iPhone Restored: How 4.5GB of “Other” Files Ate My Storage!
Confession: I had to restore my iPhone 3G yesterday. No, I didn’t want to jump on the trend-wagon just to get a build number ending in 7. No, the buggy, sluggy transitions didn’t finally get to me. What happened? A huge chunk — fully 1/4 — of my 16GB storage was eaten up by what iTunes helpfully classified as “Other” files.
I didn’t restore immediately, of course. Since “Other” data doesn’t include music, video, or photos (which are each classified separately in iTunes), and most “other” data, like contacts, OS, settings, etc. is far too small to explain 4.3GB, I considered 3rd party apps (which Apple should really break out in their own color in iTunes as well). Maybe they weren’t being properly uninstalled and removed from the device?
First I removed all 3rd party apps via iTunes 7.7. That got me down to 4.3GB. Then I tried removing them via the home screen’s wiggly jiggly delete, just in case. Same result. Round about that time Apple released iTunes 7.7.1, and just in case this was a known — and hopefully patched — bug, I installed, rinsed, and repeated. And got not a step further.
That’s when I decided the only way to catch this data-hostage taker was to nuke the city. That’s right: full, clean re-install.
I was on the original, out-of-the-box firmware build (5A345) and iTunes restored to an incrementally later version (5A347), but it worked. Storage reclaimed. (And, as some other reports have indicated, this build in general when combined with a clean (not from backup) setup has made the more annoying sluggishness issues disappear).
Anyone else experience any mysterious “other” files taking up all their precious space? Any other/different solutions to my scorched earth approach? (Hey, I was a Windows user in a previous life, and re-install is etched into the final line of my trouble-shooting check list!)
Please let me know!
August 1st, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I had the same problem with a jailbroken 1st gen iphone 8GB. This happened once I cancelled an iphone backup. The next time I plugged my iphone to sync with iTunes, it told me that the phone needed to be restored (previous saved settings). That took about 5 hours and then, I was stuck with this other ****. I had to restore to custom firmware and everything is great. I did have an issue with the battery icon showing full when in reality, I had about 20% left. I rebooted my phone and since, everything is peachy.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I had the same problem with my old 30gb ipod. the only solution is to restore it afaik..
August 1st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I found this happen to me when deleting video files directly on the iphone. I have my itunes set to manually manage and I had season 1 of southpark on the phone. When I was finished watching I deleted the episodes from the Iphone; the next time I was in itunes with the phone connected I noticed other eating up space I also noticed in the television section the shows still listed and showing up in the phone with exclamations next to them. I highlighted and deleted them all from the phone in itunes and my space was reclaimed. This makes me leary about deleting anything directly on the phone.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Debug logs from the 5A345 firmware.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I’ve had this happen twice with a 2g iPhone – Unplug it from a normal sync with all normal bars (music, video, other) with 800mbs remaining. I plug it back in and it just says “other” with an orange bar taking up all but 800mb. I unplug and see that my phone no longer recognizes any music or media (all other data like contacts and calendar are there, but no media). First time I re-synced and nothing happened (told me that I did not have enuff room to sync) – mind you, this all happened well before version 2.0. I gave up trying to make it work, so I did a full restore. Since it copied all anyway, it was fine after that.
Second time this happened was today. Although after showing me no more room and all orange “other”, I deleted the music syncing and re-arranged the data. Since it deleted it off my iphone and reloaded, it was fine – no need to restore.
Both times it seemed to happen when syncing or other computer communication was happening when I disconnected or got a call….
hmmmm.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
It’s happen when the music index of iPhone/iPod is corrupted. All data are classified as ‘other’. You have to erase all data (reset) and restore your device. This issue append when sync with PC/Mac is not correctly finished.
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Oddly enough: 1. I discovered this right reading your article. 2. The amount it shows in orange/other is same amount -4.53
Seems like I cam get all core info to sync, but media and new apps now won’t.
I also notice that my iphone screen that normally says Syncing, cancels –while iTunes itself continues to either say syncing, backing up, or stops both and the sync icon next to the iphone keeps spinning.
