how do i clear "other" from my storage space?

First, try doing a hard reboot

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

check if the other category has been reduced.

if not, you may need to backup, factory reset and restore the phone to get rid of it

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-iphone-iph3ecf67d29/ios

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204184

Other is all data on the phone that is not shown in the colored graph categories when you go to Settings/General/iPhone Storage. Other is typically 1-2 GB, but can be more if you have a lot of app data. If it is very large (>10GB) there may be storage corruption on your phone, usually caused by an interrupted sync. To fix this follow these steps:

• Back up your phone to your computer, iCloud or both (for belt-and-suspenders added security)—>How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
• Restore the backup you have just made—>Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

Here is additional information on Other—>What is "Other" and What Can I Do… - Apple Community

What KDLeP wrote is quite typical of many posts I have seen of this "other" issue:

KDLeP wrote:

… As items such as photos and messages are deleted off of the iPhone to open up storage space, the "other" category continues to grow. I deleted over 15 GB worth of messages/photos off of my phone and now my "other" category grew by over 15 GB. It's literally taking up any free space that's available and keeps growing. I keep deleting items and the "other" category keeps growing. …

The problem is that people don't seem to know that for things other than Apps (the Apps themselves, not the data that the App had generated or been using, that you might actually want when you reinstall the App), Deleting does not remove the files immediately.

It requires further action, typically by the user.

The Backup-Wipe-Restore procedure that is often presented as a "solution" will work, but not for any "need" for such "drastic action".

There isn't anything wrong with your device, there isn't any "storage corruption on your" device (usually: "interrupted sync" and some other cases can be exceptions).

The reason why the "Other" seems to grow at about the same rate at which you "keep deleting items" is because you are seeing what is the iOS equivalent of the Mac and PC "Trash": The "Trash" needs to be "emptied" before the Deleted items are actually removed from your system!

The most easily accessed version of this "Trash" is the "Recently Deleted" folder within Photos.

Have you "emptied" that "Trash"?

No wonder your "Other" grows as you Delete!

(There is another "Trash" that is less well known to most users, because you can only access it via the Files App [a Blue Folder on a White background], at this time, which most users probably never use. [It was introduced somewhat recently.]

Within the Files App you can find another "Recently Deleted" folder. Unlike the one within Photos, this is used for all sorts of files, from not only your Local [device] Storage, but from all your Cloud storage providers [iCloud Drive, Google Drive, and many others].

I can help you hunt down the Local Storage files, there, if you want to know.

However. Most people would probably rather simply follow the "slash and burn"—I mean Backup-Wipe-Restore—procedure.)

Thank you Lawrence! The only thing that seems to work is the factory reset.

I was having the same problem on an Iphone 7 that I have had for less than a year. It only has 32 GB of storage and half- 16GB was taken up by Other. I had already tried clearing history and website date from safari, deleting all my old text messages, pictures, podcasts and other apps I rarely used to free up space, but then within a day, Other would just increase and I would still have no free space on my phone. I have wasted a lot of time and been very frustrated with this. I followed these directions from Lawrence to back up my phone to my computer and then did a restore and now Other is down to 3GB. It has only been a day, but I now have 16GB of space available on my phone. I am frustrated that Apple gives their ridiculous answer about what Other is and suggests that there is no way to manage Other storage. I am frustrated that Apple does not suggest a simpler way to reduce Other from using all my storage, but thankful I found this suggestion. I really don't want to spend $1000 on a new phone right now, but was almost ready to do so. I feel like the phones are designed to do this so people will buy new phones even though there is nothing wrong with the phones we already have.

If you haven’t been backing up to iCloud or your computer regularly (which you should consider doing), if you can’t back up now your options are limited. But you can go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud, upgrade your iCloud storage to 50 GB (99¢ a month), and sync your app data to iCloud by turning on the sync switches. Wait for the sync to complete, which can take a few minutes to a few hours depending on how fast your Wi-Fi is and how much data you have (leave it plugged in, also, as this assures that Wi-Fi will stay on).

Sync is completely independent from iCloud backup; while they both use storage on Apple’s servers, there is no overlap in what is saved with each.

After restoring the phone to factory settings reinstall your apps (or restore any backup you have, even if it is old), then turn on those same switches and the data in iCloud will sync back to your phone.

Thank you Lawrence. I reset my phone then did the backup. Miracles! I am down to 2.3 under other and it’s been good for a few days now. Fingers crossed.

