How do I reclaim iPhone storage space taken up by 'Other'?
We've been getting numerous reports of users, who have attempted to sync their iPhones after the latest iTunes updates (7.4.x), finding that iTunes shows space on their iPhone occupied by something specified only as 'Other'. Often, this space may be only small amounts (a few megabytes), but we have received reports of 'Other' taking up as much as 4 gigabytes.
Unfortunately, scouring available information sources and speaking with Apple hasn't led to any type of easy resolution.
If you're experiencing this issue under any version of iTunes, you'll need to restore your iPhone to reclaim the space occupied by Other. That is the only known solution at this time.
If you've found another solution to the 'Other' issue, please let us know.
Presumably this issue will be rectified by the next iTunes update.
UPDATE: User Andrew S. said he deleted "a substantial number of text threads containing pictures and videos" to clean out half of the "Other" storage on his phone. Andrew claims he went from having zero free space to 1.88GB by using this technique.
Just restart your iphone, ipad or ipod touch. You could also try clearing the cache, history and cookies of safari before restarting your device. After restart the space will return.
I need some help, I was just browsing pictures in WallpaperHD now my photos in the photo library has been deleted and I can not use the camera of my IPhone 4 it says Cannot Take Photo There is not enough disk space to continue taking photos. Make room by deleting existing videos or photos. Can someone help me with this, pls?
Herein lies the solution to this perplexing problem. It's a bit of a long explanation that I'd rather not do, however after seeing so many peoples endless plight with this problem I thought it was my responsibility to "expose" the solution. Please note that each iPhone "Other" database clutter problem is case-specific, so what might work for you may not be the solution for somebody else. What I found was the following: iFile is the culprit. Apparently, iFile has an option embedded in it called "Trash". When this option is turned ON, everything that is erased via iFile is put into a special "Trash" folder, hidden deep within the iPhone's folder tree. I personally do a lot of video encoding and uploading to my iPhone, usually .MKV files well over 5+GB. Photos, .AVI's, .MP4's, .MPG's, they all get routed to this Trash folder upon deletion. Fortunately, the culprit app also holds the solution. Before you go erasing anything, confirm that within iFile "Settings" (gear at bottom of screen) that Trash is turned OFF (it's ON by default). Then, starting at the very beginning of the iPhone's folder tree structure, hit the small blue button located next to each folder. There is about 15-20 of them in total. After pressing the blue circular button with arrow within it, you'll be forwarded to the folder's complete properties (similar to right-clicking on a folder icon in Windows). This will then tally up the folder's complete contents size, including all sub-folders. I found two main folders that contained over 5GB's of data in each. The ones that contain 1GB or less simply ignore as these are most likely system operating files or App functioning folders. Depending on the size of your "Other" database, you'll know what size you need to be looking for. Do this for each folder and you will soon enough find precisely where this garbled junk of data is hiding. Then, simply erase the files within each folder. I did not erase the actual folders, simply because I did not want to compromise the root integrity of the iPhone's filing structure. The whole process took about 10 minutes, and afterwards I went from having a whopping 9GB of "Other" data to a mere .94GB, almost instantly. I apologize for not being able to name the specific folder the junk files were in, but with a bit of persistence you'll have no problems finding them. Most root folders on the iPhone contain either 0 Byes or less than 50MB, so you'll have no problem locating the ones containing the bloat files. Using this method, in conjunction with erasing old data from the iTunes_Control folder, and finally erasing all Music, re-booting, then re-syncing music, you should completely eliminate all the unwanted data. As a side note, I found the folders containing Safari's cache, history, and cookies. Several suggestions have been made to erase these items, however, the amount of space they consume, in total, is indeed negligible. This is definitely NOT a final solution for those of us with over 2GB's of "Other" data within our iPhone. (I should also mention I purchased iFile, enabling many options that the free version lacks. It's only $2 I believe, and it is the most versatile, simplest, and most effective file manipulation iPhone app out currently, hands-down. Awesome app!) Good luck everyone. (Phew!)
hey man...your explanation was easy enough to be carried out, very detailed..but im not sure with which files should i tamper or delete. it would be great help if you could specify...Thanks brother.
Thanks, your advice helped me. Even though this was posted around a year ago, this advice is extremely valuable. I just copy/pasted your comment and saved for future reference. I needed a way to deduct what was taking up my IPhone's storage in the "Other" category. Thank you again for your interest in helping others resolve a somewhat "similar" issue.
I had the most at 29gb down to 3.4gb. I have a boat load of various other files, like video I've downloaded via protube, etc. So 3.4gb is acceptable
THANKS!!!
