 gigs or apps like tweetbot, facebook that take up to 1 gig of memory, I have to restore my iphone. Now I found this app called "Battery Doctor" that cleans the apps cache and other junk files Are there any downsides to apps like this?

 

[C DM]

Well, for apps you can just uninstall and reinstall them quickly and that will clear out their cache.

The whole "other" space, that's a whole different beast. Often related to attachments in messages, among other things, and seems like also to caching videos (and maybe music) and taking up more space because of that too.

 

[Abazigal]

For video at least, you can simply sign in and sign out of home sharing. Not sure if that works with the other apps as well. At least, I haven't had such issues. Maybe it's because I don't stream stuff from there?

 

[LordQ]

All those battery doctor apps are a scam, I can't believe how people fall for those. Wanna know why? Flipboard has its own clear cache button. Which reduces the size considerably. After running that app none of those were deleted nor anything from WhatsApp which has a lot of temporary files somewhere (since I don't keep any attachment or open conversations) so yeah, that and the optimise ram stuff does not work.

 

[FatPuppy]

All those battery doctor apps are a scam, I can't believe how people fall for those. Wanna know why? Flipboard has its own clear cache button. Which reduces the size considerably. After running that app none of those were deleted nor anything from WhatsApp which has a lot of temporary files somewhere (since I don't keep any attachment or open conversations) so yeah, that and the optimise ram stuff does not work.

Nope, it cleared the tweetbot cache from 200 mb to 16 kb

 

[fardeenah]

use phoneclean on pc and then clean it using your pc, its really annoying, android allows u to clear off your cache, ios should purge the cache automatically after a while, its ridiculous that a twitter app weights 40 mb and cache over 500mb+ ongoing.

 

[jeremiah239]

All those battery doctor apps are a scam, I can't believe how people fall for those. Wanna know why? Flipboard has its own clear cache button. Which reduces the size considerably. After running that app none of those were deleted nor anything from WhatsApp which has a lot of temporary files somewhere (since I don't keep any attachment or open conversations) so yeah, that and the optimise ram stuff does not work.

Not every app has its own clear cache button and for those apps battery doctor definitely does work. I used to use it when storage was tight in my 16gb 5s. And it's free so I don't know how it's a scam.

 

[C DM]

Not every app has its own clear cache button and for those apps battery doctor definitely does work. I used to use it when storage was tight in my 16gb 5s. And it's free so I don't know how it's a scam.

For those apps or basically all apps uninstalling and reinstalling them does the same thing if not more as far as clearing any caching.

 

[chrfr]

Nope, it cleared the tweetbot cache from 200 mb to 16 kb

You can clear the Tweetbot cache in account settings in Tweetbot itself.

 

[FatPuppy]

You can clear the Tweetbot cache in account settings in Tweetbot itself.

Yes but it does not clear the whole cache.

 

[Woochifer]

It's not always iOS, often it's specific to the apps. Facebook is easy -- just delete the app and reinstall it. The login settings are saved in iOS, so there's no harm in deleting the app. If any app doesn't have settings or data that you need to keep, then that's the simplest solution. Sometimes though, an app does strange things -- like one of my games sometimes requires redownloading levels and the old ones don't get purged. Since I need to save my game progress, the only way to fix that is to restore from the backup.

The issues specific to iOS occur most often if an download (such as a media or app file) hangs. The garbage data will stay in the "Other" directory, and there's no way to get rid of it unless you restore the device as new. I use iTunes Match and will sometimes download entire playlists for road trips. If the download hangs, then the entire size of that playlist gets used even if there are no actual files to play.

Because I use iTunes Match all the time (and the "Other" directory grows steadily), I just restore my iPhone as new, and then restore from a local backup about once every other month as a normal maintenance routine.

 

[FatPuppy]

It's not always iOS, often it's specific to the apps. Facebook is easy -- just delete the app and reinstall it. The login settings are saved in iOS, so there's no harm in deleting the app. If any app doesn't have settings or data that you need to keep, then that's the simplest solution. Sometimes though, an app does strange things -- like one of my games sometimes requires redownloading levels and the old ones don't get purged. Since I need to save my game progress, the only way to fix that is to restore from the backup.

