What is the “other” in iPhone storage and how to clear it?
Your iPhone’s storage got filled up and you’re trying to delete the unwanted apps, photos, and videos but end with a strange section called Other which can’t be deleted. Panic not, here you will learn what exactly does it contains and how to delete it.
What does “Other” contain?
Other is full of cached files such as videos, music, and photos. It can quickly fill up if you’re streaming a lot of music and videos (From the Music app, TV app, and the iTunes store). The streamed content will be stored in the other that will later be provided when you visit the same content again, thus saving them time and data.
Other also includes the system settings, date, Siri voices, voice memos and attachments from messages but these files won’t occupy as much as the cached files do (unless you don’t have any large attachments).
How to clear “Other” in iPhone storage?
Delete or Offload Unused apps
1. Go to Settings and tap General
2. Tap iPhone Storage and select the app you aren’t using much
We recommend offloading the app instead of deleting it. Because this method will delete the app but allow you to resume from where you left off after reinstalling it.
To know more about it, visit here
3. Tap Offload App
Clear Safari Cache
Safari stores website data and history to deliver the content fast. But this will take up some storage in the other section of the iPhone storage. To clear the Safari cache,
1. Go to Settings and tap General
2. Tap iPhone storage (or iPad Storage)
3. Find and tap Safari
4. Tap Website Data (Scroll down to find it)
5. Find and tap Remove All Website Data (Scroll down to find it)
This will remove all the safari caches
6. Go Back and Swipe left on the Offline Reading List
7. Tap Delete
This will remove all the reading list that have been saved for offline
Delete Mail and Message data
All the data such as images, videos, music, and other attachments from messages and mail are stored in the other as well. But most of the people won’t open year-old attachments. So, it’s better to delete it.
We recommend setting messages to keep the old messages for fewer days. By default, iOS will never delete the old messages. But you can set it to delete them automatically.
1. Go to Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Messages
4. Scroll down to the Message history section and tap Keep Messages
One Year or 30 Days, select the option which suits you the best
We recommend selecting the 30 days option if you’re serious about the storage. Note that the messages older than 30 days will be deleted.
Final Option
If all the option doesn’t free up the space you want, Backup and Restore.
Back up your entire iPhone with iTunes. Now reset your iPhone to the factory settings by choosing to Erase all content and Settings under the Reset option in the General from the Settings.
Now connect back the iPhone to the PC or Mac and restore from the backup.