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.

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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.

tags: 
Storage
iTunes
Troubleshooting
Syncing
Storage
iTunes
Troubleshooting
Syncing

Comments

Anonymous replied on

This seemed to work, but when I tried to sync my ipod again it just told me there wasn't enough space, and the other shot back up to over 3 GB. It's frustrating.

Anonymous replied on

Even after deleting files (unwanted) of your iPhone, present in,
/private/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music
or
/private/var/spool/mdt
or
/private/var/.../.../safeharbor
(... dots are intermediate folders, I don remember the path)

via openSSH or DISKAID did not clear/delete/refresh your iPhone other memory, then one can possibly try this path too, go to

Root/private/var/mobile/library/applicationsupport 
Delete the folders in it. 

This folder is likely/surely will be filled with all video/audio files that is being played using VLC player. 
This happens when video/audio files in one app (not VLC) is played using VLC player through open with VLC player option.

I had 10.5 GB of other memory out of 14 GB. It was all Video/audio files that got stored in the path given above when I played them in VLC(video) & Media player(audio) from DOWNLOAD LITE  APP.  
After deleting all, you gotta do is just one sync of your phone with iTunes. 
Music box checked/unchecked does not matter. Just sync. You will get back your memory. I hope this helps. 

If not here too, then for sure files that's occupying the memory would be in  

Root/private/var/mobile/.... 

do a folder by folder search and remove the files when you find them.

I did it using DISKAID app Free version. This app is easy and is really cool.

Teejinator replied on

DIskaid totally worked for me! On Christmas I recorded a video on my iphone 4s that never went to my video library. I thought maybe I'd forgotten to push record; however, that wasn't the case. The 45 min long 6.8gb movie was stored in some magical land that was unaccesable by me, my iphone, or itunes, but was still taking up my memory. I got Diskaid and loaded my camera roll for sharts and giggles (even though it was empty on my phone) and voila!.... a movie was there. I went to file system and deleted it after copying it to my pc. So i got rid of the phantom 7.2 gb "other" on my phone's memory, and got my vanished xmas vid. Thanks for your post!

Anonymous replied on

Same thing happened to me. I was attempting to run the battery all the way down to 0% by letting the camera record a video for as long as it could. It saved the video in the phantom space and even Apple couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Their solution, in the end, was to reformat my entire phone. Good fix.

Anonymous replied on

Same thing happened to me. I was attempting to run the battery all the way down to 0% by letting the camera record a video for as long as it could. It saved the video in the phantom space and even Apple couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Their solution, in the end, was to reformat my entire phone. Good fix.

silat replied on

Thanks

it solved my problem

Anonymous replied on

Man!
First time in my life I post on the web even if I read it since years! THANKS! Huge THANKS ^^

Anonymous replied on

deleted al the files under /private/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music, turned my iphone off then on again and synced with itunes, and poof! "others" section is now gone! did this with diskaid. yay!

Lark replied on

Just did this, and it worked for me. Thanks so much!

(unlocked iPhone 3G, 4.2.1)

Anonymous replied on

WORKED !!! great for me

Webs replied on

That did it. Beautiful solution.

Anonymous replied on

Did you notice a problem with your music after that?

Anonymous replied on

Totally... my music will not play at all. Just sits there at 0:00. frustrating...

Misguidedmommy replied on

Is this file on my computer on on my phone...I'm a rookie how do I find the files I'm supposed to delete?

Anonymous replied on

I think they are talking about "jailbroken" phones...but I'm a rookie, too :p
Not sure...

Anonymous replied on

This worked very well.

lahabi replied on

this really worked a little for me , thanks . Others are down from 1.24g to 805m.

Tom replied on

Yup, this also worked for me, maybe it is old album art or genius data?

Anonymous replied on

where do i find the /Pri/var section?? on my phone or iTunes??

Anonymous replied on

I am using a mac. have been at this for 3 hrs now.. can someone please put step by step instructions on where to find this files. I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

The safari trick did help some but i am still having a large amount of other even after deleting apps and music and pictures..

Anonymous replied on

"Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 4, 2012 - 5:46am.
deleted al the files under /private/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music, turned my iphone off then on again and synced with itunes, and poof! "others" section is now gone! did this with diskaid." This worked for me as well with a at&t 4S running ios 5.1.1...great job anonymous as apple support forum will tell you to restore your phone to new then restore from backup which is absolutely unnecessary....my "other" is now 0.00. potential items for "other" are text messages and cookies in safari

Dennis in Texas replied on

Thanks SO MUCH for the information. I synched my iphone and noticed I only had 0.5Gb left. A great deal was taken up by "other". I got Diskaid, deleted ALL the files under iTunes_Control/Music just as you said. Turned off the iPhone. Restarted it, and now I have 9.7Gb Free. You're a lifesaver! Thanks!

