How do I reclaim iPhone storage space taken up by 'Other'?

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.

Comments

how do you find this file if you're using a dell? i have an 8GB iphone and 2.3 is being used by "other" which is frustrating

I just got 11gb freed up by going to the ifile app then /var/mobile/library/ifile/trash. The items I previously deleted were still in there so I emptied the trash and it freed up 11gb right away. I hope this helps.

this worked and rocks

I just got 11gb freed up by going to the ifile app then /var/mobile/library/ifile/trash. The items I previously deleted were still in there so I emptied the trash and it freed up 11gb right away. I hope this helps.

I just got 11gb freed up by going to the ifile app then /var/mobile/library/ifile/trash. The items I previously deleted were still in there so I emptied the trash and it freed up 11gb right away. I hope this helps.

I just got 11gb freed up by going to the ifile app then /var/mobile/library/ifile/trash. The items I previously deleted were still in there so I emptied the trash and it freed up 11gb right away. I hope this helps.

i would say the the best bet is to jailbreak and install ifile to gain root access from there you can remove any unneeded "other" data on the idevice.... use RedSn0w to jailbreak. if your not familiar with jailbreaking go into setting - about and find your software version then search youtube for a jailbreak for your version... you would prefer a untetherd jailbreak to a tetherd version..
luke..

Jeff!

Thank you so much! My Other memory just went from 4.5Gb to 1Gb. I would have been driven crazy because all that was on the Itunes support website was restore and that wasn't working. Turns out I had a ton of "f" folders and multiple memos of lectures I had recorded two years ago. ANYBODY WHO SEES THIS, TRY JEFF'S ADVICE. In the bottom left corner of my DiskAid there was no "Diskaid Folder" but I found "ITunes Control" under "File System" then "Media" in the left hand navigation pane.

Hope that helps!

For anyone who may still be experiencing this problem with the "OTHER" file size growing exponentially large, the solution has been presented on this forum multiple times (but overshadowed by other partially working methods). If you recall iTunes has a very unique way of handling video files on idevices. Simply put, many times any video files you have on the device will end up in this other folder. As it was pointed out by many commentators, if you remove these files, the other folder will shrink in a corresponding amount. You will first have to decide if you really want to delete those .mov files as they may have some sentimental value. DiskAid is a quick solution for those who have not jailbroken their devices.. Find the "ITunes_Control" under "File System" folder, then the "Media" folder, then "DCIM" folder, then under DCIM you will find two or more Apple folders (1000APPLE and 1001APPLE, etc) with photo and video files. Apparently each folder is limited to 1000 objects. Personally, i chose to copy the contents of these folders to my computer and then peruse the video files to see if there are any i want to keep. Again, the "OTHER" folder will shrink in size in proportion to the video files deleted from this folder.

Another factor which contributed to my "OTHER" folders size was the database files used by installed apps on the device. It appears that if these apps are removed, some of their database files remain behind, in my case to the tune of 1.6 GB. This storage folder is located here "File System/Media/ApplicationArchives". When the database files in this folder are deleted, the "OTHER" folder will shrink in size, proportionately. Upon removal of the .mov and database files in the two identified locations, my "OTHER" folder went from 3.6 GB to 0.0 GB. I hope this helps. As i said, its been presented here many, many times...

As simple as that!!!!!! My "other" were my .mov videos. I deleted them from 100APPLE and I went from 2,25GB to 42MB

I had the same problem, i used iFile(on jailbroken iphone) and deleted all f starting folders in var\mobile\music\itunes_control folder. After that i deleted all songs manually one by one from my iphone music player. Then i deleted all songs from my itunes program on pc but without connecting to iphone. After that i connected iphone to itunes via usb (no songs on iphone and no songs in itunes) and synced iphone with i tunes. So that the itunes and iphone agree that your music library is empty, after that disconnect and reboot the iphone. Then sync ur music from itunes like u are starting from scratch, space recovered. Simple aye

Just saying, I have 6.75 GB of this "Other" data. Very frustrating, and I wish Apple would do something about this because I would like to be able to use my phone, and not have half my memory taken up by this nonsense. Please fix this, Apple.

Check out this Youtube video of what is occupying the "other" space on IOS devices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsPeuYukf_s

I just found 4GB of 'other' on my iphone. I just deleted every text on my phone and got it down to 0.82GB Hopefully this helps.

