TwisterDC

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

I have seen this question posted a lot but I don't believe I've ever seen Apple post a definitive response.  If there is one official definitive response on how to keep this from happening and I missed it sorry. 

 

I have the same problem it seems many are having.  I have an iPhone 5 with 16 GB running iOS 7.0.4.  As soon as I upgraded to iOS 7, I started seeing a lot of my space being taken up by "other".  It was up to about 4-5 GB as I recall, which is ridiculous especially for a phone advertised with 16 GB. 

 

The only remedy I could find that did anything was to restore my phone from scratch, which is a pain in the -ss, but I did it anyway.  Initially that seemed to work and I was in the hundreds of MB of "other" for a while. 

 

Today, about 2 weeks later, I went sync and to my amazement it was up again to 2 GB of "other".  I synced it and then it grew to 2.52 GB.  ***? 

 

I am on iTunes 11.1.3 on Mac if that makes any difference.

 

Is there a definitive fix or something different I can do for this recurrning problem?  Obviously I cannot keep restoring my iPhone once ever week or two to recapture disk space.  I hardly use my phone for the apps (use my iPad for most of that) so it's not like I am doing a bunch of complicated apps with large data sets.

 

Update: I synced it again and now it went up to 2.53 GB. 

 

Is there a fix for this?  It is getting old having to delete all my music to make room for all this.

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.4, Recurring problem for iOS 7.0.x

Posted on Nov 25, 2013 10:46 AM

Close

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

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 9 last Next
  • by Zhang Jing,

    Zhang Jing Zhang Jing Mar 10, 2014 9:06 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2014 9:06 PM in response to TwisterDC
  • by Mle022,

    Mle022 Mle022 Mar 18, 2014 9:26 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2014 9:26 PM in response to TwisterDC

    This issue just happened to me. I hadn't sync'ed my phone or ipad in a couple months and as soon as it was done sync'ing both had 4 extra gigs if crap in other. It must be from iTunes. But my ipad went from having almost 7 gigs available to only having 2. Irritating!

  • by sfronh,

    sfronh sfronh Mar 24, 2014 2:30 AM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 24, 2014 2:30 AM in response to TwisterDC

    Makes no good sense: I just changed the setting for synching of music, reducing the music by about a half, or 2 gig. Momentarily I saw 2 gig of free space, but nearly instantly all that free space turned to OTHER.  This tells me that previously used storage is not being freed.

     

    now what?

  • by tonymh1,

    tonymh1 tonymh1 Apr 13, 2014 10:30 AM in response to sfronh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 13, 2014 10:30 AM in response to sfronh

    I had almost exactly the same thing happen yesterday

    iPhone 5S 32 iOS7.1

    Changed the setting on music and the my OTHER increased to 15GB and there is no room for any music. Still have not located a solution.

  • by DeludedBrit,

    DeludedBrit DeludedBrit Apr 20, 2014 5:46 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 20, 2014 5:46 PM in response to TwisterDC

    My OTHER has just suddenly increased to 13.99GB in a 16GB i-phone....and taken all my music space.

     

    Read all the forums but nothing has helped...why has this happened?

     

    This is absurd.

     

    Do Apple care?

  • by gail from maine,

    gail from maine gail from maine Apr 20, 2014 5:50 PM in response to DeludedBrit
    Level 7 (26,742 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 20, 2014 5:50 PM in response to DeludedBrit

    So, you have done a Restore? You have deleted all messages that contain videos? What other troubleshooting steps that you read on all of the forums have you done?

     

    Unless you tell us everything that you have tried that has not worked, we have no way to know what else might help....

     

    Cheers,

     

    GB

  • by thenetquest,

    thenetquest thenetquest Apr 20, 2014 7:07 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 20, 2014 7:07 PM in response to TwisterDC

    1.) Do NOT restore your iPhone. It is Not necessary and is a waist of time. IMHO. And will not solve the issue.

     

    2.) Do a full backup of your phone and sync.

     

    3.) In iTunes, click on your iPhone after plugging it in.

     

    4.) Go to the music tab under your iPhone and uncheck sync music to this phone. (Note you must do this under the music tab. The other similar settings don't work)

     

    5.) start a sync with phone. iTunes will remove all music from the phone.

     

    6.) unplug your phone from computer. Then reboot it. 

     

    7.) once phone is rebooted, plug back into computer and recheck sync music to this phone.

     

     

    This should solve your problem. It worked for me and I have seen other threads where it worked. After finishing, consider upgrading to iOS 7.1.1. I hear it fixes this bug. If problem comes back before upgrading, do procedure after upgrade. Its funny how many people claim it's stuff other than music and videos. Email and other files will rarely take up that much room. Oh btw, try same procedure with video and pictures if music doesn't work. Your other category will be approximately the same size as the category (music, video, pic., etc) that is the culprit. The problem is iTunes is making duplicate copies of files on the phone when syncing or restoring and categorizing them as other. Not sure why this fix works but it did for me. :-)

  • by DeludedBrit,

    DeludedBrit DeludedBrit Apr 21, 2014 12:50 PM in response to thenetquest
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 12:50 PM in response to thenetquest

    Hi

     

    I tried your solution ( several times) but sadly no luck for me..and I still have 11.84 GB of OTHER on my 16GB phone.My apps only account for 817.5MB and I have a few photos but only 16.8 MB. I have NO videos.

