What is "Other" when syncing iPod in iTunes

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What is "Other" when syncing iPod in iTunes

I've been having issues syncing my iPod with my system for a few days now and while syncing I clicked on my iPod and got the follwoing screen:

http://homepage.mac.com/techd2/iTunes.png

What exactly is "other" ? I figure it's temp files because it grows and shrinks while I'm syncing. I noticed it was over a gig when it stopped syncing my movies then when I deselected the movies it dropped down to the size it is now.

Dual 2.0 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) PC Tech w/MAC @ Home

Dual 2.0 G5, Intel MAC Mini 1.5 SOLO, Mac OS X (10.4.8), PC Tech w/MAC @ Home

Posted on Jan 28, 2007 8:53 AM

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Answer 1

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QuickDraw

Level 3

704 points

Jan 28, 2007 9:13 AM in response to Tech-D

Have a look at this and see if it answers your question.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3133998&#3133998

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Answer 2

Tech-D Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 28, 2007 9:22 PM in response to QuickDraw

Thanks Quickdraw, this gives me a little more info on what "Other" is but I think this is what is causing my problem with my syncing.

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Answer 3

Tech-D Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 30, 2007 9:10 AM in response to Tech-D

I'm still trying to resolve my issue with my iPod not syncing with my MAC at home. To gather more information to resolve my problem I brought my iPod and all my music from home on an external USB HD into work so I could sync my music on a PC not a MAC.

When I would "Restore" my iPod at home and stop the iPod from syncing at the beginning on my MAC the "Other" size was 91.1MB and my PC at work it's only 56.3MB can anyone explain why the difference?

Remember I haven't synced anything yet, I've actually just formatted the iPod back to factory settings.

Thanks in advance,

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Answer 4

Tech-D Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2007 6:57 AM in response to Tech-D

Resolved my syncing issue but still would like to know what "Other" is when you do a clean Restore.

Bueller.... Bueller...

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Answer 5

QuickDraw

Level 3

704 points

Jan 31, 2007 7:21 AM in response to Tech-D

Hi Tech-D, sorry you're still having troubles man. I believe, not exactly sure, that other things like fragmentation is included in the "Other". Although, a fresh restore is supposed to take care of fragmentation. I don't believe you should even get fragmentation on your iPod unless you unplug your iPod from the usb without first ejecting it. If you have windows, you even have to go a step further and choose "Safely unplug usb device", or something like that. There would be an icon in your Systems Tray that looked like a little wafer with a green arrow on top of it. You would right click on that and choose to safely unplug. Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help.

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Answer 6

Tech-D Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2007 8:34 AM in response to QuickDraw

Thanks, no actually don't have any issues anymore. The problem was NOT my MAC or my iPod it was actually a Belkin USB port expander, if it was plugged in it would cause my iPod to "lockup". I just removed it completely from my system and now I'm able to sync again.

The "Other" question is more just for my information. I found it strange that there was such a large difference between a freshly restored iPod between the MAC and PC version.

I figure it's some of the iPod programming but I just wanted to know from one of the Apple Gurus.

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