What a pain 2.0 is!
August 11th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I just had the exact same thing happen to me. All my music files, nearly 10GB of them turned into “Other” data. I also deleted videos directly off the iPhone and I also deleted them off itunes aswell before trying to resync it. If I try to restore it, will I lose all of my contacts, etc or does it get backed up and copy them back on?
August 12th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Well its fixed… a Restore does fix the problem without losing any contacts,etc… It was a 5 hour process though! As soon as i clicked restore, the “other” data just disappeared but i had to go through the whole back-up, restore, resync process because Apple doesnt give you an option to cancel anything once it has started! I Love how Apple’s motto is it that “It Just Works…”! I have never in my life owned anything that worked as bad as this iPhone and I’ve only had it for a month! The thing will crash at least 3 times a week with “Apple Approved Apps”. What a Joke!
August 14th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
try to download “Swap tunes” from cydia. this would change your Itunes library back
August 20th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
This has happened to me 3 times now with a 3G 16gb iphone.
If you manually manage you songs you need to WIPE the iPhone & start again.
This is for a non-jailbroken iphone.
I am now having to do this… If it happens again I will have to jailbreak my iPhone
August 30th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I do not believe this
September 8th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
All my videos, music, and photos turned to “other” today. It happened after the pc asked what program to associate with the “camera” that was just attached. I chose Nikon 6 instead of Photoshop and things went crazy. Why does it ask to associate with a program like it’s a camera? WHen I synched it was self-interupted then it said it couldn’t sync because there wasn’t enough free space. I did a full data and settings reset and I’m now waiting for it to finish.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Restore didnt work for me..i have followed all steps that you all have said.
3G Not Jailbroken (unlocked legally) iTunes v8.0
Thanks in Advnace
September 30th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Delete ’system.log’ file from var\log(I used DiskAid).If u deleted this file it will b created again by OS so dnt wry.alwys keep eye on dis file’s size.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I have a 9 gig of other, v2.1, iTunes 8
sync at night, get to work and all vid and audio gone. I believe 9gig is about how much music I had. It is possible a sync was interupted a few days back.
I am really hating this phone.
October 16th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi, I’ve encountered this error just today.
The fix that i did was to remove all music/videos/application/podcast/photos on the iphone. After all files are removed, I ssh to iphone and access the ff directories: /private/var/mobile/Applications /private/var/mobile/Media/iTunesControl/Music /private/var/mobile/Media/iTunesControl/Ringtones
and remove all files inside them.
This is the command for removing all files on that directory:
rm -f -R *
be carefull with this command coz it will delete all files on the directory you’re in, so be sure your path is correct.
After you remove all the files on the directories above, just resync it with your iTunes…
Hope this helps…
October 17th, 2008 at 1:28 am
tnx @ kalel, you’ve just saved my beloved iTouch!
November 13th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I used diskaid and went into the itunes control folder and into the sub folder for music and deleted all the music folders. I then turned of the music sync on itunes and synced the iphone to dump all the other album art etc.. Reboot phone using off and holding home button to reset. Restart phone and connect to itunes and sync all the music again, my other now has nothing in it and I have more space. I also noted that my photos had a few gigs being used when I knew for a fact that was not th case so I duimped the large 2 gig file of photos as well asn just resynced.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:27 am
the same as Seanny, thank U!
December 1st, 2008 at 7:19 am
Seanny, you’re the man!!
December 1st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
you are honestly my hero Seanny, you saved me countless hours of backup restoring. THANKS!! :]
December 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Seanny, what can I say besides that you’re put my mind at ease.
December 24th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Smooooth =) my 15gb of “other” files are gone, all my contacts and messages are still here, and hopefully i can actually answer calls now.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I had the same thing happen..just SSH’d into the phone and deleted the entire iTunes_control folder ..then when resyncing, set up as “new phone” and it kept my jb, and all my apps, and resycn’d my 6gbs of music flawlessly!
January 7th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Right on, thanks Seanny!
