iTunes "other" memory

Question

iTunes "other" memory

Hi, i recently bought a 64GB 3G iPad 2.

My itunes is updated to 10.3.1 and ipad firmware is 4.3.3

I have a problem with "other" memory when syncing with itunes, because i noticed that EVERY time i sync, it addes sole like 10MB to the "other" memory.

I tried syncyng several times one after the other without using the ipad, and the other memory section increases.

After like 10 consecutive syncs, the overall free capacity of the ipad decreases of about 100 mb.

I already tried restoring my ipad from scratch and it started clean with very low other memory, but started increasing as soon as i started syncing....

does anyone ecperience issues like this? do you think is just a visualizatio glitch?

This is my Just Restored IPAD

This is my ipad after i loaded app, music and pics:

This is my ipad afrer syncing several times in 5-10 minutes wthout using it or browsing or anything else.

As you can see, OTHER (yellow) increased from 0,37 to 0,59 GB and the free space decrease from 30 GB to 29,8 GB.

Is it normal? guess no, but i would like to know if anyone else is experiencing the same.

Hopefully with the next itunes or the next ipad firware it will be solved, but for now i would like to know your situation.

thank you

Paolo

iMac 24, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 26, 2011 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Jun 26, 2011 1:38 PM in response to Paolo Massano

What you are experiencing in iTunes is to be expected. When you sync apps to the iPad - "other" will increase. "Other" includes data such as contact information and photos assigned to contacts, calendar events, Safari bookmarks/cookies/history, notes created with the Notes application, SMS messages, email stored locally or cached, and 3rd party application data created and stored by the application.

So "other" will increase and decrease accordingly depending upon what you sync. If not mistaken, you can actually watch "other" increase or decrease by simply clicking on but not necessarily syncing tabs in iTunes. I can't remember for sure, but I think I have noticed this in the past.

I cannot remember the actual technical explanation for this, but when you perform those consecutive syncs over and over and the "other" keeps increasing, even though you haven't added anything, I believe that there are some temporary files that you are seeing in that figure that will not actually be taking up that space on the iPad. I could be totally wrong about this (and I may very well be) but there is a logical reason why that happens and it will have no major impact on the free space in the overall scheme of things.

The bottom line is that the "other" will vary depending upon what you actual sync. Don't get hung up on worrying about the size unless it reaches some ridiculous size that doesn't make sense as to what you have on the iPad.

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Answer 2

Jun 26, 2011 11:02 PM in response to Demo

Hi Demo, and thank you for your message.

The fact is that my wife has a 1st gen ipad with the exact same apps installed on it and that fact does not happen. Her amount of "other" is always around 0,35 gb no matter what i do. So it seems to be working better in that way...

I tried uninstalling apps but nothing changed...

this is really making me angry, because i already completely reset ipad one time! could it be a defective unit?

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Answer 3

Jun 27, 2011 12:23 AM in response to Paolo Massano

Ok, googlein a bit i found evidences of the fact that the origin of this issue is the ipod/music sync.

I also found a program that is called Phone disk and that allows to see the connected iphone7ipad filesystem.

I tried unsync and erase music through itunes but my "other" memory remained unchanged, so i tried looking in the filesistem and, in the root of the ipad i found a folder called iTunes_Control containing 3 folders: Music (empty after unsyncing music), iTunes (empty after unsyncing music) and Artwork (500 mb of files even after unsyncing music!!!)

I manually deleted the contend of artwork and voila. the "other" disappeared.

Now, i can see the fault was in itunes music, so now i want to try to resync music and see what happens, but i guess i wilòl restart withj other growing...

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Answer 4

Jun 27, 2011 2:31 AM in response to Paolo Massano

update:

i tried resyncing the music on ipad.

same problem as before, artwork folder started again to grow and grow and grow, so definitly the problem is there!

Hope apple will solve this as soon as possible because it is a pain!

