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"Other" space

M

Merkie

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 23, 2008
2,125
740
This "Other" space is driving me insane. I currently have 2,82GB "Other" space and I can't seem to get rid of it. I have a 16GB phone so it's quite a lot.

Currently, my storage space is used up as follows:
- 4.5GB audio (750 songs, higher bit rate songs converted to 192kbps AAC)
- 1.09GB (1321) photos
- 3.26GB (107) apps
- 770MB documents & data
- 2.82GB other
- 760MB free

I can't explain the "Other" space. My iCloud backup is only 1.5GB, of which 500MB are photos (accounted for by the 1.09GB photos), 500MB is Whatsapp (accounted for in the 770MB documents and data), and 250MB messages (probably counted as "Other"), I can't account for the other 250MB.

It's a mystery to me where the 2.82GB "Other" space comes from. I have no idea what all that data is. A fresh newly restored as iPhone maybe has 500MB of "Other" space. Can anyone shed some light of this? It annoys me, my phone's storage space is always full and more than 20% of the storage space is just gone without explanation.
 
I believe its generally
Messages, and cache, settings and other space needs for apps
 
maflynn said:
I believe its generally
Messages, and cache, settings and other space needs for apps
Click to expand...

Messages is only 250MB for me. Space needed for apps either is in "Documents & Data" or "Apps" itself (the storage spaced used by apps can be decreased by removing cache data). It does not explain the 2.8GB. Apple should fix this.
 
It could be Music or videos. I've noticed that if I stream songs or a film from iCloud they get cached into the "Music" section in the phone, but don't actually show up in the music app usage settings. Normally clearing all data from the music app through the settings menu clears the rogue data and frees that "other" space.
 
daijholt said:
It could be Music or videos. I've noticed that if I stream songs or a film from iCloud they get cached into the "Music" section in the phone, but don't actually show up in the music app usage settings. Normally clearing all data from the music app through the settings menu clears the rogue data and frees that "other" space.
Click to expand...

Didn't work for me. Out of the 14.9GB, only 13.3GB is available to the user. Then another 2.8GB is gone for no specific reason. :mad:
 
daijholt said:
It could be Music or videos. I've noticed that if I stream songs or a film from iCloud they get cached into the "Music" section in the phone, but don't actually show up in the music app usage settings. Normally clearing all data from the music app through the settings menu clears the rogue data and frees that "other" space.
Click to expand...

How do you do that?
My 64 GB 5s has over 6 GB taken up by other right now and while I still have extra space I'd like to reduce the size of the other. I specifically remember downloading a movie on my phone over Christmas and never watching or deleting it but it shows that its still in the cloud on my phone so I suspect that this is what the other space is.
 
It's one of the biggest mysteries for iOS users. :)

Try following this helpful guide on OSX Daily: http://osxdaily.com/2013/07/24/remove-other-data-storage-iphone-ipad/

Even after following this guide, along with many other forum posts and articles, I've never really had much luck in recovering more than 1GB of "Other" data.

I've got a ridiculous 4.33 GB of "Other" data on my iPhone and it's really annoying having paid for a 32GB iPhone and only really got about 22 GB to play with.

One thing I have noticed though is that the "Other" data always changes when I connect my phone to iTunes and disconnect, sometimes almost doubling in usage.
 
Agreed it seems to be a big mystery what is in there. The only way I know to get rid of it is to restore your phone and set it up as new. I have seen many threads with multiple suggestions but none of them makes any sense.
 
"Other" space

Merkie said:
Incorrect. An empty iPhone (reset to factory defaults) has ~500MB of "Other" data.
Click to expand...


I was the talking about the missing 3 GB on a 16 GB iPhone. iTunes only shows 13.3 GB useable. And a fully restored iPhone has around ~200 mb of other data with no other apps.
 
RoboWarriorSr said:
I was the talking about the missing 3 GB on a 16 GB iPhone. iTunes only shows 13.3 GB useable. And a fully restored iPhone has around ~200 mb of other data with no other apps.
Click to expand...

Oh, in that case you're right. I was confused because actually only 1.6GB of storage space is allocated to the operating system (16GB is acutally 14.9GB).
 
Merkie said:
Oh, in that case you're right. I was confused because actually only 1.6GB of storage space is allocated to the operating system (16GB is acutally 14.9GB).
Click to expand...


Just an FYI I believe on newer devices the OS takes more than 1.6 GB so for those that have newer devices (5 and 5s) there might be a bit less storage.
 
Hopefully one day iOS will allow us to clear app and storage cache as is the case on Android.
 
Other space destroys my life. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. I shouldn't have to restore as new every 6-12 months to get rid of this space. I don't know what it is but they need to fix it. I've tried all tricks in the hat and have read countless threads over the past few years in forums across the web. The only thing I've found to do anything at all is swipe to delete all music and I get about two of my 8GB (EIGHT!) freed. It's quite annoying. The lowest I can ever get it is around 3GB.
 
ewils19 said:
How do you do that?
My 64 GB 5s has over 6 GB taken up by other right now and while I still have extra space I'd like to reduce the size of the other. I specifically remember downloading a movie on my phone over Christmas and never watching or deleting it but it shows that its still in the cloud on my phone so I suspect that this is what the other space is.
Click to expand...

Go to settings > general > useage > select music from the list of apps > click edit in the top right > then hit the red button to clear the app's data.
 
I did a clean restore to 7.0.4 and before updating to 7.1 I'd amassed over 7GB of 'other'!
I don't know what the heck it is but a clean install of 7.1 gave me back 6GB of storage space, and I still have all the same apps, photos and data on my phone (via iCloud).
 
Last week i did a restore. My 'Other' space went from 2,6GB to 1,06GB.

Today i synced my iphone. After de sync the 'Other' went from 1,06GB to 1,6GB.. What is it that is causing this space?
 
I have a 16GB iPad Air and occasionally the "other" gets to around 3.5GB's. When that happens I am forced to restore the iPad to bring it back down to around 1GB. I have to do it once every other month. It's so annoying.
 
Kuhrtje said:
Last week i did a restore. My 'Other' space went from 2,6GB to 1,06GB.

Today i synced my iphone. After de sync the 'Other' went from 1,06GB to 1,6GB.. What is it that is causing this space?
Click to expand...
I did a restore and my other space went down to a little over 1 GB, but after a week or so it shot up to a bit over 2 GB. I installed most of my apps in the first day or two after the restore and set everything up, and yet nothing changed until a little over a week later when I really wasn't changing anything anymore or using anything more than usual or new.
 
C DM said:
I did a restore and my other space went down to a little over 1 GB, but after a week or so it shot up to a bit over 2 GB. I installed most of my apps in the first day or two after the restore and set everything up, and yet nothing changed until a little over a week later when I really wasn't changing anything anymore or using anything more than usual or new.
Click to expand...

The same is happening to me right now. Full restore with the phone set as new. Everything is back at its place and the Other is going up. Now it's 1.6GB but I'm affraid it will be 2.1GB the next time I'll sync the phone.
 
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