Tomas Chlebek When an iOS device reports that it has little free storage, after connecting it to iTunes, we often find that the data we have uploaded to it (music, apps, videos, photos, documents) is nowhere near taking up all the used space. In the right part of the graph depicting storage usage, we see a long yellow rectangle, marked with a vague "Other". What is this data and how to get rid of it?
What exactly is hidden under the label "Other" is generally difficult to determine, but it is simply files that did not fit into the main categories. These include music, audiobooks, audio notes, podcasts, ringtones, videos, photos, installed apps, e-books, PDFs and other office files, websites saved to your Safari "reading list", web browser bookmarks, app data (files created in , settings, game progress), contacts, calendars, messages, emails and email attachments. This is not an exhaustive list, but it covers the dominant part of the content that the user of the device works with the most and takes up the most space.
For the "Other" category, items such as various settings, Siri voices, cookies, system files (often no longer used) and cache files that can come from applications and the Internet remain. Most files in this category can be deleted without negatively affecting the functionality of the iOS device in question. This can be done either manually in the device settings or, more simply, by backing it up, completely erasing it, and then restoring from the backup.
The first method involves three steps:
- Delete Safari's temporary files and cache. History and other web browser data can be deleted in Settings > Safari > Clear Site History and Data. You can delete the data that websites store on your device in Settings > Safari > Advanced > Site Data. Here, by swiping to the left, you can delete either the data of individual websites, or all at once with a button Delete all site data.
- Clear iTunes Store Data. iTunes stores data on your device when you buy, download, and stream. These are temporary files, but sometimes it can take a long time to automatically delete them. This can be speeded up by resetting the iOS device. This is done by pressing the desktop button and the sleep/wake button at the same time and holding them for a few seconds before the screen goes black and the apple pops up again. The whole process takes about half a minute.
- Clear application data. Not all, but most applications store data so that, for example, when restarted, they display the same as they did before exiting. However, you need to be careful, because this data also includes content that the user uploaded to the applications or created in them, i.e. music, video, images, text, etc. If the given application offers such an option, it is possible to have the necessary data backed up in the cloud, so there is no need to worry about losing it. Unfortunately, in iOS, you can't delete only app data, but only the entire app with data (and then reinstall it), moreover, you have to do it for each app separately (in Settings > General > iCloud Storage & Usage > Manage Storage).
The second, perhaps more effective, way to free up space on an iOS device is to completely delete it. Of course, if we don't want to lose everything, we must first back up what we want to keep so that we can then upload it back.
It is possible to back up to iCloud directly in iOS, in Settings > General > iCloud > Backup. If we don't have enough space in iCloud for a backup, or we think a backup to a computer disk is safer, we do it by connecting the iOS device to iTunes and following of this manual (if we don't want to encrypt the backup, we simply don't check the given box in iTunes).
After creating a backup and making sure that it was successfully created, we disconnect the iOS device from the computer and continue in iOS to Settings > General > Reset > Wipe data and settings. I repeat this option will completely erase your iOS device and restore it to factory settings. Do not tap it unless you are sure that you have your device backed up.
After deletion, the device behaves like a new one. To re-upload the data, you need to select the option to restore from iCloud on the device, or connect it to iTunes, which will offer to restore from the backup either automatically, or just click on the connected device in the upper left part of the application and in the "Summary" tab in the left part of the window, select "Restore from backup" in the right part of the window.
If you have several backups on your computer, you will be offered the option to choose which one to upload to the device, and of course you will choose the one you just created. iTunes may require you to turn off "Find iPhone" first, which is done directly on the iOS device v Settings > iCloud > Find iPhone. After recovery, you can turn this feature back on at the same location.
After recovery, the situation should be as follows. Your files on the iOS device are there, but the yellow marked "Other" item in the storage usage graph either does not appear at all or is only small.
Why does an "empty" iPhone have less space than it says on the box?
During these operations we can grind to Settings > General > Information and notice the item Capacity, which indicates how much space there is in total on the given device. For example, the iPhone 5 reports 16 GB on the box, but only 12,5 GB in iOS. Where did the rest go?
There are several reasons for this discrepancy. The first is that storage media manufacturers calculate size differently than software. While the capacity on the box is thus indicated in the decimal system (1 GB = 1 bytes), the software works with the binary system, in which 000 GB = 000 bytes. For example, an iPhone that is "supposed to have" 000 GB (1 billion bytes in the decimal system) of memory suddenly only has 1 GB. This is also broken down by Apple on your website. But there is still a difference of 2,4 GB. What about you?
When a storage medium is produced by a manufacturer, it is unformatted (it is not specified according to which file system the data will be stored on it) and no data can be stored on it. There are several file systems, each of which works with space a little differently, and the same applies to different operating systems. But they all have in common that they take up some space for their function.
In addition, the operating system itself must of course be stored somewhere, as well as its underlying applications. For iOS, these are e.g. Phone, Messages, Music, Contacts, Calendar, Mail, etc.
The main reason why the capacity of unformatted storage media without an operating system and basic applications is indicated on the box is simply that it varies between different versions of operating systems and different file systems. Inconsistencies would thus arise even when stating "real" capacity.