I did pretty much everything listed above, and my "Other" stayed at an annoying 4gb. My iCloud was almost full as a result, so I needed to figure out what was going on.
I used Cyberduck with my 4s, navigated to /private/var/mobile/library/SMS/Attachments - the iPhone4 framework doesn't have the library folder, so SMS is inside of mobile
before I deleted any of the pictures and movies that were contained in those folders, I wanted to go back in time, almost a full year! Basically any picture that was sent, or received was saved automatically to that folder. Or any video I recorded, was also saved into one of those folders. I deleted all of these pictures and movies in the past manually, I am not so sure as to why they were still on my phone, unless there is some secret setting I don't know about pertaining to iCloud backing up your SMS media, or the iOS for that matter.

So now I gained the 4gb that was used, my almost full iCloud account is now showing that I have only used 20mb.

Final thought: Does Apple build in this annoying flaw? Almost to force people who love to send pics and movies to other people, to buy iDevices with more available space?

This suddenly appeared on my iPhone. I had 8.7 GB of other space that just appeared. I synced and found that a TV series that I had purchased on my phone was still there after I had uploaded it during a sync and put it up on the cloud. I didn't want the show anymore, so I allowed it to transfer during a sync and then deleted it in iTunes. When I re-synced the other space went down to just a few MB.

i get other taking up as much as 11 gb and i only have 13 some odd gbs to start with. i have been having many problems with my iPhone 4s and i feel stuck with it cuz im so accustomed to it

I just to have 1.9 GB space taken by Other. With iFile I went to
/var/mobile/library/SMS/Attachments and deleted all the folders there
I gain about 400MB

Still trying to figure how to gain the rest 1.5 GB

Hey

I have a sama problem. Almost 5,2 gigs of "others" on my iPhone 4s.
Seems this happen if you guys on jailbreak device?

The problem is pwntune is make duplicate the file's ( video and photo )

First back up all of your photo and video
Then
Point to var/mobile/media using ifile
Delete the iTunes_Control_BackupByPwnTunes folder
And var/mobile/media/ , Delete all folder inside iTunes_Control folder.
"Other" will go until 365 mb :)
Connect to itunes. You will have have clean iTunes sync now
Done!

Good luck
A

Ps
Safari data and cache won't take even 1 gig lol.

Restored my iPhone 4 and still have the other storage taking up 2.70 gb

thanks guys
/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM did it for me half way
from 3.6GB to 1.80
then ifile
delete everything in trash
from 1.80 to 280MB

My other category is taking up 5.27 GB's...more than my music and pictures. This is ridiculous, Apple needs to fix this ASAP.

THANK YOU for posting that "update." I have had over 75% of my iPhone storage space freed up from the "other" category by using the "update" advice. Seriously!

I went into my iPhone messages and clicked "edit." I had phone messages with videos and photos (MMS) I'd sent and/or received from friends since 2012 ... they were sitting there on my phone taking up, like I said, a total of about 5 GB.

Before I kept trying to resynch, restart, etc., the iPhone through iTunes ... never realizing that what I had stored on my phone in the "message" portion of my iPhone took up so much space.

By all means DELETE those "historical" text messages, especially with those you exchange movies & pics with. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I saw that this was a huge problem for me, and it stumped me, low and behold my husband being gone for three months at school for the cg, i sent him pictures of me and the kids as well as sent them to my parents, i went through and deleted all of my text messages and voila!!! no reset needed, even though i would transfer the pictures to my computer and then delete them from my phone, because they were sent through text message, they were still stored on the phone and i freed up 6 GB of space by deleting texts.......its something to try!

(Jailbroken device)
i have no idea what this is when i go to var/mobile/media i search for applicationarchives (Ifile).
i dont see it and when i scroll down i see alot of jailbreak-1360(and 6 random numbers it start with 1360) and if i click on it some says : untarring cydia and some say:
starting...
setting jb_state and forkig...
starting iphone 4,1 10b142
IOServiceopen = 0x0
kernel region 0x9f800000
(ect)
and i see this all over 3-6 files and some says not yet finalized. and i see jailbreak.log and it says the same (not yet finalized)
can i Delete this? or cant i?
and if i can delete this does it remove ''other''?
or to need to restore my iphone and download the jailbreak again? and it was untethered jailbreak.
oyeah and one question... why does my battary drown so fast? is it becouse of my jailbreak? or some apps? here is a sample: if i watch youtube for 10min and mij iphone is 100% and when i look at it, it is 90% or less some time.
Thanks For Reading.

var/mobile/Library/iFile/Trash

delete everything in it. i saved 8GB with this !!

DO NOT DO IT !!

IT ACCIDENTLY DELETED MY LIBRARY FOLDER AND I'VE HAD TO RESTORE MY PHONE.

MY JAILBREAK GONE.

Just deleted all my text messages and group message and the "other" dropped 2.55GB! At least a step in the right direction. Still have about 2GB to go...

I had over 2 gb in var/movile Library/SMS/Attatchments

Every picture I had ever received on my phone was saved here.

hi

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