ios 7 other data continually growing

I think the "other" data increase may, at least, be partially be related to iOS 7 caching previous purchase data for the current apple id.

It's far from concrete proof, but here goes anyway:

Ensure you're connected via WiFi (unless you have unlimited data via 3G/4G)

• Download a free app (e.g. Jetpack Joyride, Plants vs Zombies 2).
• Delete it.
• Search for the app in the App Store.
• Refresh the search until the Free button is replaced with the download from cloud button.
• Now logout of you apple id (Settings > iTunes & App Store > tap your apple id > Sign Out).
• Then restart you device (holding home + sleep buttons until you see the apple logo).
• Avoid signing into you apple id.
• Open the appstore and search for the app again.
  Notice how the app still has the download from cloud icon?
  Side note: You can perform other searches of apps you own, searches which you haven't performed since installing iOS7.
• Now tap the previously purchased free apps icon as if you are going to download it again.
• You'll be asked for your apple id, tap cancel.
  Notice how all of the download from cloud icons in the search results turn back to prices?

Okay, to get the download from cloud icons back:

• Tap on the "free" download button of the app again and sign in. You can cancel the download onces there's a square in the revolving circle button.
• The prices will revert to download from cloud again fairly rapidly.

So, how did the AppStore know that you'd downloaded the free app? You weren't signed in and the app wasn't on your ipad. It's possible that, in the absence of an apple id, the server checks your devices id and anticipates which apple id you would login as, but it seems a bit unlikely. And if it's not doing that, it strongly suggests that the AppStore app is getting that data from elsewhere.. an uncleared local cache for instance.

I can understand the logic of a local cache:

• It means that when you tap the Purchased tab, your previous purchases are listed pretty much instantly.
• It also means that when you search for an app (or music in iTunes, book in iBooks etc), the AppStore only need concern itself with producing the search results, leaving your iPad/iPhone to set the buy/download/open icons by querying the local cache. Obviously the server checks the actual purchase status if you attempt to download an app/song/book.

However, there are significant disadvantages.

• Firstly, our devices SSDs are being filled up with stuff that is essentially service related, using up limited SSD space.
• Secondly, the more purchases someone has made (including free stuff), then the more data will be added to the cache -> the larger the cache file.
• More over, if someone has a large number of purchases (say a thousand or more) associated with their apple id, then the cache can grow so large that the it can't be loaded from the SSD into RAM. The consequence is that that AppStore/iTunes/iBooks apps that are supposed to benefit from the cache, stall or completely lock up until the cache is removed (by restoring the iPad!). Restoring is only a temporary measure though, as the cache starts to rebuild itself at the first available opportunity. While the rebuilding cache remains small enough to fit into RAM, the appstore works fine. However, onces it's grown too big, the Appstore starts to stall and lockup again.

If I'm right (I may not be), then Apple really need to have a rethink. While I don't doubt that Apples intentions were to improve the user experience, I'm not thrilled at having SSD space that I've paid for been taken up with what should really be server-side data (an option to switch off caching would suffice). Perhaps more importantly, there's every indication to suggest that the cache (if it exists) is actually preventing some customers from having access to the AppStore, which while not good for customers can't be good for Apple either.

I kind of wish Apple would stop trying to fix things that weren't previously broken. iOS5 used by far the most stable and reliable iteration of the AppStore app. The paginated purchased tab worked brilliantly. I've no idea why they removed pagination in iOS6 (causing problems for people with more than 650 purchases). You'd have thought that Apple would have gone back to the approach that worked before, rather than compounding the problem with more complexity (i.e. caching in iOS7).

*Taps side of head and makes circle gesture*

Other data only grows while you're iPad is logged in to your apple id, so you can slow down the growth of Other data by remaining signout of your apple id until you need to make a purchase. Once your purhcase is made, signout of your apple id again (Settings > iTunes & App Store > {your id} > Sign Out).

This won't fix the problem, just slow it down, there by allowing the iTunes / AppStore apps to work for longer before requiring a restore.

Ideally, Apple will scrap the purchased cache (if that is what is causing this) or at least make it optional.

Tossnara wrote:

"Other" data is real data including your system files and cached content that you put on your device by using the built-in apps. It's just that as you use the phone, it will grow.

Unlike iOS 6, Other data grows with just iOS 7 installed (i.e. no 3rd party apps) with the absolute minimum of configuration (just enough to get online and access the iTunes and App stores).

It appears that, unlike iOS 6, iOS 7 caches data for previous purchases on the device, presumably with the goal of making the iTunes / AppStore etc "purchased" tabs more responsive and reducing server load (particularly when marking apps with the downoad from cloud icon in search results, which now seems to occur client-side once the cache is downloaded).

However, the cache is causing problems:-

The lesser of 3 evils: The cache is consuming valuable SSD space. I wouldn't mind, but it's not a few megabytes. It's growing to multiple gigabytes over a few hours. The cache seems to be unnecessarily large and quite probably uncompressed.

The size of the cache also impacts on bandwith usage, as it initially downloads. This wouldn't be so bad if it downloaded via WiFi only, but it seems to leech mobile bandwidth in the absence of WiFi, irrespective of mobile data settings. Either way, it's not a good use of bandwidth, particularly for those with bandwidth limits.

If you have a lot of purchases (i.e. many hundreds or thousands) then the cache can grow large enough to cause significant performance issues with the iTunes or the App Store apps. The symptoms get worse as the cache gradually increases in size (over an hour or two depending on bandwidth). Initially all previous purchases are displayed as unpurchased. The icons update after a while (20 minutes or so), but then shortly after that the the store starts to become unresponsive with subsequent purchases hanging while waiting to download. This situation worsens, with the store front app locking up and eventially crashing. At this point, the only way to regain any reasonable level of access to the store is to flush the cached data (via restore or other means). And then the whole sorry cycle starts again (cache downloads, grows too big, renders store unusable -> flush cache, cache downloads, grows to big, etc etc... ad nausem).

The only saving grace is that there's no data growth while iOS 7 remains signed out of an apple id (in Settings > iTunes & App Store).

Apple could fix this issue by simply making the cache optional via settings. They could recommend it be left on unless it causes problems (which it most definitely does for some customers, myself included).

Alternatively, if Apple want to keep control of caching, then they could simply keep a tally of how many purchases are on each apple id. If the number of purchases on a given apple id is below a safe threshold then the store servers push cache data to that customers devices. But, if the number of purchases exceeds the safe value, then the store could withold the cache and revert to the pre-iOS 7 way of vending store data (i.e. processing the data entirely server-side, then fielding the results - no cache, no client-side processing, but slow purchased tab).

Either way, Apple need to address this problem. The number of effected devices will only increase over time (as people buy/download more store content.

Personally, and for purely pragmatic reasons, I'm holding off my next Apple purchase until the problem is fixed: There seems to be little point in buying an iPad Air or iPhone 5S with iOS 7 while my current devices are so negatively impacted by iOS 7.

Maybe iOS 7.1 will fix it. Here's hoping. Right now I'd settle for iOS 6.1.3 which worked perfectly.