Help, iPad's "other" space taking so much space!!!!!

Just to add another "solution" to the mix, I had the "other" taking up 6.6 GB. Using iExplorer (other applications of similar type would work) and found that I had a bunch of orphaned podcasts (5.9 GB worth) on the system. I had long turned off podcast syncing and uninstalled the podcast app. Somewhere in the original Apple Podcast app, along with the iTunes syncing, was a bug that didn't properly remove the podcasts.

Am still wondering why four exclamation marks, or it is five, are required to describe the problem. It is THAT urgent and life threatening. Perhaps should ask is it???????????????????

For those of you that nothing else has worked.

I bet your iDevice is JB.
Solution using ifile or iexplorer or winscp Browse to private/var/log and delete the sylog file.

You can download the toggle from Cydia and disable the creation of the syslog file.

This file keeps getting bigger and bigger every time your device crashes.

so my "other" got up to about 1.5GB and that was bothering me. When clearing cookies and such did nothing i did a restore and now the "other" is at .5GB. This is on a iPad 2 ios6 16GB

I have an iPod Touch 4G, not jailbroken, and was surprised to see other' increase from 0.37GB to 4.5GB for no reason at all. Every time I deleted something, the 'other' would grow. Every time I synced an album, the 'other' would grow. I restored the iPod 3 times, twice setting it up as a new device - and this is what happened after I added a couple of albums and photos after setting it up as a new device:

Almost 3GB of 'other' on a 'new' device is wrong! I called Apple and they told me to uncheck the 'sync' tabs etc, but to cut a long story short, nothing worked at all until I 'erased all content and settings'. This reduced the 'other' to almost nothing, but within 3 syncs, it had grown to almost 5GB. Finally, in desperation, I tried one of the tips here, and swiped all the music off the iPod from the iPod itself (strangely enough, none of the music got deleted). I then switched it off and back on again, plugged it in, and before I hit 'sync' - this was the reading:

After I added a couple of albums and videos- THIS was the reading after the sync:

As you can see, I have NO 'other' any more (which isn't right) and total capacity is 32GB instead of 28.5GB. Now, I only see the correct capacity and the 'other' category before I sync. After the sync, I see what's in the screenshot above. It's all very strange, and no matter how many times I sync, I only see the 'true' reading before the sync - and 'other' hasn't grown at all. I just have to remember to deduct 3.5GB available space as the capacity is reading incorrectly.

Obviously, this isn't the ideal solution, and something is still wrong. But for now, I can live with the wrong reading as I can see the correct one before the sync in the second screenshot.

There's some discussion on the Apple support site (copied here below). It only addresses an out-of-sync problem with music and photos. I suspect that the general problem may also involve other kinds of data stored in Other, and that the solution presented here won't work for everyone. That's why we're seeing so many solutions that work for some people and not for others. Maybe Apple will eventually fix the general problem (with some kind of garbage collection?). For now, it makes using an iOS device pretty frustrating.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1503

Resolution

There could be several reasons why this could occur. Start with Solution 1. If the issue continues, try Solution 2 and, if necessary, Solution 3.

Solution 1

In the case of iOS device becoming physically disconnected in the middle of syncing music, podcasts, videos or photos, it's possible that orphaned files will be left on the iOS device. This can prevent iTunes from syncing the iOS device on subsequent sync sessions.

One symptom of this issue will be displayed in iTunes where the Capacity indicator for the iOS device will report a large amount of "Other" disk usage for the device. To resolve this issue:

1. Turn off the music or photo sync option in iTunes for the device.
2. Click Apply to sync the changes to the device.
3. Turn the music and photo sync options for the device on again.
4. Click Apply again to try to sync the device to iTunes.

I have this same problem on my new (got it just over a month ago) iPhone 4s. I've tried many of the suggestions here. Last night I did a wipe and restore and I *still* have over 12GB of "Other" on my iPhone. I downloaded the trial of iExplorer and I think some of it is photos that got stuck on there when iPhoto on the Mac crashed during a photo transfer, but I can't aford the $30 for iExplorer right now. Maybe next month I can afford it. So I opted to do a wipe and restore yet it's all still there. This is so frustrating! (What I mean about iExplorer is that it'll show me what files are on ther but not allow me to delete them unless I buy the full version.)

not enough exclamation marks, please next time make it ...space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, the next time you spend nearly $1k on a device to have it become significantly crippled in a couple of weeks of use, feel free to not be in the least concerned. Perhaps, like Romney (or even Obama), you can afford to throw it out and buy a new one every couple of weeks. Whatever you do, never use exclamation marks to express frustration - they're extremely dangerous and harmful, after all, and should only be used as a last resort, for example to force Bashar Assad out of office, or perhaps to beat the Iranians into abandoning their nuclear program. Certainly there's no place for more than one in a genteel user discussion forum. Oh, and sarcasm has no place here, either.

This worked for me - Thanks Crispywings

"The huge bar of yellow "other" on my iPad 2 was driving me nuts too--expanding to several gigs with no clear reason. By accident I found something that worked for me: Turn the iPad off (not just click it to sleep, but really turn it off), wait a few minutes, and THEN, while it's off, plug it into the computer to sync. In my case, the yellow bar goes down to a thin sliver, the way it's supposed to look. This has worked several times for me. Of course, it doesn't solve the mystery of what's in that "other" bar (some kind of cache that's cleared out with a shutdown?), but it's giving me my space back."

re: "...too much space!!!!!"

Will it work?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Did not seem to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Other" space no change at all????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang on. How can you sync when your device is switched off?

Why not try it before asking? Answer will reveal itself.

Well, if I was asking YOU, writer of the nonsensical posts.... my reply would have been directed at you - and it wasn't.

Try engaging your brain before posting... if any part of it is still functioning, that is.

Okay, I just tried your suggestion, turned the device completely off for 20 minutes, then plugged it in and synced.

As soon as I plugged it in, it turned itself on, and none of the 'other' disappeared, but thankfully, it didn't increase either!