Get your iPhone other space back now!

 

2016 Update: This article was originally written in 2011, when you still connected your iPhone to your desktop computer or laptop once in a regular while, and you would instantly see the “Other Space” issue appear. These days with Over The Air syncing and updating for your iPhone and iPad, it has become a rather rare event, me connecting my iPhone to my computer. But, the Other Space isn’t a thing of the past though…  Try it out, connect your iPhone to your computer, open iTunes and take a good look. So, I’m republishing this article here, because I think it can still be of good use.

 

Face it, we all have the problem, our iPhone/iPod touch storage space is never enough, no matter if you have an 8Gb or a 128Gb version. But… when those very much needed megabytes are being eaten by some monster called ‘Other‘, you start asking questions.
This ‘Other’ thing on your iPhone can take up only small amounts, such as several megabytes, but it can grow up to even a few gigabytes (my latest ‘other was 1.71Gb, but I’ve heard from people who’s ‘Other’ part took up no less then 6Gb!).
So time to get rid of this ‘Other’ thing!
But how? Apple doesn’t offer any solution for this. There is no way to delete ‘Other’ files, nor is there a way to find out what it is that is taking up this ‘Other’ space on your iPhone/iPod Touch.
Well, let me help you out!

iPhone other space, reclaim your storage

Kill that iPhone other space!

First thing to try: check your ‘Trash’ folders of your email accounts on your iPhone. In some cases, the mails still in there can be the cause of your swollen ‘Other’ part. Emptying your ‘Trash’ folders by deleting these mails can be the solution, albeit a tedious one, as there is no way to delete multiple emails at once on the iPhone. If your on an IMAP account, use your mailprogram or a webinterface to delete the mails.

Second thing to try: delete your Safari cache. Go to settings/safari and clear history, cookies and cache. Doesn’t always work, but depending on how much you surf, it may help.

Third thing you can do works only if you have a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch: Use WinSCP or some other tool that you like that lets you browse your iPhone/iPod Touch’s files, and delete everyting in the iTunes_Control/Music folder, including all subfolders.

Fourth and last way of reclaiming the ‘Other’ space on your iPhone: Restore your iDevice… This is indeed a last resort to get your ‘Other’ space back, since it will take quite some time. To do this, connect your iDevice to your syncing iTunes, and let it take a backupcopy first (normally it does this automatically). Once this is done, click on your iPhone’s name in the left column in iTunes. You will see a page with a button saying ‘Restore’. Click this button, and follow the instructions iTunes gives you. After restoring your iDevice, iTunes will ask you if you want to treat this as a new device, or if you would like to put back the backup of your old device. Choose the latter (unless you want a newly installed iPhone of course, who am I to stop you 😉 ). iTunes will put back the backup, and your iPhone is ready to use, with a whole lot of freed up ‘Other’ space!

Show us your love and share this article with others if this helped you and you’re glad you got your iPhone other space back available for more interesting things? 

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