With all the apps, music, video, and other stuff you have stored on your iPhone, every bit of storage space becomes precious, especially if you have an 8GB or 16GB device. So, when you see an ever increasing amount of “other storage” taking up that precious space, what can you do?
What is “Other Storage”?
“Other Storage” files are basically files that don’t neatly fit into a category like videos, apps, or music. Mostly, the space is taken up by cached files and data, which can include browsing data from Safari, the Mail app, iTunes streaming files, and more. These files are supposed to be automatically deleted after use, but sometimes they don’t get removed, due to app crashes, file corruption, or interrupted streaming of media.
Freeing Up Space Taken By “Other Storage”
The easiest, and most efficient way to get rid of those “other” files on your iOS device is by doing a backup to iTunes, and then performing a restore. By doing that, iTunes deletes everything from your device, and then replaces it with fresh copies. When it does this, it also frees up the space used by corrupt files and caches.
Here’s how to do it:
- Connect Your iOS device to your Mac or Windows computer with your sync/charge cable.
- Backup your device with iTunes.
- Restore your device from the iTunes backup you just made.
Easy-peasy.
Now, if you look at your storage capacity on your device, you should see the amount of “Other” storage shown has been greatly reduced.
(Thanks to iMore for the original tip.)
