"Other" space on a new device

[davehutch]

New iPad, set up as a new device.
Connected it to my MacBook Pro and immediately it shows 1.6GB of "other".
It's a 16GB device and only starts with 12.8GB available so this is quite a large proportion of my available storage (12.5%).
Any ideas?

I've also tried restoring from a backup I did of the device once I'd set it up from new and used it for a day.
I've also deleted today's copies of two newspapers.
No music, no movies sync'ed

 

[maflynn]

Apple does not give anyone access to what that category is, and a lack of a file system means there's no way to see it. The "Other" category is typically application settings, cache and other app specific data.

If you want to remove it, wipe the phone and install the latest OS as a new phone and don't use any apps. You'll see the category as low as it ever will be. Then slowly add an app one at a time.

I hate to sound harsh but it is what it is, and there's little we can do about storage management on iOS devices.

 

[davehutch]

Fair enough. I didn't realise that if I bought a 16GB iPad, I'd only start with 12.8GB for my own use.
Shouldn't be a problem though

 

[maflynn]

I can't answer for that, (I have a 32GB iPhone) and I can understand the frustration of getting a 16gb phone and having so much space eaten up right off the bat. The issue though is our inability to fully discern what that space is, because Apple has iOS so locked down.

 

[C DM]

Fair enough. I didn't realise that if I bought a 16GB iPad, I'd only start with 12.8GB for my own use.
Shouldn't be a problem though

Seems like Apple is somewhat better about all of this than a number of other popular phones: http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/26/how-much-space-does-your-16gb-phone-actually-have/

 

[maflynn]

Seems like Apple is somewhat better about all of this than a number of other popular phones: http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/26/how-much-space-does-your-16gb-phone-actually-have/

But with the other phones you can add an SD card and increase your storage and/or root them and remove the bloatware.

 

[C DM]

But with the other phones you can add an SD card and increase your storage and/or root them and remove the bloatware.

Not necessarily all of them as far as I know. That said, 16 GB in marketing terms is only something like 14.9 of actual space, and if you factor in some space being needed for system files, no matter how much you can clean up from a phone you are likely not going to have one that would offer any more than something in the 13 range at the very most if it's going to have some OS on it, even a barebones one. So, realistically, out of the box, Apple isn't bad at all in that respect.

 

[davehutch]

Seems like Apple is somewhat better about all of this than a number of other popular phones: http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/26/how-much-space-does-your-16gb-phone-actually-have/

Wow! Certainly worth knowing!

 

[MarcusCarpenter]

Finally figured out how to remove that excessive "Other space" on iOS devices and bring it down to 1GB like it should be.
Plug iPhone into iTunes, go to iTunes prefs and delete all iOS backups.
Re-backup your device then press sync.
Just went from 2.8GB other to 1.19gb

 

[Mlrollin91]

I posted something similar in another thread:

Out of the box a 16GB unit is really only 14.9GB. Then you have to subtract the size of the OS and all preinstalled software.

A storage device with 16GB is 16,000,000,000 bytes. But in reality, 16GB is actually 17,179,869,184 bytes which translates to the 1.1GB that is lost. Then the OS is 1.5GB-2GB, which is roughly the 3GB discrepancy that you see.