The issues specific to iOS occur most often if an download (such as a media or app file) hangs. The garbage data will stay in the "Other" directory, and there's no way to get rid of it unless you restore the device as new. I use iTunes Match and will sometimes download entire playlists for road trips. If the download hangs, then the entire size of that playlist gets used even if there are no actual files to play.

Because I use iTunes Match all the time (and the "Other" directory grows steadily), I just restore my iPhone as new, and then restore from a local backup about once every other month as a normal maintenance routine.

Yeah but I grew up with the impression that backups make the devices slower.

 

[predation]

It's not always iOS, often it's specific to the apps. Facebook is easy -- just delete the app and reinstall it. The login settings are saved in iOS, so there's no harm in deleting the app. If any app doesn't have settings or data that you need to keep, then that's the simplest solution. Sometimes though, an app does strange things -- like one of my games sometimes requires redownloading levels and the old ones don't get purged. Since I need to save my game progress, the only way to fix that is to restore from the backup.

The issues specific to iOS occur most often if an download (such as a media or app file) hangs. The garbage data will stay in the "Other" directory, and there's no way to get rid of it unless you restore the device as new. I use iTunes Match and will sometimes download entire playlists for road trips. If the download hangs, then the entire size of that playlist gets used even if there are no actual files to play.

Because I use iTunes Match all the time (and the "Other" directory grows steadily), I just restore my iPhone as new, and then restore from a local backup about once every other month as a normal maintenance routine.

It should just work. :shrug:

 

[Tony Danger]

Well, for apps you can just uninstall and reinstall them quickly and that will clear out their cache.

I still think that is a joke though. We have had these phones and OS for what, 7 years now? You'd think there would be a button in the settings to clear cache. Or at least for apps to have their cache cleared on a monthly basis.

 

[C DM]

I still think that is a joke though. We have had these phones and OS for what, 7 years now? You'd think there would be a button in the settings to clear cache. Or at least for apps to have their cache cleared on a monthly basis.

There is an automatic cleaning process that runs if and when needed. As for clearing cache button, it can be useful, and I would like to see one, but for the typical user I can see why Apple might not include that. In the end, uninstalling and reinstalling an app is a fairly quick process most of the time if that is really needed, so at least there's that.

 

[FatPuppy]

There is an automatic cleaning process that runs if and when needed. As for clearing cache button, it can be useful, and I would like to see one, but for the typical user I can see why Apple might not include that. In the end, uninstalling and reinstalling an app is a fairly quick process most of the time if that is really needed, so at least there's that.

Automatic cleaning process? Never happened to me.

 

[C DM]

Automatic cleaning process? Never happened to me.

Yup: http://osxdaily.com/2014/04/07/ios-app-name-cleaning/

 

[FatPuppy]

Yup: http://osxdaily.com/2014/04/07/ios-app-name-cleaning/

That's amazing.

 

[Woochifer]

Yeah but I grew up with the impression that backups make the devices slower.

Backups are just that ... backups. And when you restore from a backup, iOS will purge the app caches. This frees up storage space, and to the extent that caches are used to speed up repetitive tasks, you might have a momentary slow down when opening up an app the first time after restoring. But, over time the caches build back up and it's good not to have caches from infrequently used apps building up.

Conversely, smartphones in general will slow down when the storage is close to full. So, purging the caches can speed things up by freeing up extra space.

 

[RiderX]

All those battery doctor apps are a scam, I can't believe how people fall for those. Wanna know why? Flipboard has its own clear cache button. Which reduces the size considerably. After running that app none of those were deleted nor anything from WhatsApp which has a lot of temporary files somewhere (since I don't keep any attachment or open conversations) so yeah, that and the optimise ram stuff does not work.

Not a scam and no magic too.

Those apps just fill all memory and then iOS will trigger the automatic cleaning process. Simple and efficient. I use the free BatteryDoctor for that.

 

[Max(IT)]

Not a scam and no magic too.

Those apps just fill all memory and then iOS will trigger the automatic cleaning process. Simple and efficient. I use the free BatteryDoctor for that.

Fill the memory on a NAND based device isn't so healthy.