It does suck, however, that Apple has not put a permanent fix out for this. People shouldn’t have to reset their phones. Thinking maybe I should switch over when I go to buy a new phone.

thanks for your help

Hiya goodgou,

The Apple Support Communities really appreciate that you decided to post this issue. It appears that you’re wanting to know about the storage of your iPhone. We’re happy to assist you with that.

The space occupied by "Other" consists of Settings, Siri voices, system data, and cached files. More info about "Other" and how to optimize storage can be found here: How to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Have an awesome rest of your day!

Correct. And I’ve just heard from the host manager that users with the problem should use the Contact Support link at the top of every forum page so the issue can be logged and Apple can troubleshoot it with the user.

Your conspiracy theory, of course, makes no sense at all. So glad you took the time to comment. But you will think what you want to think regardless of the facts. Fact of the matter is that bugs will always exist. They are not some secret agenda, it's just the way it works. This particular one was visible enough to Apple that they put out a fix.

The ‘other’ storage issue was happening on brand new iPhone 11s.. so what would Apple be forcing them to upgrade to?? A phone that doesn’t exist yet?

If Apple is so evil, why did they release 13.6.1.. which if you read the release notes, was basically to try and fix storage issues. In fact, here is a support article that should help you.. written by Apple.

Clear Other storage on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

BTW, you don't have to copy/paste your reply to multiple people. Anyone who is still following this thread (like myself) will get a notification when the thread is responded to. So even though you didn't reply to me, I still got 3 emails.

Delete a photo. Delete it from the Recently Deleted folder. It is gone, and its space is freed up.

Delete an app. It and its data are deleted, and the space of both is freed up immediately.

Delete a music track, or better yet, a large album. The space it occupied is freed up immediately. I recently deleted an 800 MB album. I got back 800MB immediately.

You are correct that deleting an Excel spreadsheet will move it to Recently deleted, but that is totally irrelevant in the context of the problem of Other growing without restriction. And that spreadsheet does not move to Other on the phone. If it was replicated on the phone it is removed, and exists only in the “trash” in iCloud.

Which brings us back to the fact that your posts in this thread are totally irrelevant to the problem at hand, and just add confusion to those trying to solve a real problem.

Unfortunately that article does not address the issue. Many of us are experiencing 50% of our memory taken up by this "other" storage. We want to clear it out. I know I don't have 32gb of Siri voices downloaded.

This article doesn't address the issue. As items such as photos and messages are deleted off of the iPhone to open up storage space, the "other" category continues to grow. I deleted over 15 GB worth of messages/photos off of my phone and now my "other" category grew by over 15 GB. It's literally taking up any free space that's available and keeps growing. I keep deleting items and the "other" category keeps growing. Now I can't sync my phone to my computer or back it up as it says there's not enough storage space. This is an issue on Apple's end and can't be fixed by the user. This needs to be addressed ASAP as my phone is essentially useless now since apps continue to crash.

Sorry, there are no guarantees in life, but I haven’t seen any posts reporting recurrences. This issue has come up every once in a while over the past 12 years. In the past it was usually caused by an interrupted sync. I’m not sure why there are more complaints now, although it may have the same cause related to Finder sync in Mac OS Catalina, where it is harder to tell when the sync is finished. of course, if it happens to users syncing with iTunes it would kill that hypothesis.

I’ve asked the hosts privately to escalate it as a potential issue. So far the word that has come back is they haven’t seen a significantly higher incidence of reports. But it might be helpful if you use the Contact Support link at the top of the page to raise the question because every call is logged in an incident database.

I have a 64 gb XS Max. My device is currently using 63.3 GB of 64 GB. I have deleted countless apps, transferred over a thousand photos, cleared website data and cache, upgraded my iCloud plan and more. It seems as every single time that I free up space, the "Other" category increases in size. Currently, my "Other" storage constitutes 46.49 GB of my 64 GB device. This is unacceptable. and Apple should address this issue. From the countless articles, forums and Youtube videos, it seems like this is a common problem now. I guess I have no choice but to factory reset my device.

Chris0107 wrote:

that is interesting, I did not know about the Recently Deleted area in the Files app. I will add a note to check this in my responses

That’s worth checking, however, it only applies to files stored in iCloud Drive, which is separate from the synced data. Synced data (photos, calendar, contacts, etc) is not part of iCloud Drive content.