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Answer 5

Jun 27, 2011 5:30 AM in response to Paolo Massano

Ok, looks like i came to something:

The problem is given by music syncing.

To be more specific:

if you sync the ENTIRE library checking "sync the whole library" in itunes, then, for some reason that i don't understand, on every sync itunes duplicates SOME artwork and puts in in the folder iTunes_Control/Artwork on iPad, so it starts growing and those files are put under other.
If you sync only some artist or some playlists or some albums it does not happen, It writes in the folder Artwork only the artwork of the music synced with itunes but does not duplicate nor increase in size from one time to another;
The strange thing: if you sync your whole library, BUT CHECKING EVERY ARTIST ND NOT CHECKING "SYNC THE WHOLE LIBRARY" it works as it is supposed to, and does not duplicate or increase in size.

strange uh?

Anyone is welcome coming back to me about this.

Please, if someone wants could make a try and let me know.

thank you

Paolo

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Answer 6

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Jun 27, 2011 5:59 AM in response to Paolo Massano

Paolo Massano wrote:

if you sync the ENTIRE library checking "sync the whole library" in itunes, then, for some reason that i don't understand, on every sync itunes duplicates SOME artwork and puts in in the folder iTunes_Control/Artwork on iPad, so it starts growing and those files are put under other.

This is what I was alluding to in my post to you when I said this ....

I cannot remember the actual technical explanation for this, but when you perform those consecutive syncs over and over and the "other" keeps increasing, even though you haven't added anything, I believe that there are some temporary files that you are seeing in that figure that will not actually be taking up that space on the iPad.

I emphasize alluding to. I've seen this behavior but really didn't know what caused it.

Anyone is welcome coming back to me about this.

Please don't take this the wrong way - I mean no offense by this and you may end up getting many responses - but this issue has been covered more than a few times on this site and frankly, this type of "technical" mystery doesn't concern the average poster on the ASC site. Most people are more concerned with restarting their iPads, are have syncing issues, can't videos to play, can't access keratin sites and so on and this "other" mystery probably escapes the average iPad user since they aren't studying what the capacity bar does while they sync. For most - if the sync is successful - that's all they care about.

I mean this sincerely, I hope that you end up getting some satisfaction in trying to get to the bottom of this, but IMHO - its not that big of a deal to the average iPad user looking for help.

However, I may be wrong about this - heaven knows it will not be the first - or the last time I have had to eat crow! Good luck!

P.S.... in parting ...IMHO .... your iPad is not defective in any way based on what you are stating here about the "other".

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Answer 7

Jun 27, 2011 6:06 AM in response to Demo

You are right in all what you write Demo, but let me say that, even it this seems to be a strictly technical problem it is not... THis is because the syncs ARE writing stuff in ipads memory, and before or after anyone is potentially going to have ipads full of crap, and they will have to reset it to facroty settings to get rid of the mess.

Note that "restore from backup" is not enaugh, so for many users would be a pain to clean restore their ipads.

Furthermore in my case ( but i guess it is the case of many other users) for example i have bluefire reader installed, which is an app that lets read adobe drm protected ebooks. That app has to be authorised when you install it, and it does not allow to deauthorise before wiping the ipad, so after some install/uninstall you won't be able to autorise it anymore and oyu'll have to get in touch with adobe technical support to go through that...

For these reasons i hope someone at apple will start to think about this problem ant to the way to have it resolved, or maybe ios5 and lion will have a part in the game...

Paolo

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Answer 8

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Jun 27, 2011 6:13 AM in response to Paolo Massano

Paolo Massano wrote:

For these reasons i hope someone at apple will start to think about this problem ant to the way to have it resolved, or maybe ios5 and lion will have a part in the game...

Present it to Apple then via this venue

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

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Answer 9

Jul 20, 2011 1:28 PM in response to Paolo Massano

Well... Mac OSX Lion and iTunes 10.4 did not seem to solve the issue....

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