Large iPhone "Other" Memory Allocation

I'm pretty sure that the "other" chunk of memory is OS firmware files.

So.. you can't delete that. Think of it like your computer. Yeah, you have a 300 GB hard drive, but OS X takes up whatever.. so you actually have what's left.

Typically "other" is the iOS, sms/mms, and various other random files loaded to the device that do not fit in the predefined catergories. As it starts getting larger, say 1GB plus, it would tend to indicate corruption. This can generally be cleared up by restoring from a backup. As a last restore, restoring as new will definitely clear it up.

I have found that when I have long converstaions in iMessage with pics attached, the "other" grows quite significantly. Clearing the old conversation history always shrinks the amount of "other" for me.

My "other" memory is 3.9GB - I did a restore as new yesterday. I don't understand how to clear it - do I have to restore it every couple of days?!

When you did your Restore as New, did any of your text messages, contacts, etc. come back?

If so, that was not a Restore as New.

When you Restore as New, you should have NONE of your personal data at all

Ah ok. My messages were deleted but my contacts/calender inputs stayed. Can I save these to the PC somehow so I don't have to manually input it all again? Thanks.

lol - have just answered my own question as I am apparently saving all this info to ICloud. 🙂 Will it be deleted though or not if I fully restore? Still not sure on that.......oh how I wish I was technically minded....

The following solved my problem:

I used my iPhone to record voice memo quite often.

• Download iExploer app or other apps that allow you to browse your iPhone file system
• Look in Media -> Recordings folder
• I find that every time I synch my iPhone, it duplicated a whole new set of every recordings (I don't know why the heck this can or should happen)
• Select the duplicate files and delete them (The duplicates have " 1", " 2", ......" ##" suffix and easily identifiable)

DiskAid is a transfer tool for iPhone, iPad, and iPod. It is available for both PC and Mac platforms. It will allow you to see pretty much everything that is on your iPhone. Once you have DiskAid installed go ahead and plug in your iPhone and make sure you back it up. Now go ahead and open DiskAid. On the far left you will see a bunch of different icons. Click on File System, they may be a box that pops up that asks you if you know what you are doing. Just click ok because we know what we are doing here. Now click on Media, then iTunes_Control, then Music. You will see a bunch of folders (like in the photo below), go ahead a delete them all.

You will notice the size of “Other” has dropped dramatically!Read more at

I have this exact same problem, I think it is largely text messsage conversations, try turning off all sources of internet on your phone (just to make sure) and searching something from a cleared text conversation in Spotlight Search