Why is my "other" space on my iPhone 5 / iOS 7 so large and always growing?

... same problem

When i bought my iPhone 4S, and activated it and updated it to the latest IOS Version 7.0.4. i had 1,2GB of "other" on the phone. There was NOTHING else on this phone that could have taken up any space in the "other" category EXCEPT that i did the IOS update through Wi-Fi. So my theory is that this is the IOS update file that did not get deleted after the update. I also noticed that "other" grows with app updates. Anyone trying to tell people that their "other" is growing to GBs because of some emails and a bit of app data are talking useless crap. Everyone can check how much space apps use in the settings and that never amounts to the size of "other". This problem has been around for years and apple simply ignores it. One of the reasons why my next phone will not be from apple anymore.

I have the iPhone 5 and when I downloaded iOS 7 it eats up 1.3 GB of other. I have Facebook Messenger and WeatherBug on my phone and it still eats data, eventhough there is not much "stored" on either app.

I have had droids and they have great storage space but the battery is HORENDOUS....I had my last droid for 9 months and it was replaced 3 different times because of problems..Apple seems to be better but I may go with someone else if Apple cant "fix" the issues with "other data"...

4GB... 5GB... I wish. After upgrading to ios 7.0.6 from 7, my other category jumped to 39.35GB. !@#???? SERIOUSLY??? Thats such a high number I dont even remember what it was before! And apple nor anybody else CAN'T tell me its my apps or email that are taking up too much space. At 64GB, this is the largest iphone i have ever owned, and I have never had this problem before. Other than the music and Videos category, no other category has ever come close to causing me to run out of space on any of my iphones present or past. There is obviously an error wih itunes and the phone.

Edit: I noticed my other category is simmilar in size to my music category. Anyone else notice this?

ok, after searching other forms: Apparently there is a bug with itunes in that FAILED iTunes Media syncs result in a very large "other space" category on the iPhone taking up disk space. If that makes any since. 😮

The solution: Go to the music tab in itunes under your phone and uncheck "sync music". This should take some time. (Because it is deleating the music in other category from the phone.) After it is complete, you should notice that your other category almost dissapears. Rebote the phone and then recheck the box to rysync your music.

The result: My other category is only 1.98GB again. YAY!...

Hope this works for the others with this issue. 🙂

Yes, there are many solutions that work for specific cases. Since i have never ever synced my music (i have everything set to manual), this won't help in my case 😟

Has anyone tried deleting all their text messages in iMessage? I recovered over 1GB of space because I never deleted any of my SMS/MMS.

This is my Iphone after a restore and new set up this is three days with minumum usage.

Other 2.34Gb

Documents and data 112.3MB

Apps 10 580.5MB

Photos 385.9 MB

Video 561.8MB

Music 16MB

Oh and texts there nothing in them!!! Voicemails NON!!!

Why is Other data So friggin much bigger!! And it just grows and grows untill its like 5GBS then i restore and we do this all over and over. iv never had any issue with apples products UNTIL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys 🙂

I have been having the same issue, and decided to talk to Apple Support to see if they could help.

They said that a complete restore, and then set up from new, was the best way to ensure that no corrupt 'other' data is being tranferred to your phone.

This is the little speil they gave me to explain what 'other' data actually is:

The 'Other' data type represents the iOS file system itself, database files, contact information, settings, SMS data, core data, pre-installed apps, email, Safari cache, Siri cache, downloaded maps, reminders, notes, stocks, weather data, iMessages, and data for all of the apps on your phone. When you view the device Capacity in Settings -> General > Usage, this is a "best guess" on file type usage.

Between 1.3gb and 2.5gb of Other data can be normal for an iOS device. The Other data type represents the iOS file system itself and any files with metadata that is not set as Audio, Video, Photos or App. Music or videos that have failed to sync, as well as damaged or orphaned files, can cause this number to bloat.

This is what they reckon you can do to try and fix it:

If you suspect there is trouble expressed by an excessively large "Other" try: 1) Uncheck and re-check “Open iTunes when this device is connected” in iTunes -> Device -> Summary, 2) Back up and restore device, | "iOS: Syncing with iTunes"http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386,"iTunes: Restoring iOS software"http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

Hopefully those links will work, but yeah. I also asked about getting contacts, notes and that kind of info back onto the phone after a complete restore - but not through restoring the phone from any form of back up. They said that simply siginig in with you Apple I.D will automatically initiate a data sync of contacts and notes. This is different from restoring the phone from the iCould back up though, as it doesn't do apps and the associated data (apprently).

Hopefully this helps. I just upgrade my phone to iOS 7.0.6 and that redced my 'other' data size to a respectable 1.25 gb, so I have yet to actually try this info I have posted as I have not had the need yet

Best of luck to you all

Cheers.

U R Lucky...

My other on iphone 5s is10,55 GB 😟...

Why?

Hi guys, I think I have find the final solution.

First you should download a software iTools, run it, in tab "Files", I delete below:

all folder under DCIM\.THMB\ (I think they are cache of photos, but I have only 6 photo in my iPhone, it keep lots of old no use cache)

all folder under Downloads\ (I think they are download temp files, they are more than 1GB)

all files under Podcasts\ (some podcast logo and file, but I have unsubscribe some of them why still keep them?)

all folder under iTunes_Control\Music (you should first unsync music to your iPhone)

If you like, you can first export these folders to your computer to have a look, then you will know what's in it and what's size of them. In fact after check I find most of them are rubbish (I lost some podcast but not all, weird).

My others were 3.15GB and after do this clean, it become to 168M!!! Thanks God!

If this help you I will very happy.

Hi,

Here it is.

http://www.itools.cn/itoolsmacyingwenbanxiazai