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

OMG OMG OMG I FIGURED IT OUT DELETE ANY HISTORY AND UNWANTED PICS AND VIDS I HAD A 27 MIN VIDEO AND WHEN I DELETED IT I WENT FROM 4.7GB ON 'OTHER' TO 0.63 THANK YOU SWEET BABBY JESUS HALALOOYAH:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Thanks so much
I had 27.4 Gigs in Other
now clean

I fond how to solved this problem the other space is taken by " Icloud back up files , photo , internet files and trash files "

you can clean trash files and cache files with iclean " you can install from cydia "

but i cloud files is very huge files you must turn on icloud back up then go to the " Storage & Backup "
then go to the " mange storage " and turn off the back up programs from this section

When you worked with icloud section your iPhone must be connected to internet if you don't connected to internet the icloud was disable

I knew what caused my "Others" section to instantly increase in size after I recorded a few videos, each measuring from 400-600MB. Though I deleted them from my camera roll, the section still remained unusually high so I knew they were somehow still on my device. I did everything to try to delete it. Thankfully I figured it out. And because I'm jailbroken, it made my life a lot easier.

I cleared 2GB by going to iFile: var/mobile/Media/DCIM/101APPLE. There I saw videos and photos I've longed deleted but still remained on my iPod. I promptly deleted them and recovered 2GB of my space. =)

I turned off my iCloud and then deleting my back up from iCloud worked for me. my 4.8gb others went down to 0.74

Thanks so much for this tip - it worked for me too. I turned off icloud backup, then wen to Manage Storage on my device. chose my ipod, then turned off my camera roll (I had deleted large video files, but it said I still had the same amount of storage) when I turned it back on, it went from 4 gb to .680 . Yay! Thanks again!

I spent the better part of a day on this one (some down time that I rarely have). My iPhone 4 mysteriously jumped to about 13GB full, even though I could only account for about 6GB of app/data content.

I purged/flushed/cleaned everything, and deleted lots of stuff I shouldn't have. Nothing helped rid the OTHER content, or even put a dent in it.

So I reluctantly played the RESTORE card. It worked well, and took care of the problem, but I got really scared when the RESTORE asked me for a password. I tried 3 of mine before the 4th mercifully worked. I was starting to panic. It was NOT my iTunes/AppStore password either. Heaven knows when I set the correct password up, but BE ADVISED.

Also, while my photo's and video's were restored from backup, my iTunes music was not. This was easy to sync and rectify, but another step in the hassle. My OTHER dropped to about half a gig, thankfully.

Still not sure what caused the issue. I just hope I don't have to do this RESTORE very often.

Note: In all my searching, I didn't come across anyone who posted that a RESTORE had failed to correct this issue. I tried a bunch of the quicker-fix claims, including downloading FileApp, but nothing worked.

Good luck to you!

I found a few gigs in a Home Sharing folder (sorry you'll have to search). Using iFunbox, I searched for files over 10,000KB. The home sharing had some itunes libraries (i stream my home itunes library to my iphone) so I deleted them completely.

the "other" is the pictures and videos you have in your text messages just go in there and delete them and you will get the GB back
the easiest solution period

The trick that worked for me (as I had over 4gb in other) was to clear my cookies and history in Safari. All of the sudden, my other memory was taking huge amounts of room. I got back 3.7 gb! Hopefully this will stay fixed.

Hey I love this thread. Back on the older OS I fixed this by getting rid of partially downloaded installous files and the f00 files from itunes. That no longer works. I DID just get some space back by emptying the trash in ifile. I went from 2.3g to 1.47g. : )

I've had it under a gig on the older OS. Space is a premium on an 8g 3gs. I'll keep going.

Thanks again

FattyZ

Ok I got rid of all the old txt messages (i never delete any and there were pics) an got .2 g back so i'm down to 1.45g and counting.

FattyZ

Got down to 1.36 no restore, no sync. Deleted all txt got .2g. Used iclean got the rest so from 2.3 I picked up almost a gig. That's ALOT on an 8g 3gs. The lowest I ever got on 4.2.1 was .97g. Now on 5.0.1 I don't know if I can get any more but I'll try!

Thanks I have been reading this thread ever since I got my iphone and started tweaking it.

FattyZ

hello...the other is a storage of videos,pics..........if you have a download app like the video downloader
it saves videos to its one storage as you all know the ˝other˝.delete the videos you dont nead. If you want to clean it you have to get ifile and you can clean the game saves that sometimes take a looooot of space.....for more info send a message to my email: 007dancedud@gmail.com

thanke you for shoping with us XD

Disk Ais is the way to go (as long as)you know what to delete).

