What's eating my iPad storage?

November 15, 2014 2:16 AM

My iPad insists that I'm using almost all of my available hard drive space. But I have no idea how, and the app-by-app breakdown purporting to show what's eating the storage doesn't add up to anything close to the 22+ GB it claims I'm using. Here's a screenshot. (Scrolling down shows only a couple more apps using very small amounts of storage.) What could be going on here? How can I figure out what's eating my hard drive space? I have no music or video on the device as far as I can tell.
posted by eugenen to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

When you look at the "breakdown bar" in iTunes (i.e., Music, Video, Apps, Other, Photos), is a large chunk labeled as "Other?"
posted by kuanes at 2:37 AM on November 15, 2014

Response by poster: Hmm, not sure what you're referring to -- there's no iTunes app per se on the iPad anymore, just separate apps for Music, Videos, and the iTunes Store.
posted by eugenen at 3:07 AM on November 15, 2014

This happened on my Moto X. I tried an app called Clean Master and it got rid of like 3GB of junk files. Left over files from uninstalled apps, caches that got out of control, useless old downloaded PDFs, etc. Have you tried something like that or iCleaner?
posted by blackzinfandel at 3:36 AM on November 15, 2014

Connect your iPad to your computer and use iTunes to evaluate the data breakdown.
posted by Hermione Granger at 3:56 AM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh, I see. Okay -- I did that, and indeed the breakdown bar shows a massive amount of "Other." Strangely, after I connected the iPad that amount magically reduced and it now shows that I'm using 18.2GB instead of 22.6. But I still don't know what this stuff is.
posted by eugenen at 4:06 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Do you send/receive a lot of images in iMessage? That's usually what a big "Other" section means on mine.
posted by almostmanda at 4:13 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's the detritus of a lot of usage - incomplete downloads, iMessages, and various other rubbish that someone with actual technical knowledge could explain better than I can. And it fluctuates in size when you check it on iTunes, which is what makes fixing it so confusing.

I had this problem with my iPhone three weeks ago and I fixed it by backing the device up, and then doing a proper restore. There are 'how to' guides all over the interwebs. It ended up clearing out 30GB of mostly crap. It is a bit of a pain but it's worth it.
posted by finisterre at 4:26 AM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]

Check your settings/general on your iPad to see if it downloaded the recent OS upgrade. Mine did, even though I go I do not plan to install the upgrade. It takes up a few GB of space. You can delete it from settings.
posted by devinemissk at 4:28 AM on November 15, 2014

I had to do a factory reset too, just the other day, in order to clear up some space. It cleared up something like 6 GB that had previously been taken up by "other."
posted by Jeanne at 4:40 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This is a bug caused by movie rentals. If you download an app, it will clear that space up.
posted by empath at 4:52 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Like devinemissk said, it could be (partly) the iOS 8.1 update. If you haven't installed it yet, it takes up a lot of space. I know of no way to delete it. You can stop iOS from auto-downloading new updates though. (Or just update, 8.1 seems fine to me.)
posted by Nelson at 9:04 AM on November 15, 2014

It used to be that you could download a program called PhoneClean for free to clean up the Other files, but now it costs $20 for a year or $30 for a lifetime license. I bought it (I knew I liked it because I'd used it when it was free) and cleaned out 2.5 Gigs of Other on my iPad mini. Any apps that self-update not through the App Store (for example, The Simpsons Tapped Out downloads updates without needing a new app update from the store) will have to re-download its updates though.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:59 PM on November 15, 2014

Just want to add that movie rentals are not the only thing that can cause this issue, I've never watched or rented a movie on iTunes and I still had a ton of Other files.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:02 PM on November 15, 2014

This happens to my iPad ocassionally as well. Rebooting it always brings the space back for me.
posted by FreezBoy at 8:21 PM on November 15, 2014

Like devinemissk said, it could be (partly) the iOS 8.1 update. If you haven't installed it yet, it takes up a lot of space. I know of no way to delete it. You can stop iOS from auto-downloading new updates though. (Or just update, 8.1 seems fine to me.)


You should be able to delete any downloaded but not installed update by going to Settings > General > Software Update. If it's there, you should have the option to Delete Update. If you're not going to upgrade (because you have a 1st generation Mini, like me), that will recover a ton of space. If you are going to upgrade, might as well just do it, but the new OS does take up more room than iOS 7.
posted by devinemissk at 4:17 AM on November 16, 2014 [1 favorite]