Thanks a bundle it worked for me.The main thing is if u delete all music from iTunes_control using i file or any other software.The original music stays in your library and after rebooting device u see a big change.My other was 4.25 GB now its all gone.I dun even see other ( yellow bar )when i connect my phone to iTunes
Mine almost had 25gb of other. restoring it now
just clear safari history and cookies. I went from 17.5GB in other to 3.5GB. its not perfect but its a lot.
This worked perfectly. Thanks.
Well i have the record of over 18.2 GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I discovered that most of my "Other" space was taken up by duplicate copies of my applications (!).
I found this by:
- installed Netatalk in Cydia (AppleTalk implementation)
- connect both iphone and my Mac to my WiFi network
- my iphone then shows up in the left column of a Mac Finder window as an available server
- connect to my iphone in the Finder window (using whatever you have the iphone's root password set to - default is "alpine")
- now navigate in the Finder to /var/mobile/Applications, list view
- in Finder, click View>Show View Options, and, click "Calculate All Sizes", and sort Applications window by Size
- this will show the size of all Application folders, but will take some time
- I noticed that there were always two folders with exactly the same size, one dated old, and one dated at the time I'd restored from backup after installing iOS 5
- with some experimentation, I determined that the newer-dated folders were the culprits
- then sorted the folder by date, and deleted the newer ones. (actually this delete was running so slowly, I canceled it, dragged the newer folders into a sub-folder, then logged in via ssh and deleted that subfolder using rm -rf : this was still slow, but much faster than the move to Trash in Finder)
This regained me about 8GB.
Note: once you have the iphone volume mounted using Netatalk, as above, you can also use a graphical disk space viewer such as GrandPerspective to view the space breakdown on your phone.
i went into usage then storage then manage storage then delete backup from iCloud, this cleared up to 3gb and deleted none of my data or information!
After upgrading to iOS5, I suddenly had 9.5 GB of Other and could no longer put any music on my iphone. Nothing else had changed besides upgrading the system. After trying a few things, this worked for me:
1. Hook iPhone up to the computer you sync with
2. Open iTunes and go to the music tab on your iPhone and uncheck "Sync Music." This will remove all music from your device. Apply changes and sync.
3. After the sync finishes go back to the music tab and recheck "Sync Music." Apply your changes and sync your music back to your iPhone/iPod.
Best solution
Step 1: Turn of sync music in iTunes
When you have synced your iPhone and noticed that “other files” have taken up a lot of storage space on the iPhone, un-tick the “sync music” alternative in iTunes before un-connecting your iPhone.
Step 2: Install DiskAid software on computer/mac (Instead of using DiskAid (paid), I used iPhone Explorer (which is free.))
DiskAid is a neat little software that allows you transfer files to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, treating it as a USB drive. They offer a free trial of the software so no need to purchase it first time you have to use it at least.
Make sure your iPhone is connected with the USB when you open up DiskAid. When the program is running, at the bottom left corner it says “DiskAid folder”, click on the drop down list and choose “media folders”.
Step 3: Go into iTunes Control folder and then the Music folder
In DiskAid you will see an overview of all the folders and files on your iPhone. Go to the iTunes Control Folder and then the subfolder called Music. Under the Music folder you will likely see a lot of subfolders starting with “f”.
Step 4: Delete/remove all subfolders in Music
Delete all the subfolders under the Music folder. They include the files that are hogging your iPhone memory under “other files”.
Step 5: Open iTunes and sync your iPhone
With “music sync” still turned off in iTunes, sync your iPhone. This will remove all music files from your iPhone, but keep all other content. Don’t worry about this though, as in the next steps you will sync the music back onto your iPhone.
Step 6: Unplug iPhone and reboot it
Once the iPhone has finished syncing, unplug it and perform a reboot. The reboot is done by holding down the “power down” button at the top right at the same times as holding down the control button. Hold both of them until the iPhone has switched off and the Apple logo appears on the screen before releasing both buttons. This action will reboot your iPhone.
Step 7: Reconnect your iPhone to iTunes and recheck “sync music”
This will put your music back onto the iPhone, and you should not see any of the “other files” taking up any of the iPhone memory. Once the sync is complete your iPhone should be all sorted again.
hey thank you so much! you are a genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had 1,40GB of "other" on my iphone.. I followed your steps using DiskAid. Thank you very much, it worked for me, although I decided not to open iTunes nor untick the sync music option. All I did was using DiskAid to delete all the subfolders starting with F that The folder music had.. And my free space went to 10GB from 3.6GB... which is incredible, nothing happened to my music :)
i'm just loving you right now
When I followed these steps the yellow "other" bar never went away. Then after re-syncing the files in the Music folder that being with "F" came back!!! I've literally spent days trying to solve this mystery with my iphone. SO annoying.
