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.