January 8th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Seanny…you are a star…I absolutely go mental when my phone crashes or something odd happens (it has been hacked)… you saved me bro!
January 12th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Seanny – great advice. Worked perfectly and saved the day!
January 14th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
DANG !!!! thanks YO
January 17th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Seanny, you saved the life of one i-phone that was so close to kissing a brick wall. Thanks.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
swaptunes from cydia worked great,didn;t wanna do a restore.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Seanny, thank you from another satisfied customer. You saved me at 5 hours of work.
February 8th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Definetely works! Thanks a lot!
February 11th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
+1 for saenny solution…thank you!!!
February 15th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I want to try Seanny’s solution but I have a question – I’m sorry if I appear dense but I don’t quite understand the part where he says to delete all the music folders.
Don’t I then lose all my music in my iTunes? How would I get my gigs and gigs of music back???
And what/where is the iTunes “control” folder?
If anyone would be willing to break down the steps for his process into a simplified bullet point format I would be eternally grateful!
February 26th, 2009 at 5:08 am
If you are as lost as I am…don’t worry…here it is actually diskaid is a program that turn your iphone to a flash drive
http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/
after installing it open it at the bottom change the scroll thing to media folder…and you should see the ituen control folder
and wow all of my music that was unregconised on my iphone is there…even the video in the music folders
now you can delete them and restart or else…i don’t know I’m trying it out too
good luck
February 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Kalel, you saved me from another restore! SSH and delete the music files work great!
Thank you thank you!
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Rachael,
Thanks for the help – it worked like a dream!!
Here are the step-by-step instructions:
The “other” category is eliminated right after iPhone reboot, so as soon as you reconnect your iPhone the “other” category will no longer be there. If you still see it you’ve done something wrong.
Thanks for the info – this whole process took me a total of 30 minutes rather than the countless hours doing a full restore! (and 90% of the time was the resync of the music!)
March 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Must thank Rachel and Gosforth…you saved me a restore. Thanks.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Another thank-you to Rachel, and to Gosforth for the step-by-step instructions. So, so much better than a restore! And a shout-out to the creators of diskaid for a very useful freeware program. Thank you to all of you!
March 15th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
i did what rachel said to do and the ‘other data’ is now gone. however even after i sync my iphone with sync music selected is says all the music is on my iphone but it will not play. i even tried to manually manage my music but when i drag and dropped my music it would not copy. do i have to restore?
March 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
I also had to unselect ‘Sync’ for podcasts, restart the iPhone and then reselect sync podcasts and apply, but it all seems good now… thanks everyone…
March 19th, 2009 at 8:12 am
I would also like to extend my thanks. I went to sync my Iphone only to find that 11GB was in other and nothing was in my ipod section, no playlists nothing. I followed the instructions and voila’ it worked! Thanks again Rachael and Gosforth for the recommendation and the step-by-step instructions.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Thank you guys so much. I must say that I wasted 2 days trying to manage files on iphone. I week it a week ago and after deleting files in laptop before deleting it from itunes the other category started growing after every attempt to fix it. I know for sure that iphone was not designed to listen to music as you cannot easily mange it, but at least browser works. Now I still cannot come with idea how to at least have some basic success in downloading music to ipod. How would you do it with playlists? I assume that you just take out sync to playlist and the whole playlist is gone. I must say that in my wildest dreams I did not expect that cool gadget like iphone is so crippled.
Now if you jailbreak the phone, can Apple brick it by some changes in Itunes? Does it make sense to wait till iphone 3.0 and jailbreak for that release?
Thanks in advance for suggestions. I am an expert in IT and Unix field and I never expected that small little iphone was close to winning the war with me. Thanks again for saving my day.
My next phone will be Android. Apple would need to create a miracle to change my opinion about those empty heads who only think about preventing access to device you bought. Edwin
March 28th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I deleted all the ‘FF’ folders in the music folder and followed all the instructioons except restarting my phone. Is this step necessary? It did not put my music back on..