Tired to update my i phone as it iasked for it before i could,download another ringtone.Lost all my phone numbers,music,apps,bloody everything,really peeved off,thiught this phone was suppossed to be the bees knees i tihnk not.
What can i do to restore all my music ,well everything where possible.
I have the i Phone 4 and i had to synch and update.
Everything gone.
This is how I fixed my problem.
I had >12GB of Other.
I went into iTunes onto my iPhone Device and selected the Music tab.
I unchecked "Sync Music" and then re-synced my phone. This got rid of all the music but also deleted all but .68GB, virtually free-ing it all up.
I then re-checked the "Sync Music" and re-synced my phone.
There was more than enough space to do this now.
every time i delete something there comes more 'other'. I already deleted everything on safari, but it didn't work. I deleted some music while it was plugged in on itunes and it went from 1.5 to 1.6, which is a lot on my 8 gb. Help!
I am having the same problem after upgrading to OS 5. There was 6.7 gigs of Other blocking my phone, essentially turning my 16 gig phone to an 8 gig phone. I called Apple support but this was new to them.
I tried removing the cache, cookies and history from Safari without any luck. Then I unchecked everything, synched and tried to resynch. There was still 6.8 gigs of Other blocking my phone, slightly more than before.
So Other could have the space, it dumped all my music off my iPhone4. I went through, meticulously, and deleted enough apps, etc., so there was around .5 gigs of free space but it still wouldn't synch correctly.
I am not geeky and don't want to (and probably couldn't) jailbreak the phone. I've spent hours trying to resolve this today. Any other suggestions that are easily done by a middle-aged, non-techy person, without risking anll my info?
Ahhh thank you so much! The "other" on my iphone was taking up 10GB and deleting history and cookies took that "other" part down to 0.53GB!!! No need to restore!! Brilliant, thanks again!
i connected my iphone to the itunes and it show me that i have 8.7 migabytes on the others file
wats other means
'and plz help help help help help help help help help
Deleting safari history and cache does work if you havent cleared it in a while, but also if you have facebook on your iphone/ipod the data on facebook may be taking up a lot of memory, to check this just go into Settings/general/usage and see how much memory facebook is taking up. There is probably an easier way to clear the data that i have not found but i just delete and re install the app if the data usage has become to large.
You are a genius...I didnt know that menu. Never care to wait the 30 seconds it takes to populates the list. I tried everything but this is what cleared it all...
I had one gig on BUMP, one gig on Twitter worth of data...
Thank you
I just got through restoring my iphone after i saw it had 8.4 gb of "other" storage. After about 2 hours of waiting, i found out that the only thing that it was take away more memory and still keep that 8.4 gb of "other" memory. i also tried deleting the cookies (etc). What is the "other" memory coming from and how do i fully get rid of it???
I had 1.5 gigs of "other" data.
In DiskAid I went to FileSystem/Media/ApplicationArchives and found a half downloaded Infinity Blade 2 and a almost finished download of Real Racing 2. Deleted those weird Archives. Now my "other" is down to .49 GB.
Hope this helps someone!
Thanks!
iCloud is the culprit! Because I was TRICKED into making an iCloud account when I got the update, I unknowingly signed onto about 11 GB of "Other." When I deleted my iCloud account, it dropped back down to less than 1 GB.
Check out my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oIGMOR1KlQ
Fully working on iPhone 3G iPod Touch 4G (goes from 3GB to 0,6 - the system size)
Nothing is working.. Got the 3Gs 8G NOT knowing that the memory it had WAS IT.... I can't delete photos or OTHER!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!! I've read here and tried, but to no luck... How do I delete things and get space? All seems to mess up my MAC laptop too! Dozens of repeated pictures and everything! What do I do with that? IS THERE A WAY FOR ALL DUPLICATIONS TO JUST BE DELETED? I'M RATHER IGNORANT ABOUT THIS AND WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP!? THAN YOU ^_^
EVERYONE READ THIS THIS, IMPORTANT, IT MIGHT GIVE YOU MUCH SPACE BACK! THIS IS THE "MAIN" SOLUTION.
i felt that i had to write it, beause this is in 90% cases the reason why other is taking up space. i do not think it will work if you have like 15 gb but i dont know you really should try this. follow my instructions to the letter because this is what i did and the "sync and not sync music" method isnt working for many people so plz give this a shot cuz i just want to help you guys. and btw, this not you know a method where you delete a log from a specific app or anything...
the main reason why other is taking space is because if you interrupt a transfer-sync or sync it stores your unsynced/interrupted/corrupted app as a zip folder in /var/mobile/media/applicationarchives.
1.download iphone explorer,ifile or diskaid. whatever, the main thing is that you can edit inside the root of your iphone/ipod. im using ifile, then you wont need a computer.
