"Other" category in iPhone

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"Other" category in iPhone

This is about the storage on my 16GB iPhone 4S. iOS 5.1 if that makes a difference.

My phone is full, and I've been deleting pictures and apps to free it up. However, a big chunk of space is lost to the "Other" category. 2 gigs to be exact. I have tried deleting the cache/cookies/history on Safari, it removed 0.07 gb.

So I have two questions,

First of all, what is this 2 gigs of space for "other" being used for?

I have no tabs open on safari, and as I said, I cleared all temporary files. I also do not have a significant amount of calendar entires, 10 at the max. I have heard that it is the iOS, but my 16 gig iPhone shows up as 13.8 gig on iTunes, so I would assume that the missing 2.2 gig would be lost to the iOS, no?

And second, how can I recover this space?

I have heard restoring, but what kind of restore in specific? Can it be from backup, or must it be fully reset to new? I do not want to lose my text messages, so I'd rather not set up as new. Or is there another option?

Thanks in advance 🙂

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Apr 11, 2012 4:06 PM

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Answer 1

diesel vdub

Level 7

22,184 points

Apr 11, 2012 6:15 PM in response to AmandaBatt

A simple search of the forums would have revealed answers to the above questions. Give it a try or check out the "More Like This" section to the right.

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Answer 2

Sep 23, 2012 6:01 PM in response to diesel vdub

There is no "More Like This" section on this web page.

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Answer 3

Sep 23, 2012 6:14 PM in response to Bill Bard

There was in April, when the post originally appeared. But Search still works.

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Answer 4

Sep 23, 2012 6:19 PM in response to AmandaBatt

Apple Support Communities, home of the rudest, snarkiest posters on the Internet.

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Answer 5

Sep 23, 2012 7:10 PM in response to AmandaBatt

After searching here and google, I still haven't found an answer. One suggestion was corrupt data. I doubt this since I just went to iOS 6, but am trying that. My other category is 5.6GB on a 16GB phone. And no word from Apple that I could find explaining it.

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Answer 6

Sep 23, 2012 7:14 PM in response to Bill Bard

I wish I knew the answer, I would give it to you. Unlike these other rude, snarky posters, who would rather be rude than answer a question.

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Answer 7

AmandaBatt Author

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Sep 23, 2012 7:18 PM in response to diesel vdub

I have checked the forums prior to posting this with no help. Neither questions were successfully answered. They do not specify which restore to do, and the only other option I have found (using diskaid) did nothing. No one said what the "Other was", as the only suggestions did not apply to my phone.

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Answer 8

diesel vdub

Level 7

22,184 points

Sep 23, 2012 7:27 PM in response to Bill Bard

Actually you did find the answer. When "Other" grows that large it is typically corrupt data.

Restore the device from backup, "Other" should shrink to less than 1GB.

If it does not, restore as new.

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Answer 9

AmandaBatt Author

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Sep 23, 2012 7:33 PM in response to Bill Bard

Restoring from backup helped me slightly. It went down to 0.8 gb, but its back to 2 gb again.

What you can do, and I am going to soon, is see if it's something that is a problem with just your phone. I'm going to back up my phone, and move the back up. I'm then going to restore the phone to new. If the phone still has a large "other" category, it is specifically a phone problem and I will go to the apple store to see about them fixing it. If its not there anymore, I'm not sure what I'm going to do because I don't want to lose all my information.

Then of course when I'm done I'm going to put my back up back onto my phone. But you have to be sure to move your back up before you do the initial restore to new, because if your phone syncs while in the new state, it will wipe out your back up.

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Answer 10

diesel vdub

Level 7

22,184 points

Sep 23, 2012 8:02 PM in response to AmandaBatt

You can always select the option in Edit > Preferences > Devices to Prevent iOS devices from syncing automatically. There is no need to move the backup files.

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Answer 11

AmandaBatt Author

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Sep 23, 2012 8:07 PM in response to diesel vdub

This is an option within iTunes? Because any setting within my iPhone becomes useless after I restore as default. Learned the whole move back up thing the hard way after iOS 5.

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Answer 12

diesel vdub

Level 7

22,184 points

Sep 23, 2012 8:10 PM in response to AmandaBatt

Yes, hence why it's under Edit and not Settings.

Option has been there for years.

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Answer 13

Sep 24, 2012 3:17 AM in response to AmandaBatt

2 GB may be normal, depending on how many apps you have and how much data they use. Other includes all of the data of all of your apps, email, texts, iMessages, Safari cache, Siri cache, etc. My Other is about 1.7 GB.

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Answer 14

Sep 27, 2012 9:41 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

My "Other" category has increased over the years and is now up to 6.6 GB and I believe that this is because I have simply been restoring each new iPhone I've gotten from my previous backup. I've had the iPhone since 2008, when I got a 3G, so all the text messages with all the pictures and videos that I've ever been sent since 2008 are weighing down my new iPhone 5. What a drag! Guess I should start deleting some texts...

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Answer 15

miwa_jun

Level 1

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Sep 28, 2012 1:35 AM in response to AmandaBatt

I had the same problem, i had 2 gigs of other that I couldn't account for, I eventually got rid of it by erasing all data and settings and then restoring from a back up ( i recommend having a at&t sim card) and when I had my iphone restored there was no other, but I had all my stuff on my phone still =) I hope this works for you!!

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