OTHER is 90% text messages saved on your phone (so just delete them and you'll see most of this "other" vanish).
The other 8% of OTHER is your saved cookies so clear all that.
The last 2% of OTHER is normal so don't worry about that.

I had this very same problem, my "other" was taking up 3.2 GB and I was very frustrated. I tried everything, even restoring my phone multiple times. I finally decided to delete all my text messages, seeing that I have never done that, and also deleted all of my voicemails and recent calls. I filtered through my email as well, then resynced my iphone and POOF, my other went down to about 0.45 GB.

I fed up with this!! I had 7 GB 'other' and yesterday i took it to the store they did a format for me, downloaded the latest version, jailbroke it and installed cydia and installus! I got rid of the 7 GB "others" but then later it started to appear again till it reached 2 GB with out even downloading anything!! then I read these comments and did the deleting thing using DISKAID, after that i switched my phone off and it wouldnt turn back on !!! It asked for restore and update and i did it, its been 5 hours its not done yet and cydia and installus will be removed again I am so fed up with this, I am afraid that after this the "other" will appear again. :(

I have no music on my iPhone 4s. I also have no memory storage is full. I have cleaned out my safari cookies thing and it have me 50mb. Some how I've used 13 gb.
How do I access the "others" folder? Thanks !

a lot of what was taking up space on my phone were video and photos in text messages. so i basically just deleted all the folders in /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments. since there were so many folders, i used SSH to delete everything. a lot faster than using iFile. just be sure you go through your messages and save any photos/videos to your camera roll, before deleting the folders. but after deleting the folders, i was able to regain about 3gb of space on my 4S.

This recommend free'd up 9 gigs on my Iphone 5

Used Puddy on Windows
Installed SSH via Cydia

root:alpine

rm -rf /var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments root#

Took about 20 seconds to run.

Worked thank you.

i used a video app called filmic pro. i deleted the vides from phone but its still taking up the space.

i would like to tell everyone that DISKAID helped a but load i got 2 gs of free space on my iPhone again . its really simple and easy to use.
-down load the app and fallow the instructions

-when it opens up go to file/ system
-click on media
-go to iTunes_Control
- go to music
- high light the folders and delete them

trust me it works i got 2gs for space free!!! so yea thanks to all the ppl that recommended this it really worked. everyone else try this.

I ended up doing that and it got rid of the "other" but lo and behold my music wouldn't play. Now i've restored it, resynced it, and i STILL can't get my music to play.

Does ANYONE know how to fix this?!

Guys, i need help. i downloaded Diskaid and deleted the files in the music folder and now my music will not play.

I've tried resyncing it with no luck.
I've tried RESTORING it with no luck.
I've tried almost everything in this thread that i can understand, with still no luck.
No matter what i do my music will not play.

Is there anyone who can help me fix this?!?

I just downloaded the diskaid app and cannot see the files on my phone. I searched for the files that are supposed to be deleted and they are not showing up when I click on search or files in the App. I turned "show hidden files" on for the phone.

Can anyone render advice on how to actually see the files using this application?

this works
http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/iphone-4s-forum-77/iphone-wont-play-music-37340/

Okay! I tried lots of things here and other places and they either didn't work or only slightly worked.

THIS worked for me:

I went to /var/mobile/Media/DCIM and found this folder called apple100 and it had a lot of my old photos and vidoes in it like 238 of them! Saved all of my photos I needed, double checked to make sure that none of those things were things I wanted it and I deleted it! Boom! Gone! It worked!

So, after a good amount of research, I deleted MANY text threads - still not to much avail. Then, I deleted the one thread I really didn't want to: the one with my girlfriend dating back to February 17, 2012, when I acquired my phone, and We text a looot, with MUCH multimedia. Sure enough, my "Other" went from 3.5GB down to 0.72GB!! ...and NO restarting of the phone was necessary - the change showed immediately in iTunes while I was hooked up. :)

While typing my first text post-deletion, I noticed it went up to 0.86GB, and after a few texts between her and also a friend, it went down to 0.67GB. So, "Other" obviously doesn't hold just texts and multimedia; there is some processing (similar to a computer) going on all of the time. Fascinating.

My "Other" was originally certain types of apps and perhaps Notes, but now that I've updated to iOS 6, it's shot all the way up to 27 GB of my capacity, which it was never close to before.... HMMM.... and the software update wiped my phone, so I know for a fact it's not any of the previous items.

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