HUGE amount of yellow "Other" space being taken up on iPhone 4S. Please help!

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HUGE amount of yellow "Other" space being taken up on iPhone 4S. Please help!

I looked around the forum for a solution of the huge amount of yellow "other" space that is being eaten up on my iPhone 4S. Even after a restore, the yellow "other" space is taking up 7.1 GB of space on my phone, up from 6.5 which is what it was before the restore. What is going on? Usually I just erase some texts (I send a lot of pics to my hubby and mom,) erase some voicemails and it drops down to around 1 GB. But I've noticed since iOS 6, that hasn't worked. 7.1 GB is ridiculous. Is there ANY way at all to get rid of it without having to erase absolutely everything about my phone and start over from scratch, including downloading 40 apps all over again?

This seems to be a problem a lot of people have been having over the past few years, why has it never been addressed? There needs to be some sort of utility or something that cleans things up if they have problems with junk not getting deleted or corrupted files sticking around.

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 21, 2012 4:31 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

roaminggnome

Level 10

106,365 points

Oct 21, 2012 4:32 PM in response to SparklyFluff

If restore from backup did not help, then you will need to restore as new.

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Answer 2

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 21, 2012 4:36 PM in response to roaminggnome

So then would be contacts and things be saved in the Cloud or am I going to have to redo everything? This is really frustrating and time consuming! I don't want to lose all my messages and game progress in apps.

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2012 4:43 PM in response to SparklyFluff

It could be saved emails or something like that. I found an article online and below there is much discussions about it:

http://osxdaily.com/2010/06/25/what-is-the-iphone-other-capacity-seen-in-itunes/

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Answer 4

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 21, 2012 5:34 PM in response to Jeremy Bohn

I'm trying a few more things before I start all over. Right now I'm resyncing my music and I notice "other" has gone up to 8.5 GB now. I will post if I'm able to fix it at all.

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Answer 5

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 21, 2012 6:17 PM in response to SparklyFluff

I actually got it down to 0.23 GB for about 10 seconds, lol. I used DiskAid to delete some things in iTunes that seemed to be copies, unchecked the Sync Music box, and suddenly I had 16GB free instead of 4GB. But, when I added my music again, Other jumped back up 6.9 GB. Is it somehow recognizing my music incorrectly? Super weird.

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Answer 6

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 21, 2012 6:21 PM in response to SparklyFluff

Just in case anyone is reading this that is having the same issue, I also tried deleting my Yahoo! e-mail account from my phone to see if there was a backlog of messages or something. That didn't help. I deleted all the texts I've sent that had pics or videos. No change. I had already deleted my photos with iPhoto. I have checked and unchecked the "Open iTunes when phone is connected" box, synced and re-synced my music, books, and apps. I have basically done anything and everything that people have suggested, except a factory restore without backup, which I am trying to avoid!

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Answer 7

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 27, 2012 4:16 PM in response to SparklyFluff

I finally gave in and did a factory restore. I forgot to save my notes first, but that was the only thing and they weren't very important anyway. Other is at 1.1 GB and holding for now. Hopefully I dont have to do that again!

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Answer 8

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:03 PM in response to SparklyFluff

New update.... I once again find myself with this problem. I'm up to 8 GB of "other" and dreading doing a restore since it's such a pain in the ***!! I love Apple products but I really think they need to evaluate this issue because even just a quick google search brings up countless people with the same problem, but no solution except a factory restore, which in my opinion is not a very good, and also not permanent, fix.

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Answer 9

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:06 PM in response to SparklyFluff

I did a quick Google search and found countless people who have ghosts occupying their house.

You are for some reason getting a number of corrupted files (or one file) that are being synced to your device. The problem is probably on the computer side of the equation and you'll have to solve that. On all of the iDevices I've had I've only run into this problem once and it was a corrupted song that I had ripped.

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Answer 10

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:24 PM in response to deggie

Haha, thanks. Just because you don't have the problem doesn't mean you need to be rude about it. Troll somewhere else.

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Answer 11

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:26 PM in response to SparklyFluff

Troll? Really?

I'd actually take the time to write out a possible solution for you and that makes me a troll?

No, I'd think someone spouting Google **** and blaming Apple for not "evaluating" it would more fit a troll.

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Answer 12

SparklyFluff Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:41 PM in response to deggie

Ok, so I appreciate the suggestion that it may be a corrupted file. But have you noticed that I am not the only person having this problem? Actually look. It is a valid problem, and I'm not the only one having it. So asking for Apple to fix it really isn't wrong.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=567122

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/27483/why-does-my-iphone-use-so-much-ot her-space-after-upgrade-to-ios-5

http://www.ipodrepublic.com/iphone/fixing-issue-other-files-iphone-memory/2010/0 3/31/

Obviously the problem is not new. And it isn't huge, but it is inconvenient and annoying. How are files getting corrupt so frequently that they are taking up 8 GB of space? There has to be a cause. And the fact that before iOS 6 happened, all I had to do was delete text messages and that would immediately fix it. Why has that changed?

Also, it's a crime to say the word Google? Sorry it offends you, that's what I used to search.

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Answer 13

val825

Level 1

0 points

Jul 10, 2013 12:08 PM in response to SparklyFluff

Hi. IDK if you are still checking this, but I also have been dealing w this for MONTHS!! Same thing, I look online & see so many people w same problem & have tried ALL the suggestions but it never works. I currently have 7 GB of other on my phone. I have spent soooo much time on this - I was wondering if you figured it out? I found this link:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/yellow_other_content_taking_up_space_iphone_ipad.ht ml

It didnt help me out too much bc I dont have very many apps on my phone, but figured I would share. I completely agree w you: I dont understand why Apple wont just tell us what it is so we can fix it?!?

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Answer 14

Mar 30, 2014 10:28 PM in response to SparklyFluff

It's the PHOTOS. See if the "other" matches or nearly-matches what you have for "photos". If you sync and delete your photos with iPhoto, watch the "other" disappear. If it doesn't, try syncing your photos and then deleting the photos off the iPhone. That should do the trick.

Why Apple uses a duplicate of the photos? One might guess that it's due to their non-destructive way of editing photos (and quickly reverting to the original). Apple think we're idiots who don't care or know how to manage our storage, so they don't bother with the details. Such is the way with things these days -- and Apple ain't far from the truth. Most people are clueless or really don't bother. It's a consumer thing.

"It just works" is Apple's slogan. Perhaps they're right -- perhaps there are some algorithyms and what not that are in place to compress all that data and release that space for when the device truly begins to fill up. Maybe, maybe not. Without any documentation we can only guess. Must be a trade secret. Who knows.

"It just works".

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Answer 15

Mossome

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2014 8:44 AM in response to SparklyFluff

So I was having this problem as well. As it turns out PHOTOS keeps all your deleted photos! (I'm using iOS 8.1 on a 5) SO, try going to PHOTOS, through the app, not through the camera, and there is a section called "Recently Deleted". It will give you the option of deleting all the already deleted photos. My PHOTOS and OTHER usage went down HUGELY. Hope it helps.

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