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

binu replied on

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... :)

KD replied on

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.

ComputerGuyNJ replied on

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

Anonymous replied on

IT IS FOR SURE THE COOKIES AND BROWSING HISTORY ISSUE!

Anonymous replied on

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

Macmaniac replied on

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.

Anonymous replied on

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!

Effing OTHER!!! replied on

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:'-(

Anonymous replied on

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!

Anonymous replied on

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...

fixed my problem replied on

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

Adrian replied on

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;)

iPollesion replied on

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

Anonymous replied on

"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!

Anonymous replied on

You are a freakin genius... You saved me so much heartache!!! Thank You!!!

Amanda replied on

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...

Anonymous replied on

Thanks everyone for the comments. it really helped! :)

Anonymous replied on

I used DiskAid to access the iPhone and found out that in the Recordings folder i had about 1GB of voice memo duplicates. Some of them had 19 duplicates of the same recording. I saved them to my desktop and then i had deleted them all. The Other tab shrunk back to 0,58GB.

Anonymous replied on

Having 'other' storage issues also on ipad 3, ie delete a movie and video content goes down, but the deleted video seems to re-appear taking up 'other' storage.

Having read comments here, what worked for me was not syncing etc, but actually properly powering down the ipad and restarting it. After restart, 'other' storage is once again negligible. Simple solution, but like a lot of others I probably very rarely do a full power down.

See if it works for you

thlf replied on

Normally after deleting several songs or video that are not sync to itunes, they still occupy memory space(others)
Simply reboot ipad and the space become available.

Anonymous replied on

OMG! THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE! I DELETED EVERY FILE IN MUSIC AND IT CLEARED UP A LOT OF OTHER SPACE BUT AT THE TIME, I HAD MY SYNC MUSIC IN ITUNES CLICKED, OR WHATEVER N THEN IT I CLICKED UN SYNC N THEN SYNC OR SOMETHING CAUSE THE MUSIC WASN'T WORKING ... THEN OTHER CAME BACK AND NOW WHEN I SYNC MY MUSIC BACK AND DELETE THE FILES ON DISKAID AGAIN THE OTHER DOESN'T GO AWAY FFS! IPHONES ARE SO FKN CHEAP! DIRTY BASTARDS! HOW CAN I FIX IT?! THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE, AND I CNA'T EVEN DELETE RECORDINGS

Packing Heat replied on

I was having the same problem with "Other" taking up all my space. This is what finally solved my problem. I used iExplorer at macupdate.com to browse through each file listed on my phone. I found the files taking up several MB, deleted them and then rebooted my phone. I'm back in business!!

Anonymous replied on

Could you please offer step by step directions for this?
Thanks!

Anonymous replied on

If you have icloud phone backup switched on but no wifi that can take up a lot of space. Turn it off and sync with your computer instead.

Anonymous replied on

Can someone please help me?! This is seriously driving me insane!

Anonymous replied on

I have had over 10G of "other" on my 16G iPhone 4s for about a month. I have tried resetting, using diskaid, trying all of the little various checking and in-checking boxes in iTunes, etc. Seriousy, it has been a month of trying to clean it up, but it keeps getting worse. I don't know what to do. Apple are no help. They just want me to buy a new phone. I have even gone as far as resetting iTunes, because I thought it might be the problem. Can someone please help me? I'm at my wits' end with this. I only have less than 3G of space to play with. It's absolutely bloody ridiculous.

bernadette replied on

I removed every album artwork, song, video and picture, and even cleared my safari, but it only got rid of a small portion. Then I removed every single message, and it removed 6gb of "other". now it's down to 0.64gb.

Anonymous replied on

The "Other" content on my iPhone is 9.1gb. I don't have outlook synced or anything unusual. Just photos and apps.

EMI48 replied on

Hello,
Sorry for my poor english. I had 4,2 GB of "OTHERS". I looked for that with my "friend" GOOGLE. Finally, someone explained that he (she ?) deleted a lot of files under ROOT/PRIVATE/VAR/MODULE/LIBRARY. It seemed a too much for me, but it seemed interesing. Using DISKAId, I saw that this directory was about 4 GB. I checked every sub directory (right click and GET INFO), I saw that a sub directory was 3,7 GB. It's name is SafeHarbour (ROOT/PRIVATE/VAR/MODULE/LIBRARY/SAFEHARBOUR). I destroyed all the directories under SafeHarbour (previously, I saved them on my computer with "rightclick" Save To PC). The names of those subdirectories where similar to those of apps that I had on my Iphone (then cancelled).
I synced and immediatly obtained a 0.71 GB of "Others".
I hope this will help

chris replied on

'other' takes up 4.7GB WTF!!!!! FAK UUUUUUUUUUU 'OTHER'

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