     

    I don't understand at all ( though as I'm no expert this is hardly surprising)..and I read of so many " solutions".

     

    I did a restore but no luck. I am running iOS 7.1 and it tells me this is the latest software.

     

    I've been having difficulties with syncing and loading my music onto the i-phone from my Macbook Pro ever since I upgraded the software..having to wipe clean the i-phone every time I change my music ( which is of course absurd) and now suddenly OTHERS goes off the scale and takes up all my space.I use my i-phone primarily for the music as I'm on the road most off the time.

     

    Any ideas or suggestions? New phone?

     

    Regards

  • by TwisterDC,

    TwisterDC TwisterDC Apr 21, 2014 1:15 PM in response to DeludedBrit
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 21, 2014 1:15 PM in response to DeludedBrit

    Unfortunately I think the only answer to your question is to upgrade to a new non-Apple phone.  Apple has jumped the shark and is incapable or unwilling to fix this serious problem.

     

    To the credit of many posters here in this forum and elsewhere, there have been many potential solutions offered, but I think I have tried them all - they do not work, or if they do the effects only last days or even hours. 

     

    That said, I am also on iOS 7.1 which my iPhone tells me is the latest.

     

    I was mildly pleased that upon this upgrade my "Other" space dropped from a consistent 4+ GB on my 16 GB IP5 down to a consistent 2.1 or so.  It's still irritating but (sigh) workable until my contract is up.

  • by DeludedBrit,

    DeludedBrit DeludedBrit Apr 21, 2014 1:29 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2014 1:29 PM in response to TwisterDC

    Thanks for the reply.

     

    I too am seriously impressed with the efforts by many on these forums but they shouldn't have to be doing any of this simply to own ( and use) a product that should be working properly in the first place.

     

    Frankly I'm astonished and disgusted that Apple appear to be uninterested in this serious problem.

     

    It's hard not to come to the conclusion that their strategy and approach has changed somewhat in recent years..but their profits no doubt have skyrocketed.

  • by DeludedBrit,

    DeludedBrit DeludedBrit Apr 22, 2014 5:43 AM in response to DeludedBrit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 22, 2014 5:43 AM in response to DeludedBrit

    Update.

     

    I contacted Apple tech and spoke with David ( a supervisor) last night.He was very helpful though did give me the impression that these ' problems' were just part and parcel of this industry and consumers were expected to put up with them.

     

    Anyhow I did a full new restore and my OTHERS came back down to 1GB from nearly 12GB freeing up space for my music.However attempts to sync were not all together successful as albums were only part downloaded  or ignored.Turning off the sync and manually selecting proved to be much moe successful.. so this is how I will go forward.It's not perfect and can be tedious but it's progress.. and frankly I'm rather tired of all this since I updated to iOS7

  • by geoken2,

    geoken2 geoken2 Apr 24, 2014 10:03 PM in response to Zhang Jing
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 24, 2014 10:03 PM in response to Zhang Jing

    I just used Zhang Jing'siTools method.

     

    After hours of trying to clear my 9,08gb other (which was preventing me from backing up my wife's 32gb iPhone onto my 16gb so I can take her's to the Apple store) this finally worked. I was able to use this app and navigate the filesystem.There was a directory called iTunes_Control and in that directory there where over 7GBs of orphaned music files (files that were once on the phone but had been removed). I was able to delete them and got my other down to 1.02GB

  • by Zhang Jing,

    Zhang Jing Zhang Jing Apr 25, 2014 1:59 AM in response to geoken2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 25, 2014 1:59 AM in response to geoken2

    Great, I'm glad my method help you.

  • by willis1533,

    willis1533 willis1533 May 6, 2014 10:44 AM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 6, 2014 10:44 AM in response to TwisterDC

    Obviously its Apple recording our calls storing them on our phone. Than when we update it takes all that data and stores it in the giant cloud of information. sounds paranoid but I think it is the best answer yet. $*^& you APPLE. oh and you agreed to it in the 100 page agreement you signed.  Dont use your phone for talking.

  • by Bethamymike,

    Bethamymike Bethamymike May 18, 2014 6:25 PM in response to TwisterDC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 18, 2014 6:25 PM in response to TwisterDC

    Just wanted to chime in and say both of my daughters iPads are doing the Same thing with ios 7.  Did a restore and it freed up over 9 gbs of storage on the iPad mini.  This is a ridiculous problem and needs to be fixed.

first Previous Page 3 of 9 last Next