I have a 16 GB phone and 8 GBs is the yellow Other category. What is causing it to balloon up like this? How do I get rid of it? How do I know what it is? I've read that many other people have this problem and I have not found a solution that works. I refuse to restore my phone. There has to be a simple fix for this known problem.
Dell, Windows 7
There is a simple solution. It's called a Restore.
Just backup your phone before Restoring.
You may also want to go into Settings/Safari/Clear History, Cookies, Cache.
Try a resync first. You can reset the phone by holding the sleep/wake and home buttons together until you see the Apple logo and then release. The connect to iTunes and try a resync. If that does not correct it, then a restore is the only alternative. At some point a file got corrupted and has caused this issue. That is the simplest fix, although you say you refuse to do one of the basic user troubleshooting steps. You will have to take what you get. Try what I gave you at first, if that doesn't work, you will have to either restore or put up with it.
Restore from Backup...
Connect to iTunes on the computer you usually Sync with and Restore...
Backing up, Updating and Restoring
Ok, I admit I was being a little dramatic when I said "I refuse to restore my phone". Sounds like that's what I have to do. Thank you.
Thank you. I tried both things including a full restore and the 8 GB of Other is still there. Any ideas?
If a Restore from Backup has not helped, that means there is corruption in the Backup...
the next step is a Restore as New...
Backup and Set Up as New Device
If I set it up as a new device, will I lose all of my Contacts, Settings and everything else and start from scratch?
Your Contacts, Music, Apps etc... should be on your Computer...
And yes you will be starting from scratch...
Just found this page and also the answer...
So thought i would share for other people.
2.5gb of my 8gb iphone 4 was used by the Other catagory...
This is caused mostly by a cache of data from old games/apps probably uninstalled at some point.
These can be removed using iExplorer (free download)
ALWAYS backup before using this as you can delete system files by accident so take care.
so no. no need to restore as new and lose all your data...
hope this saves people alot of trouble.
This should really of been fixed by apple some time ago (if fixed with os6 I retract this statement 😝 )
Other Category is Eating Up Storage on iPhone 4S