April 1st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
sean was great thanks a lot man i had to giv a full support whatever u need, just a message away thanks alot man also to rachel tnx guys
April 1st, 2009 at 3:01 pm
OMG i thought i was done it perfectly i erase all subfolders in music in itines control, i restarted iphone but when i opened itunes my iphone doesnt appear in my itunes, i reinstall itunes restart pc but still cannot appear my iphone in itunes anybody can help pls
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
This solved my problem.
Also, it doesn’t look like the restart is necessary & it looks like you can delete the entire music & artwork folders instead of the individual subfolders. They will be recreated during the next sync.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Thanks here also, I solve the issue with Diskaid by removing all sub-folder inside iTunes control folder then restart the iPhone and sync everything back.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I’m using the latest iTunes 8.10.5.2 and DiskAid 2.52 and the above doesn’t work. Does it have anything to do that my ‘Other’ is the bad syn results of Applications instead of Music (mp3)? anyone….?!
April 14th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Seanny boy! You rule!
April 16th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Hi friends ,
first of all i wanna thank to gosforth because hıs idea save my i phone
) but at my cop. disk aid didnt worked. i write this comment for somebody who cant work disk aid. That time i use total commander for connecting iphone. here is the guide for connecting..
First get t-pot. The most recent version at the time of this writing is at: http://code.google.com/p/t-pot/downloads/list Home page: http://code.google.com/p/t-pot/
t-pod is a plugin for an application called total commander.
Download and install Total Commander from: http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm
After Total Commander is installed, unzip t-pot to a folder. Run Total Commander and goto “Configuration/Options” in the file menu. Goto “Plugins” and then click the “WFX” menu button. “ADD” the t-pot’s .wfx file that you unzipped. After adding it to Total Commander, close Total Commander, and load it again. T-pot should now be installed.
To use: Connect the iPhone/iTouch via USB. At the top of the two window panes is a drop down menu usually labeled [-c-]. Select Network Neighborhood [--] from it. Choose t-pot from the window pane. You should now be looking at the file system of your iPhone/iTouch. Now you can drag over files from the other window pane to it.
then further stages are same after connecting
April 18th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Kalel thanks !!
April 24th, 2009 at 3:19 am
This issue came up when I was syncing my jailbroken 2.1 Iphone 3g with Itunes and i received a text message. I resolved it by using WinSCP and OpenSSH to browse the files on the phone. I simply deleted the remaining music files and problem solved. The database must of became corrupt when the file transfer was interrupted by the text
. Google “OpenSSH WinSCP tutorial” and you should find some sites that will help!
April 26th, 2009 at 3:04 am
I had a somewhat similiar problem. While I was using my iPhone, it froze, this had happened once before, so I did what I had done last time, press and hold the Home and hold buttons at the same time. Once the iPhone started back up, it was showing the globe and iTunes symbol with a USB cable connecting them, saying “connect to iTunes”. After I connected my iPhone to iTunes I noticed that I no longer had music or videos on my iPhone, however the ammount of space that was being used before by the music and videos was then the same ammount being used by “other”. “Other” was now 3.56GB. I clicked on the down arrow and checked to see if there were “!” symbol beside all of the music and videos, but the folders were blank. The refresh wiped all the music and videos off my iPhone. I still do not know where the 3.56GB of “other” came from. It appears that a restore is the only option. What happens after a restore? Do I still have all of my contacts, text messages, apps, or anything that I had before?
May 6th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I just cleared all the “other” data off of my iphone. I did a restore from itunes. After the restore, I had the option to restore from factory or restore from my backup files. I restored from my backup and after selecting my desired settings, I got all settings, apps, music, videos, ringtones, contacts, pics and calender events. Guess what I didn’t get, the 3.45gb of other data.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Neither of the previous solutions worked for me
((
I tried deleting the folders mentioned, reboot, no-sync/resync, restore, etc…
My OTHER is 5.90 GB, and if I delete something it grows, if I copy something it decreases, so I think there are not lot of big files but a corrupted filesystem 
Is there an fsck (file system check) or similar for iPhone?
May 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I knew I won’t restore and reinstall everything! I’m not that man!
