What is "Other" data in iTunes for my iPhone? And why is it over a GB?

Other that large is corrupt data. Normally, a restore from backup fixes things. In your case it looks like a restore as a "new" device is going to be the only way to fix this. Unfortunately, you will lose all saved data on your phone. You can try resetting your phone, but if that doesn't work, there is no other solution other than restoring.

Reset:

Press the sleep/wake button & home button at the same time, keep pressing until you see the Apple logo, then release(ignore the slide to power off). I would also suggest syncing after doing this to see if this returns your other to normal.

SO, what actually is "other" data then? and how big should it be?

Mine is pretty large too last time I looked (I can't remember how much exactly)

Normal is 200~600MB's. "Other" is contacts, calendar events, notes, cached emails, etc., and some third party apps write data to Other (although most write the data to their own "sandbox").

What data are you concerned about? You will lose texts, games scores and app settings but that's about it. You should be able to re-sync everything else.

I've given you all of your supported options to fix this. What you ultimately decide to do is your choice. I will tell you this, if you use Google & try an "unsupported" method, you run the real risk of completely screwing your phone up unless you know what you're doing.

Am I restoring right? I set a backup and restore to that backup. Would this normally clear the problem,

Normally, it does. However, in your case, this corrupt data is included in your iPhone backup. Thus, continuing to restore from backup will continue to restore the problem.

jjkboswell, I replied to your topic about the lost Parental Pin and decided to look at your post history since I was curious if you are active on these forums and will actually see my reply (since your original question was back a couple months ago). I'm disgusted by the fact that so many people on these forums are too lazy to actually give good solutions to problems and just tell people "Restore". This seems to be the iOS version of the windows "Format" solution to any system instability issues. I'm a software engineer and develop for iOS devices and just wanted to let you know that if you have any questions in the future to just contact me directly. As this forum does not have a Private Message feature if you could point me towards a way to contact you directly I will provide you with my contact information and will answer any questions you might have in the future.

Marcin2011,
The "other" problem has appeared several times in this forum. I "had" to do a restore myself and lost quite a bit of info as I use the phone heavily and the backup was suspect as in many of these cases.
If you have a way to reduce "other" and maintain data please share.
Thanks

Hello Boz, and all,

Thank you for your very useful clarifications. I'm about to do the same thing and just before I do that I'd very much appreciate your advise in more details, if I may. So, if I understood correctly:

1. When I will finish Restore by pressing the button in the Summary tab I will receive completely emptied iPhone - like brand new, without my purchased apps and any data - is this right?

2. When then I'll restore from the last saved back-up I'll get all my data and Apps settings back (as I read on iPhone support page), BUT WITHOUT Purchased apps - is this correct?

3. If yes - will I be able to restore my purchased apps back from Device Apps tab (on iTunes) if I then Sync them via iTunes, or should I reinstall all my purchassed Apps from AppStore again? Will it give me back all my Apps settings and docs back? (Or only settings?, or nothing?

4. Is there any other data that I'll loose (settings, docs or anything like that) that I have to woory about (just to back-up them to be on the safe side)?

Any other details you think is appropriate in terms of saving as much data as possible would be much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

Regards.

paatajin wrote:

2. When then I'll restore from the last saved back-up I'll get all my data and Apps settings back (as I read on iPhone support page), BUT WITHOUT Purchased apps - is this correct?

This defeats the purpose of restoring as new. When you restore from your backup you will simply re-introduce the problem you are trying to resolve.
The large amount of "Other" data is corruption in your backup, you do not want to restore from your backup.

When you restore as new, you can then re-sync your contacts, calendar, and apps from iTunes back to the device. No need to redownload anything from the app store.

You will lose all your game progress and settings.

Thank you for your reply. It indeed sounds very logical, just what I've learned from another reply is that after restoring from latest backup "Other" shrunk significantly, so may be it makes a sense?

I'm not worrying about games scores and settings (I'm not a big game player), what I worry about is the application data that I have a lot, as well as e-mail accounts and network settings, so if I'll restore as New the I'll be in need to restore all of them again manually App by App...

So, what I think to do is to try to restore from last backup first, and if this does not help, then to restore again as New (if so many Restores is OK for phone devise)...

Any other feedback/advise would be MUCH appreciated!..

Best regards.