iPhone X What is “other” and why is it taking up 50% of my storage?

[eyeseeyou]

 

[Bballrob]

Maybe if you could show us your directory we’d have a better idea. How much Netflix and prime movies do you download to your device for offline viewing??

 

[eyeseeyou]

Maybe if you could show us your directory we’d have a better idea. How much Netflix and prime movies do you download to your device for offline viewing??

That would be 0 movies downloaded.

Here are the top offenders.

 

[akash.nu]

Other is anything that can’t be categorised within the other sections. It’s hard to know what they are really.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Do you do iTunes backups? It could be backups waiting to be written to disk. Other can also be pictures that you're syncing to your phone from iTunes. I've had various run-ins in the past with other bloating for no reason, those were the top two for me.

Sometimes hard-resetting the phone (Volume up then down, then hold power button) wipes that out for me.

 

[Jakefudge]

I’m getting this as well. Had to wipe phone and start again but it’s creeping up again. No idea why?
[doublepost=1546982266][/doublepost]Screenshot. It’s gone up another 5 gig tonight! Only use phone for basic things!

 

[Minorite]

Wasn't that mainly iTunes logs and apps cache? Best known ways to clear this are sync with iTunes to clear logs and encrypted backup > wipe the device from Settings > restore the backup. Cache will come back later but you will have some time to enjoy your free space

iOS should clear this as purgeable space, but seems no one will ever improve this on both macOS and iOS...

 

[eyeseeyou]

Tried a hard reset and that massive block of “other” is still there. I’ll connect to my macbook and do a back up to see if that clears it out.

Crazy that this lack of space is making the 128gb XR look attractive.

 

[Minorite]

Crazy that this lack of space is making the 128gb XR look attractive.

That's why I love my 128 GB 7

 

[eyeseeyou]

That's why I love my 128 GB 7

Storage is underrated and in apples case overpriced!

 

[davedvdy]

This video might be helpful:

"There’s no magic button that just erases all the “Other” on your iPhone, but you can do a few things to cut it down: 1. Clear Safari history and website data 2. Set Keep Messages to 30 Days 3. Offload some of your apps".

 

[Jakefudge]

Thing is my iPad Pro is a carbon copy of my iPhone and other just takes up 18gb?

 

[eyeseeyou]

Thing is my iPad Pro is a carbon copy of my iPhone and other just takes up 18gb?

That’s strange

 

[motulist]

Sign out of apple music. When I used to use AM there was a bug where cache files used up actual storage space permanently.

 

[Jakefudge]

I removed Apple Music after the last reinstall. Reading round it seems a lot of people are having this issue.
I’ve tried removing Facebook, WhatsApp and google photos but it’s hrdley made a dent. It’s definitely an iOS 12 issue. Had iPhones for years and never a problem.

 

[Hieveryone]

Do you do iTunes backups? It could be backups waiting to be written to disk. Other can also be pictures that you're syncing to your phone from iTunes. I've had various run-ins in the past with other bloating for no reason, those were the top two for me.

Sometimes hard-resetting the phone (Volume up then down, then hold power button) wipes that out for me.

I do iTunes backup. How does that take up space again???

 

[BigMcGuire]

I do iTunes backup. How does that take up space again???

My guess is backup snapshots? I've noticed Other growing in the past and doing an iTunes backups made Other shrink. Could have been a cleaning routine that iTunes ran on the phone too, honestly I have no clue. It has just shrunk the Other partition in the past for me.

Recently, the Other partition ballooned for me when I was trying to transfer 172 GB of photos to my iPhone. For whatever reason it put a LOT of those in the Other partition - 50+GB. Eventually I just went with iCloud photos for my 172GB of photos and now my other partition is tiny.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Sign out of apple music. When I used to use AM there was a bug where cache files used up actual storage space permanently.

Just tried this and no change ‍♂️