Anonymous replied on

Those are your music files :P When you delete them you are deleting all of the music off of your phone. It will still show that you have them...because you didn't delete them correctly...leaving the info for the songs there with no files. Don't do it.

Anonymous replied on

How do you do that?

Duy replied on

Works like a charm, thank you so much!

Rex replied on

OK. I’ve been hunting all weekend because my OTHER category grew to over 11Gb on my 32Gb iphone 4S (not jail broken). I ried several of the solutions here including restoring from backup but none helped my problem.

Many people seem to be having the same issue (i.e. a huge OTHER category) all caused by a similar problem (i.e. tons of duplicate files) but for different reasons (i.e. music, photo’s, video, 3rd party apps etc…). IOS seems to be creating and or holding onto these duplicate files for some reason(s), some explainable (i.e. a 3rd party app is retaining a downloaded file and not deleting it) and some unexplainable (see my issue below).

My issue started with repeated iCloud backup error messages stating that iOS couldn’t back up up to iCloud because there wasn’t enough storage and I needed to buy more. After a closer look on my iphone it states that my next iPhone iCloud back is 10.4Gb. Combine that with my wife iphone, my daughters ipod, and our family ipad and I’m over my 15Gb plan by about 2Gb’s. However when I look at my phone and what I’m backing up (I shut off most all apps) I should be way under 15Gb. Looking closer at my iphone on iTune I notice OTHER has grown to over 11Gb’s!!!

Here’s what worked for me.
1) Connected my iphone via USB to my PC. OTHER = 11.2Gb
2) Use DiskAid to copy voice memo’s to my PC listed under \\File System\Media\Recordings.
3) Use DiskAid to delete all “voice memo’s” and other files listed under \\File System\Media\Recordings.
4) Disconnected my iphone and reboot it.
5) Reconnect via USB to PC and open iTunes and voila! OTHER = 1.12Gb.
NOTE: Deleting files directly off iPhone via DiskAid is done at your own risk. Bad things can happen if you make a mistake.

My other file is still big but much better than 11+Gb. I recorded a new voice memo, downloaded some app updates, resync’d my iphone and its all seems to be working fine and other = 1.12Gb. Looks like OTHER is holding steady but I’m guessing tomorrow night I will have to clean up my wife’s iphone, my daughter’s ipod and the family ipad.

Root Cause of 11Gb OTHER: My 11 year old daughter had created hundreds of silly voice recordings over the past several years across various devices. Unbeknownst to me, our ithings were saving these voice memo’s in apple lossless format (which makes huge files). Also, for some reason, each device changed the artist name (i.e. the artist was originally named for the device the voice memo was originally recorded on (i.e. “Dad’s iPhone”, “Daughter’s iPod”, etc…) but each time a voice memo would get sync’d to another device that device would make a copy of the memo and change the artist name to that device’s name. The next ime it sync’d it would copy both files which resulted in many mulitples of copies (because we have 4 devices) on my iphone for the exact same voice memo recording. Looking at the voice memo’s on my iphone it only listed ~145 voice memo’s however DiskAid found several thousand files (just under 10,000 files) in this directory (\\File System\Media\Recordings)that totaled ~10Gb of data.

Kelsey C. replied on

I just did this, and now my music will not play like the other complaints... HELP!!!????

Joneskie replied on

All you gotta do after deleting it using diskaid is reboot your phone then go to settings > general > usage > then choose music and delete it. After that re-sync your phone with itunes so you can get your music back and play it... you can see that your "others" disappear!

Amrit replied on

To this wonderful person who posted this help!! OMG!! i wanna give you a hug!!! I got y head in with these dumb apple techincal support call center.. kept on saying my warranty was expired and not addressing my 10GB of OTHERS. So i downloaded DISKAID online, changed the preferences and into the files system and got rid of the little empy folders.... Media/iTunes_Control/Music
and having said that i had duplicte recordings in the recording folder.... there you go!! 1gb left!!

Apple support Regarding this issue can go suck butts! other than that.. theyre alright!

THANK YOU AGAIN Random guy/girl!!!

Anonymous replied on

Thank you for this! Your enthusiasm encouraged me to try DISKAID out and I found 27 GIGS (!) of music in the Media/iTunes_Control/Music. I had updated my operating system and suddenly I had - 27 GB of space on my iPod. I love the internet....

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