2.go to /var/mobile/media/applicationarchives. And delete everything in applicationarchives you have there. if you're using ifile it will ask you to move it to the trash, "tap move to trash" if you do not have any zip-stored apps there this wont work for you. but you should have it there...
3.actually thats it. reboot, sync and there you go! (hold power and home button until idevice BUT! BUT! BUT! if you're using IFILE, SKIP THIS AND CONTINUE ON STEP 4.
4.(only for people using ifile). go to: /var/mobile/library/iFile/trash. you should see the deleted files! just tap "edit" in top right corner, mark everything in trash and delete, it will ask you if you want to "empty trash"-yes. empty it.
5.(only for people using ifile) reboot your iphone/ipod, go into itunes and sync, and BAM!!!!! other should'nt show over 1GB (mine showed 0.80), if it does, keep searching, if nothing seems to work, well you have to restore :(
i hoped it helped anyone out there, pls give me a reply if it did. sry for bad english btw.
William
Thank you soo much....by default ifile trash is ON.i turn off and delete var/mobile/library/iFile/trash
(Empty trash)...after that everything is ok....!!
now no memory eating problem... :)
If your iphone was jailbroken and using Installous then should try this:
- Open iFile app
- go to folders: Var/mobile/Documents/Installous/Downloads and delete all apps in that folder
I tried and got down to .82Gig from 2Gig.
in iTunes, go to Summary tab, see 'Options" at bottom. Click the unclick " Open iTunes when Phone is connected"
see:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/18/itunes-other-capacity-taking-up-tons-of-space-fix/
ComputerGuyNJ
IT IS FOR SURE THE COOKIES AND BROWSING HISTORY ISSUE!
The easiest way I found was to make sure that your iphone was backed up to your computer......mine was backed up to my icloud and once i switched to the computer, over 5GB of other was taken off my phone
Here's what I did to get the yellow out:
1) Back-up phone
2) Install Disk Aid's Trail Version: http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/download.php
3) In Disk Aid: Navigate to iTunes_Control/Music and delete all the music files. This folder is found under file system under media. You will receive a warning that you must know what your are doing, and of course you do. Select every folder in the music files and delete them. Delete them all, muwhahahaha. Don't worry you've already backed up, right?
4) Sync your phone in itunes and "poof" all the yellow is gone. Never fear though, it will build up again over time. Just redo these steps again in about a year.
HEY MAN!!! What happens if you dind't back up before? Cause I just deleted it and it worked but then like the songs wouldn't play on my iPhone so I like syncd the music back on and the space came back but now when I delete it again, the other space won't bloody clear!
FML!! I just read all these and thought that if I deleted my very long running texts with my boyfriend that I could recover some data from other! I did the cookies and cache clearing thing and IT'S STILL THERE!! This is ridiculous. I only have an 8GB iphone 4 and it is taking up 1.57GB of my data!! and now I don't have the texts from my man:'-(
It's simple-as stated earlier just delete your icloud account off your iphone..have just freed up over 2gb from my 'other' section on my phone.
go to 'Settings', icloud and just delete the account and then select 'back up to my computer' on your itunes account and sync and watch the gb's almost disappear on your 'other' section!
My 'other' is 6.1GB!!! I don't sync my outlook or contacts or calendar. I have deleted all my messages/emails to no avail. I'm using the 5.1 (9B176) version.
I truely hope it is recified by the next update...
i had the same problem, my other folder took up 5 gigs of mem on my iPod, i deleted all the crap off it and it was still huge, so i checked in a app called ifile i had, and i found a trash bin in my iPod that i could empty, i had stuff i had deleted from time, once i emptied that it freed up 4 gigs of my "other" storage
Ok guys so listen if u wanna fix this problem u need to close all backround aplications on your iphone and then sync with itunes:D:D i hope this helped;)
Hello,
I just wanted to write this comment to let others know of a guide that shows you exactly how to pinpoint and find, list and remove the Other files in iTunes on your device.
You can find the guide here: http://www.techimperial.com/2012/05/find-large-files-in-other-on-itunes.html
"Other" is all the data that is held in all of the text threads that you have sent. While the actual text data does not amount to very much, if you have sent videos and pictures, those are actually saved in the threads. That will take up enormous space. I was pushing 5 gigs of "Other" and it was driving me crazy. Restored, un-synced- on and on. None of it worked. I went through and erased all the videos and pic in threads and I am back to 1.22 Gig.
Hope this helps u!
You are a freakin genius... You saved me so much heartache!!! Thank You!!!
My "other" is at 9.2GB! This was only a problem after installing the iOS 5 update, don't know if that's a cause or just incidental. This is ridiculous... I'm also getting an error message when trying to sync. I'm trying a restore now, we'll see...
Thanks everyone for the comments. it really helped! :)