How to Find and Remove Other Files on iPhone | Free Storage Space in 2024
Other files on an iPhone refer to the files that don't fit into any of the standard categories such as music, photos, or documents.
These can include cache files, downloaded files, temporary files, and other miscellaneous files that accumulate over time.
They can take up a significant amount of storage space on your iPhone, so it's a good idea to periodically check for and remove them.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to find and remove other files on iPhone
To find and remove "Other" files on an iPhone, you can start by going to the Settings app and selecting "General" and then "iPhone Storage." Here, you'll see a breakdown of your iPhone's storage usage. If you notice a large amount of storage being used by "Other" files, you can tap on it to see a more detailed breakdown. From here, you can go through and delete any unnecessary files or data, such as cached data, app data, or downloaded files.
How to Find and Remove Other Files on iPhone
How to Check Storage Space of Your iPhone
Before finding or removing any files on your iPhone you will need to check your storage space so that you can get a general idea of what is taking up space in your iPhone’s storage.
To check your iPhone storage, follow these steps,
- Step 1 Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Step 2 Tap on General.
- Step 3 Tap on the iPhone Storage option.
Your iPhone storage will be mapped out on a grid that shows what is taking up space and how much they are taking and the remaining free space as well.
You can scroll down and see detailed information of the same in a listicle format.
Here, you can check how much space the Other category is taking up in the storage of your iPhone. Just scroll down and tap on Other.
How to Check Your iPhone Storage Space on a Computer
You can connect your iPhone to a computer and check the storage space of your iPhone from there as well.
You can do this on Macs, and PCs as well. To check the storage space of your iPhone from a computer, check these methods and their steps.
How to Check iPhone storage on Macs running macOS Catalina or later
If you have a Mac that is running macOS Catalina, then you can use Finder on your mac to check the storage of your iPhone. For this,
- Step 1 Connect your iPhone to your Mac running macOS Catalina or later using a Lightning cable.
- Step 2 Now, open Finder on your Mac.
- Step 3 Click on the iPhone icon in the sidebar under Locations. In case you can’t see your iPhone listed, try unplugging your iPhone from your Mac and plugging it back in.
- Step 4 Now, click on the General tab in the Finder Window.
- Step 5 Here, you will be able to see your iPhone's storage details below. You can hover over each category to see how much space they are taking up.
Hover over the Other category to see how much space it is taking up and then delete the necessary files to free up space.
How to Check iPhone Storage Space on PC, macOS Mojave, and Older Using iTunes
When your iPhone is connected to a PC or older Mac running Mojave or older versions, you can use iTunes to check the storage space of your iPhone. You can do this by following these steps,
- Step 1 Connect your iPhone to a PC or an older Mac.
- Step 2 iTunes should open automatically, if not, open it.
- Step 3 Now, click on the device icon in the upper left corner of the window.
- Step 4 Click and open the Summary menu on the left side of the iTunes window.
- Step 5 Here, you can see a detailed graph of all the categories that are taking up space on your iPhone’s storage. You can hover over them to see how much each category is taking up space.
Hover over the Other category to see how much space it is taking up and then delete the necessary files to free up space.
How to Clear Safari Cache and History
One of the biggest cache generators on your iPhone is Safari. And this will be only true if you are someone who browses a lot on your iPhone.
The more you browse, the more cache is generated and stored on your iPhone. Even data like history and cookies can take up space on your iPhone.
To clear your Safari cache and other data, follow the below steps,
- Step 1 Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Step 2 Tap on the General option.
- Step 3 Now, tap on iPhone Storage.
- Step 4 In here, scroll down and tap on Safari.
- Step 5 Tap on Website Data.
- Step 6 Now, scroll down and tap on Remove All Website Data.
- Step 7 Confirm by tapping on Remove Now.
Now, when you go back to the storage list, it will show no data for Safari and you can notice that the size of Other would have also been reduced.
Deleting and Reinstall Apps
Unlike Android, iOS doesn’t let you delete cache on an app-by-app basis, which means if an app has large amounts of cache stored in your iPhone, there is no way to get rid of it unless you delete and reinstall the app.
All these cache storage come under the Other category of the storage of your iPhone. So if an app is taking up GBs of space it is safe to say, cache files are the reason. If you suspect any such apps, uninstall and reinstall the app. You will free up a lot of storage in the process.
Deleting Old iMessage and Mail Data
iMessage and Mail cache all of your messages and emails you open, including documents, videos, pictures, and more.
All this data gets stored on your iPhone and falls under the Other category. This is so that these files can reload faster, but older messages and emails can take up unnecessary space.
To clear old iMessage and Mail data, follow these steps,
- Step 1 Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Step 2 Scroll down and tap on Messages.
- Step 3 Tap on Keep Messages.
- Step 4 Select 20 Days or 1 Year to automatically delete messages after the selected period.
Alternatively, you can remove these cache files and data for any app from the settings similar to how you removed data from Safari. However, you will have to re-enter your email information when you are opening these apps again.
For iMessages, you can delete entire conversations or delete individual images, videos, and attachments to save some space.
Doing this will reduce the size of the Other category and in turn, increase free space in your iPhone.
Since iOS 11, you can enable auto-delete for old iMessages, large email attachments, uninstall unused apps, and more easily free up the storage space of your iPhone.
Restoring your iPhone or iPad from a backup
If none of the above works, and the Other category is still taking up a lot of space then the reason for this might be a bug or a glitch in your iPhone and you may need to reset your entire iPhone.
You don’t have to worry about losing any data though, as you can backup and then reset your iPhone.
This way you won’t lose all your important data and you can start fresh without starting over completely. You can backup your data to a PC or Mac using iTunes.
Once you have backed up your iPhone you can reset your iPhone by following these steps,
- Step 1 Open the Settings App.
- Step 2 Tap on General.
- Step 3 Scroll down and tap on Reset.
- Step 4 Now choose Erase All Content and Settings.
And voila, your iPhone is as good as new. Now you can copy all your files back from your PC or Mac.
What is 'Other' storage?
I have been mentioned Other storage category throughout this article, but what is this it? If you have checked your iPhone storage before or while reading through this article, you would have noticed that it is split into categories.
- Most of these categories like Apps, Media, Photos, etc are familiar but you never really know what is in the Other category.
- The Other category mostly features system files, Siri voices (downloaded voices), call logs, recovery and update files, downloaded maps, and more.
- It includes all the files that cannot be categorized into Apps, Media, Photos, etc.
- Generally, the Other category should take up 5-10GB of storage but in some cases, it can exceed well over 10GB in which case it needs some attention.
- Other features are temporary files that can get accumulated from browsing, streaming, and gaming. These are cache files that help to load apps and websites fast.
- So if you browse or stream a lot of music and videos on your iPhone, there is a good chance the Other category is taking up well over 10GB of storage space.
- These caches are accumulated generally from browsers like safari, chrome, etc, or music/video streaming apps like Apple Music, YouTube, Netflix, and more.
- They can start taking up a lot of space, eventually enough to affect your iPhones performance and reduce storage space for your photos, videos, and apps.
You don’t have to worry about the Other category taking over the majority of the storage space in your iPhone, as you can always keep a check on it and reduce its size by deleting a few unimportant files.
Conclusion
Other files may seem like a mystery but they are just files that your iPhone can't group into any category. Most of them are cache files and other data that help your phone function. But sometimes they can be a disadvantage as they can take up too much space.
If you have followed the article carefully on how to find and remove Other files on iPhone then you can get rid of these unwanted Other files and free up space on your iPhone.
Also Read :