iOS 5 update ate up my available space!

Just a data point: this was the first thing I tried, and it didn't work for me. Even unchecking Apps didn't work; I kept getting the "could not be synced because the session failed" error . I ended up restoring from backup and now it seems fine. My "Other" space is back to normal and apps etc. all seem to be there.

I'm not sure if iCloud is a factor. I started signing up for it, but backed out when I got to the screen that said you needed Lion on your Mac for it to work. I'm not sure whether this means my phone had any vestiges of iCloud as a result. It may have.

I had the same experience. Restoring was the only thing that worked. Not sure about iCloud (see my other reply to danny1992) but I think this may be the solution.

I have spent way too much time on this trying to get iOS5 to work but I think I've finally got it. I followed a thread to this link - http://www.razorianfly.com/2011/10/12/ios-5-now-available-worldwide/. I made sure to back up my computer before doing ANYTHING.

I backed up my phone. And then selected the appropriate download for my iPhone and saved it to the desktop. Then I held down "Option" while clicking on "Restore"on the summary page of iTunes (with my phone plugged in.) I let it go through the complete restore process and when it was done my "other" data was only around .65 GB. (Down from over 11 GB!) So, it appears I'm back in business. Hope this will work for someone else.

I still haven't figured out iCloud yet...

Same issue across all of my iOS devices. Hopefully a solid unpacked up restore will solve this. I'm fed up!

Uncheck books the check it again, it sorted it for me

I have tried all of the different "tricks" people have mentioned in this thread and nothing has made a difference. I have made sure that iCloud was turned off. I turned off syncing everything. With no Apps or Media on my iPad at all, I still have .91 GB of Other. I cleared out browsing history and everything like that. I have tried restoring it multiple times, but nothing seems to make any difference.

The formatted capacity of my iPad went down from 14.03 GB to 13.84 GB when I updated, I assumed that was because of the system software taking up more space. I am at a loss for what the "Other" could possibly be. I am going to live with the .91 GB of Other for now because when restoring, I have ended up with anything from .47 GB to 3.1 GB, so I guess I will have to deal with 1/16 of the space of my iPad just not being available to me until Apple explains what is happening.

After updating my iPad2 to iOS 5, many of my apps, and most of my content (music, videos, etc.) were not transfered. I connected the iPad to iTunes to finish the job, and it showed 15.2 GB used for "other." However, after completing the sync, "other" reverted to about 1 GB. I did not need to do a full restore, fortunately, and I did not do a step-by-step sync. Instead, I selected all of the content I wanted to sync, and luckily that did it.

This was just one of a number of problems that I encountered with the iOS update, and I know I'm not the only one. I have not had to spend this much time on a computer/iOS issue since 3 years ago when MobileMe was launched at the same time the iPhone 3G came out. I'm really stunned that Apple seems to have repeated that fiasco, except this time, even more users are potentially involved. Based on this experience, I think I'll wait until they have the bugs worked out before I jump to iCloud.

Less than a gig is normal. You're in the clear and I don't think you have this same problem. Tell us when it's at 10gb.

I had this happen to my iPad2 - 25.8GB of "Other"!. Fortunately, I was able to get an appt. at the local Apple Store the same day. I brought in my iPad and MacBook and the Genius Bar tech did a "DFU Restore." With the iPad connected to my laptop and with it selected in iTunes, he held down the sleep/wake and home buttons simultaneously. After a moment, the red power off slider appeared. He ignored it, and a few moments later the screen went black. He released the sleep/wake button, but continued to hold the Home button down. After a few more moments, a message popped up in iTunes on the MacBook. It asked if I wanted to restore the iPad. We did so, and it took about 12 minutes for it to completely reset everything on the iPad. The Apple logo and a white progress bar appeared on the iPad screen while that happened. Then iTunes asked if I wanted to set it up as a new iPad, or restore from the last backup. I selected the latter, and it restored with a much more resonable amount of "Other." Hope this helps someone.

Grunt0331 wrote:

I had this happen to my iPad2 - 25.8GB of "Other"!. Fortunately, I was able to get an appt. at the local Apple Store the same day. I brought in my iPad and MacBook and the Genius Bar tech did a "DFU Restore." With the iPad connected to my laptop and with it selected in iTunes, he held down the sleep/wake and home buttons simultaneously. After a moment, the red power off slider appeared. He ignored it, and a few moments later the screen went black. He released the sleep/wake button, but continued to hold the Home button down. After a few more moments, a message popped up in iTunes on the MacBook. It asked if I wanted to restore the iPad. We did so, and it took about 12 minutes for it to completely reset everything on the iPad. The Apple logo and a white progress bar appeared on the iPad screen while that happened. Then iTunes asked if I wanted to set it up as a new iPad, or restore from the last backup. I selected the latter, and it restored with a much more resonable amount of "Other." Hope this helps someone.

I did a modified version of the "DFU restore" that you've described, and it was the only way I could get iTunes to even recognize my iPad after updating to iOS 5, so this definitely is worth a try for anyone having troubles. Thanks for your detailed posting, which could save others from lugging their gear to the Apple store!

Same here, after the update with iCloud turned off, 9GB of other. Unchecking and rechecking does not resolve the problem. There are numerous other issues as well. This seems like a botched update for now.

I am going to live with .91 GB of "Other" since some of my restores have left me with as much as 4 GB, but I would still like to know what it the "Other" category contains and why multiple restores keep leaving me with varying amount of "Other" (I had a low of .47 GB and a high of 4.1 GB with nothing chaning on my iPad). How can a restore leaving such a wide range of "stuff" on the iPad?

You have to go to setting in your device, and reset. You will have to strat all over with syncing apps and music via i tunes. I had 10gb of "other" on my i pad and this was the only solution. It is working like a charm now.

I followed a similar route. Since, I had already downloaded the update I found it in ..users/username/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates and copied it to my desktop as a cya. I then followed your suggested path and what was 21.6 GB over (I noticed iTunes was syncing ALL of my podcasts and changed that setting but only got down to being 9.1 GB over) and when everything was restored I was down to .77 GB which seems about right.

Same prob. here too. iHad 59.2 GB overall on my ipod touch 4g. Now iHave 57.9 overall with 3gb of "other".