I have found the 5.90 GB! I use Finder on iPhone frequently for quickly delete files and set permissions. I just found that it uses a Trash folder, and there were some files there (approx. 2,2 GB), and when I deleted them permanently, the Other files in iTunes became 990 MB, and free space is 5.9 GB!
May 13th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
i did what exactly what Seanny said but it showd 87mb in other and when i added more songs it went back to 500mb
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
a very much thanks for seanny and gosforth.i got my precious 2gb back.thank you very much………
May 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I had over 8 GBs of “other” on my iPhone. I followed that step by step and it worked like a charm. I still have the notorious “other” but it is a much more reasonable under 1 GB amount. I appreciate the help.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Thanks, gosforth! 22GB recovered!
July 17th, 2009 at 7:55 am
hi adaz igot finder but cant find the trash folder in it
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
Thanks All, Class Post!!!
July 30th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I had the same problem but mine took up 7 gb of storage and I couldn’t sync my movies or songs
August 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Worked great, if a little nerve-wracking. You would think the iTunes sync software would help out with some of this stuff. Thanks all for the helpful instructions.
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Seanny saved me! Thanks for the help diskaid worked like a champ!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Seanny you are amazing!! I was on the phone with apple support last time this happened for 2 hours and they couldn’t give me that answer…!!!
August 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am
ok i did what goforth said and now my music wont play i have nooooooooooooooo other files now but no music will play. ive done everything i can think of. any help would rock. this is what i did to a T Here are the step-by-step instructions:
1.Install diskaid and connect your iPhone (always good to back it up first) 2.Change the view to media folder 3.Go into the iTunes control folder then music 4.Delete each of the subdirectories 5.Go back into into iTunes and unselect “sync music” 6.Sync your iPhone 7.Unplug your iPhone and reboot it. 8.Reconnect your iPhone and recheck “sync music” 9.Apply the changes and voila!
email me at tryin2layadime at hotmail dot com. thanks
August 21st, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Seanny, gosforth and Rachael,
Thanks! My iphone is now syncing. 2000+ songs to go, but the big orange bar is gone!
August 25th, 2009 at 6:18 am
HI,for those of you for whom these steps did not work. U can also try using Iphone Browser or Iphone Pc Suite. navigate to the Media folder & see if any of those are containing any large thumbnail files. In my case in the photos folder in the iphone, there were hugesized .thm/.thb thumbnail files. Deleting them brought my ‘other’down from 1.2Gb to 230Mb. I then resync’d the photos…
September 1st, 2009 at 5:14 am
SEANY, ur a legend man! on my 8gig fone, 6.95GB was “other” files, done wat you said, and how rachel discribed, and WOOLLA! fantastic. must say tho, ever sinse ive had this “ibrick” had nothing but **** with it, im apple thru and thru, but iphones can go to hell!
September 6th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Ah… free disk-space. thanks so much!
October 9th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
For those of you using applications to transfer files using wifi, Apple admits there is no way to find and delete invisible files left orphaned on the iPhone. I have 2GB of files on there because of application crashes requiring reinstallation. After reinstallation the applications did not find the folders storing the files. Result – wipe your iPhone and painfully reinstall everything again. When the iPhone works, it’s nice. But the iPhone OS and iTunes is possibly the worst OS and software every created for file management and data backup.
October 10th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
to thelawprofessor: “Apple admits there is no way to find and delete invisible files left orphaned on the iPhone.”
I’m sure they wouldn’t/couldn’t tell you to do an SSH session?
my guess is that the app in the newer installation folder is not granted access to the previous installation folders, but the folders themselves are not necessary ‘invisible’ from a bit ‘higher’ point of view.
For easier life as an iphone user, i recommend spending a few bucks for an app like diskaid (tell us if there is a cheaper alt), if you don’t want to JB it.
I have a JB’d iphone and i’m using SSH via USB cable with iphone tunnel suite.
IMO, Apple just wants to ease your life most of the time, and to do that, certainly they’ve chosen to make it difficult for you on (many) occassions…