I bought a new iPhone 12 Mini last week with a 64 GB capacity, same as my old iPhone. Now I am getting constant "iPhone storage full" messages.
I see that "Other" is taking up 28.37 GB of my storage on this new phone, compared to 3.08 GB on my old phone. In other words, more than 44% of my new phone's storage is taken up by "Other" (compared to less than 5% of my old phone's storage).
What is going on and how can I fix this?
iPhone 12 mini, iOS 14
Check this link...
I'd consider returning that iPhone and ordering one with more internal storage, as you've already bottomed out your usage, and that's not going to improve over time. Apple allows 14 days to obtain a full refund.
Other is not something there's much control over, and—on macOS—Apple indicates it is what it is: "Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac."
On iPad and iPhone, here are the contents: Other: Non-removable mobile assets, like Siri voices, fonts, dictionaries, non-removable logs and caches, Spotlight index, and system data, such as Keychain and CloudKit Database. Cached files can't be deleted by the system.
On iPhone and iPad, here are some suggestions for reducing it: https://ioshacker.com/how-to/free-other-iphone-storage
But for many of us 64 GB is going to be tight, regardless.
From what I gather... "other" is normal between 5-10 gbs. I could be wrong but anyone I ask has 7 gbs-23 gbs in that category. iOS 14 really unleashed a can of worms with other on my 8. I moved to the 11 in November and spent 2 months on the phone with Apple Support before they closed my case without really any explanation or resolution. I guess it is what it is. They had ran multiple weeks worth of diagnostics on my phone and said my phone had no issue.
I personally believe it's an iOS issue. The claim is that iOS eventually clears it's own cache or temporary files when needed. That has never been the case for me however.
I have tried every single method on this forum to reduce mine and nothing has worked. Ultimately I can, as someone suggested, do a complete restore in Recovery and it supposedly cleans that out. My "other" always comes back at 3 gbs roughly and then just starts climbing, never falling, from there. Doesn't matter what form of "reset" I do.
Maybe call Apple Support? There is a 90 day courtesy. Maybe the more people who call and say something. I never remember having this issue prior to iOS 14.
That article tells me to update to iOS 13.6.1 or later. My iPhone is already updated to 14.4, so this article doesn't apply to my phone.
iPhone storage full: 50% is "Other"
