Comments on: iTunes “Other” Capacity Taking Up Tons of Space? Here’s a Fix for iPhone & iPad

By: Mr. Luigi

Mr. Luigi — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:59:21 +0000

My “other” was at 8.95 GB on an iPhone 4S. The following reduced it to 0.894 GB. Yes, you read that right. I LOST over 8 GB of “other” by proceeding as follows…

I followed the directions on the Apple site:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

When they instructed me to backup I did so by “right clicking”, “Control Clicking”, “Two Finger Clicking on my MacBook Pro Trackpad”…whatever method you like to use, after highlighting “Mr. Luigi’s iPhone” on the left column in iTunes under Devices. When you “right click” (whatev) you will get a list of options. One is “backup.” I clicked on backup here.

Now, after I followed the directions eventually a screen came up in iTunes that asked me if I wanted to restore as a “New iPhone” or if I wanted to restore “From a backup of Mr. Luigi’s iPhone.” I chose “From a backup of Mr. Luigi’s iPhone.” The backup used was the one I just did at the beginning of this whole procedure.

This is going to take a while. Be patient. But when everything is copied back to your iPhone the result…at least for me…was a loss of over 8 GB of “other”…which we all know is data of various kinds.

I have read in some places that THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE WORKED! The folks who said that stated that since I was restoring from a backup of my phone I would just put back all that “other” data that was there before. Well, that obviously didn’t happen…again, at least for me. For some reason restoring this way (which involves reinstalling the iPhone’s software and firmware) either removes the “other” (i.e. data) OR! it allows the iPhone to realize there really was no “other” there! What I am trying to say is, it’s possible I didn’t REALLY have 8.95 GB of “other” data. But, for some reason my iPhone thought it did have that much “other.” And as we all know…perception is reality. If this was what was happening it was enough for my iPhone to think it was full (that 8.95 GB of “other” left me with no space to add any more apps, etc.)

That link to Apple’s site is important to follow carefully as there are two places on the iTunes screen where “restore” appears. One on the bottom right. One on the top right. You need to use the TOP RIGHT restore.

Anyway, I understand how idiosyncratic this technology can be. But this worked for me. I have actually now tried it on two separate iDevices and it has worked on both.

The nice thing about restoring from a previous backup is I didn’t have to do anything but wait for all this to take place. Once the process was finished, all my apps and folders were in place, contacts were in place, everything was as it was before restoring except I lost 8 GB of “other” Jank.

Hopefully this might help someone else. Good luck!

Mr. Luigi

By: Tyler Wickord

Tyler Wickord — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:28:58 +0000

Have a 32 GB Gen. 4 iPod Touch, have 3,000 songs, which takes up about 15-20 GB, but the ‘Other’ portion (after unclicking then re clicking the box) is still at 17 GB OVER storage…any help?

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:38:21 +0000

Hi, I followed with great interest and more and more disgust (about Apple) the contributions (none of them actually was working). That means, if you are LUCKY it works… Shame on Apple, because you do NOT find any info about this scandalous issue. My decision: never Apple again.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:24:22 +0000

I have iPad3, nothing of the above worked. I am sick and tireddd of Apple. Never again~!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:59:36 +0000

Thanks so much! Turning my phone off and then on again while connected got rid of 25GB of mysterious “other”!

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 23:38:07 +0000

My 16gb iPad had 1.4 gb of “other” After doing some things on here and from other websites, it went down to 980 mb. That’s normal right?

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:15:00 +0000

My iPad has 5.40 GB of other space. It is taking up too much space from my iPad since it has 16GB and I have a bunch of other stuff on it. Neither of them worked. What should I do? P.S. The second one, not everything went away, photos stayed on for some reason……

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:14:32 +0000

Nothing is working for me! To be clear: You said
“go to summary scroll down as in turn phone off”

Does that mean go to summary “Then” turn phone off?

If so whats the “scroll down” part mean?

I’ll try anything I’m sick of not having space on my phone!

By: John

John — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:27:04 +0000

@Divanora:

Best retort I’ve ever read on the internet!

By: Lena

Lena — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:14:27 +0000

I agree…nothing wrong with a man watching proonn..Definitely not grounds for a divorce.

By: Divanora

Divanora — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:37:13 +0000

You left your husband just because he watches prn?? Get ready to be alone the rest of your life….

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:49:55 +0000

This worked for me too. The only one that worked. Move this to top fix.

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 04:58:28 +0000

Really? Hope that wasn’t the only reason he was kicked…

By: M. Amir

M. Amir — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:15:19 +0000

I have same problem, If you find any solution then please email me “amir@fabcotonline.com”

By: Biebs

Biebs — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:46:09 +0000

I’ve tried everything – nothing works. I gained a whole .01GB on my ipad. Getting really frustrated. I have about 1 GB each for photos, music and apps and over 9 GB being used for other!