iPad Mini Retina full of 'other'. How can I fix this?

My 16GB iPad Mini Retina has been giving me 'storage almost full' messages lately despite me deleting all my videos, nearly all my photos, many apps, etc. I actually have very little stuff stored on it compared to this annoying, mysterious 'other'. No music, no TV shows, no movies, very few documents, emails or anything. I deleted big apps like Twitter and it's made no difference. When I connect my iPad to my Mac and open iTunes, here's what it says is on the Mini:

Capacity 11.69GB
-----------
149 MB Photos
1.08 GB Apps
169 MB Documents + Data
10.30 GB of OTHER

Nearly my entire capacity is being taken by 'other'?? Not sure what's going on. I can't even update to the latest iOS update or even save a single photo. Any ideas of what's wrong?

bg7 said:

My 16GB iPad Mini Retina has been giving me 'storage almost full' messages lately despite me deleting all my videos, nearly all my photos, many apps, etc. I actually have very little stuff stored on it compared to this annoying, mysterious 'other'.....

Nearly my entire capacity is being taken by 'other'?? Not sure what's going on. I can't even update to the latest iOS update or even save a single photo. Any ideas of what's wrong?

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Hello and welcome to the forum!

The 'Other' category in the storage summary can be a pain on both OS X (a more common question here) and iOS - quoted below is just a paragraph from HERE which will provide more details on the 'Other' category and suggestions to gain the space back.

I would first suggest that your 'Reset' the iPad (hold down the ON-OFF & HOME buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, release both, and let the device re-boot) - see if that changes the storage amount? Second, go into Settings -> General -> Usage -> Manage Storage - determine if there is an app(s) that might be taking up GBs of space; if so, you can delete the app which will eliminate the excess space for its data storage (unless you need that data?). If these choices do not solve your problem, then review the link closely. Good luck and let us know your results. Dave

What is ‘Other’ space? It’s generally a combination of local caches from apps, browsers, mail, Messages, Reading List, saved games, app-specific documents and data, notes, and voice memos. Knowing this, it’s actually pretty easy to recover most of the space consumed in that category by targeting those things specifically.

Click to expand...

The 'Other' category in the storage summary can be a pain on both OS X (a more common question here) and iOS - quoted below is just a paragraph from HERE which will provide more details on the 'Other' category and suggestions to gain the space back.

Click to expand...

That's a great link Dave. I didn't realize that some apps like messages and Instagram stored so much data in other. My iPhone 5C is only 16 GB so I too need to keep a close watch on storage space. I can guaranty when I get an iPhone 6 or 6+ that it will have at least 64 GB!

chscag said:

That's a great link Dave. I didn't realize that some apps like messages and Instagram stored so much data in other. My iPhone 5C is only 16 GB so I too need to keep a close watch on storage space. I can guaranty when I get an iPhone 6 or 6+ that it will have at least 64 GB!

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Hi Chscag - I plugged my iPad into my MBPro and hardly had any 'Other' storage usage, but I understand that much could be consumed w/ the explanations in the link (like that OSX Daily site). My wife wants the new iPhone 6 (we decided on the smaller size), but I'll definitely buy the 64 GB model - plan to add my iPod music so we can use the phone together on our travels, otherwise I'll maintain my cheap 'dumb' phone for local use. Dave

RadDave said:

Hello and welcome to the forum!

The 'Other' category in the storage summary can be a pain on both OS X (a more common question here) and iOS - quoted below is just a paragraph from HERE which will provide more details on the 'Other' category and suggestions to gain the space back.

I would first suggest that your 'Reset' the iPad (hold down the ON-OFF & HOME buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, release both, and let the device re-boot) - see if that changes the storage amount? Second, go into Settings -> General -> Usage -> Manage Storage - determine if there is an app(s) that might be taking up GBs of space; if so, you can delete the app which will eliminate the excess space for its data storage (unless you need that data?). If these choices do not solve your problem, then review the link closely. Good luck and let us know your results. Dave

Click to expand...

Thanks, Dave. I'll try it today and see what happens. Thanks for the links

It's fixed!! I did two things, so I'm not sure which one worked. I cleared history and website data from the Safari settings, and I deleted the Pinterest app. I actually think it was Pinterest that was clogging up all that space with photos. Anyways, I reclaimed about 9GB of space and the 'Other' is down to 1.5GB. Thanks again RadDave for the suggestions and links.

bg7 said:

It's fixed!! I did two things, so I'm not sure which one worked. I cleared history and website data from the Safari settings, and I deleted the Pinterest app. I actually think it was Pinterest that was clogging up all that space with photos. Anyways, I reclaimed about 9GB of space and the 'Other' is down to 1.5GB. Thanks again RadDave for the suggestions and links.

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GREAT! Congrats - Dave