Why does 16gb iPad1 ios5.1 use 11gb of 'other' and crash?

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Why does 16gb iPad1 ios5.1 use 11gb of 'other' and crash?

I have restored my iPad to factory 3 times to overcome this issue. Every now and then at random, the iPad will report a warning that memory is low. When I check, it has 7-8gb free.

Most recently, this cause literally everything to crash till the iPad was unusable. Even opening settings would cras, calendar would pause on a blank page for 1 minute, deleting an app would hang on floating icons.

Soft reset using one and power is the only thing the iPad would respond to, but on the lat attempt to recover, it would just return to doing the same thing immediately after the reset.

On the last restore I have found that turning off iTunes match on the PC and not syncing any music at all has yielded the best results.

I suspect there is a fundamental OS issue with syncing and disk space management on the iPad. If there are multiple sync activities required, it is most likely to crash. Eg, like external iCal calendars, multiple app updates, iCloud music match.

iTunes match and sync over wifi seem to conflict. Once enabled, iwifi sync is hard to get rid of. I found that even when you disable It on itunes, the ipad continues to try and sync if itunes is left open on the pc user account it was last connected to. I notice iTunes match or wifi sync was producing duplicate songs in the library.

Also if an email account is set to sync ALL messages, all calendar dates etc, that adds to the problem.

I paid for iTunes match so I'm surprised I can't seem to use it without crashing the iPad?

Anyone share this experience and got a solution?

iPad, iOS 5.1

Posted on May 6, 2012 8:58 AM

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Answer 1

lllaass

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May 6, 2012 9:01 AM in response to Knoll42

That indicates that you have corrupted files on the iPoad. You need to restore the iPod to get the "other" down to is normal of less than 1 GB. Sometime a restore to factory defaults/new iPod is required.

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Answer 2

Knoll42 Author

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May 6, 2012 9:20 AM in response to lllaass

Done that three times in the last 5-6 weeks so far. It has worked for a while then starts crashing again after a few days. After the most recent restore I notice it crashing a lot less than previous attempts. Just once in 24 hours. I think the difference is not turning on iTunes match.

But the symptoms are still there as the diagnostic log is showing lots of crash entries due to low memory, mobile mail, accounts, and cal.

I turned match back on yesterday and I am gradually adding back music that was there and will see how it goes.

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Answer 3

Knoll42 Author

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May 6, 2012 9:30 AM in response to lllaass

Out of interest, is it possible to identify which processes or apps are using the 'other' disk?. I have the system info app but it doesn't break down usage of 'other'.

Just before my second ipad restore, I noticed there were multiple files queued for download from iTunes match and almost no disk left. Supervising the download till it finished cured that issue. However, a day later the iPad went back to randomly consuming 8.6gb of disk till only 200 mb left so I restored it.

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Answer 4

May 6, 2012 9:34 AM in response to Knoll42

How Do I Get Rid Of The “Other” Data Stored On My iPad Or iPhone?

http://tinyurl.com/85w6xwn

With an iOS device, the “Other” space in iTunes is used to store things like documents, settings, caches, and a few other important items. If you sync lots of documents to apps like GoodReader, DropCopy, or anything else that reads external files, your storage use can skyrocket. With iOS 5, you can see exactly which applications are taking up the most space. Just head to Settings > General > Usage, and tap the button labeled Show All Apps. The storage section will show you the app and how much storage space it is taking up. Tap on the app name to get a description of the additional storage space being used by the app’s documents and data. You can remove the storage-hogging application and all of its data directly from this screen, or manually remove the data by opening the app. Some applications, especially those designed by Apple, will allow you to remove stored data by swiping from left to right on the item to reveal a Delete button.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 5

Knoll42 Author

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May 6, 2012 11:07 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

Thanks for offering assistance.

I could understand you totally if the space taken by 'other' was a constantly high value, but it is not. It jumps up at random and seems to be affected most when some kind of sync or update activity is happening.

In settings the storage indicated across all apps is in total less than 5gb and remains constant.

I have seen it literally jump from 8.6gb free space to zero in seconds whilst doing nothing at all other than opening the music app or a calendar. 11gb was the biggest jump so far and forced me to factory restore and recover from backup just before going away for a family holiday this weekend.

I suspect there is an OS process using the space for housekeeping of some sort, but I cannot see which it is as the system info app I paid for does not give more detail. This happens with no apps loaded other than calendar, music, email.

Does the iPad use a virtual disk when it's out of memory or something? Would be useful to know how iOS manages when it's got too much to do.

But then again, I shouldn't have to debug the OS should I? Surely not....

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Answer 6

Knoll42 Author

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May 6, 2012 11:31 AM in response to Knoll42

Just found an extreme example of someone who had 37gb of 'other'. Unfortunately their solution didn't work for me.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/18/itunes-other-capacity-taking-up-tons-of-space-fix /

It illustrates the point that something is in need of attention somewhere

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Answer 7

Knoll42 Author

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May 7, 2012 2:42 AM in response to Knoll42

2.5 crash free days since my last restore from iTunes!

The only difference is the iPad has not been on the home network during this time. I recall that with iTunes match activated, connecting to iTunes causes 'other' to jump when you toggle 'wifi sync'. I've seen 'other' take it to 1.2gb over capacity.

On my return I'll try and find a way to have iTunes forget the device and not sync with it.

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Answer 8

Knoll42 Author

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May 28, 2012 3:18 PM in response to Knoll42

Ok it's almost a month now and after making iTunes sync forget this device, I've not had a single crash due to massive amounts of sapce taken up by 'other'. The most recent ios5.1.1 update may well have fixed this issue along with turning off wifi sync with iTunes.

I have activated iTunes match ok

Only thing that crashes rarely is Safari.

So this iPad is now officially back in service!! I won't be needing an Android solution after all.

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