When you check the status of Storage on iPhone, you will see something listed as “Other” taking up a good amount of storage space. You will find below the steps to Clear Other Storage on iPhone or iPad.
If you clear cache on iPad or iPhone, you will see a performance increase, and the “other” storage within your iPhone’s memory will reduce. But what is “other”? The “other” storage is an untouchable partition in your phone or tablet memory that’s specifically meant to house things like browser cache data as well as app data. Follow our How to delete apps on iPhone & iPad for more details. Clear Safari caches. Another good idea is to clear out the caches stored in Safari, as these can take up quite a bit of room.
How to View Other Storage On iPhone?
You can see “Other Storage” on iPhone by going to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
On iPhone Storage screen, you will see the overall status of storage space on your iPhone represented in the form of a bar graph.
If you scroll down to bottom on the same screen, you will see the amount of storage space taken up by Other Data.
Note: It may take a while for iPhone to scan and analyze its storage and present the amount System and Other Storage.
What is Other Storage?
The standard categories or labels used by Apple to represent the data taking up storage space on iPhone are – System, Apps, Photos, Music, Books, Movies, TV Shows and Podcasts.
Any other type of data that does not fit into these standard categories is conveniently labelled as ‘Other’ by Apple.
In general, the data labelled as “Other” consists of App Cache, Mail Attachments, Safari browser Cache, Bookmarks, Reading Lists, Siri Cache, Corrupted Files and other data which does not fit in Apple’s standard categories.
If left unchecked, “Other Data” can continue to grow in size and have an adverse impact on the overall performance of your device.
How to Clear Other Storage on iPhone?
In most cases you should be able to significantly reduce the storage space taken up by “Other Data” by removing the following major contributors to “Other Storage” on iPhone.
1. Delete Safari History and Website Data
Go to Settings > Safari and tap on Clear History and Website Data.
2. Offload Unused Apps
The Offload Unused Apps feature allows you to remove Unused Apps from your device, while still being able to re-download the Apps and pick up the Apps right from where you had left them.
Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > On the next screen, select the App that you want to Offload
On the next screen, tap on the Offload App option > On the confirmation pop-up, tap on Offload App to confirm.
Repeat the above steps for other Apps that you want to Offload from your device.
3. Saved Messages and Message Attachments
Over a period of time saved messages and message attachments can start taking up a ton of storage space on your iPhone.
You can delete saved text messages and message attachments by following the steps listed in this article: How to Delete Saved Messages on iPhone
4. Remove Documents and Data
As you continue using Apps, they start storing Cached data, Login information, Attachments and other related information on your device.
Over a period of time all this App related stuff (known as “Documents and Data”) starts building up in size and often ends up becoming way larger than the size of the actual App.
You can remove “Documents and data” from iPhone by using steps as provided in this guide: How to Delete Documents and Data on iPhone.
After removing above items, take a look at the space occupied by ‘Other’ on your iPhone. If “Other Storage” still accounts for a significant amount, it is likely that you are dealing with the issue of corrupted files contributing to “Other” storage.
Reset iPhone to Clear Other Storage
If a significant portion of “Other Storage” is coming from corrupted files, it can only be cleared by performing a Factory Reset.
The Factory Reset process will completely erase all the data from iPhone, including corrupted files and data contributing to Other Storage.
To Factory Reset iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset and tap on Erase All Content and Settings.
This will erase all the data from your device, including corrupted files contributing to “Other Storage”.
After Factory Reset, you can either setup your device as New iPhone or Restore iPhone using a previously made iCloud or iTunes Backup of your iPhone.
For the exact steps to Restore iPhone, you can refer to this guide: How to Restore iPhone from iTunes and iCloud Backup.
It is good practice to periodically Clear RAM on iPhone or iPad, in order to remove unwanted files and accumulated junk that can end up impacting the overall performance of your device.
Clear RAM on iPhone and iPad
RAM which stands for “Random Access Memory” can be described as a storage location on a device designed to store temporary files and data required for proper functioning of the Apps and processes running on the device.
As you continue to use your iPhone or iPad, its RAM tends to gets clogged up with expired data and temporary files, impacting the smooth functioning of the device.
Hence, the need to clear the RAM on iPhone or iPad on a periodic basis and get rid of unwanted files and expired data occupying RAM.
How Do I Clear Up Memory On My Ipad
Without such maintenance (especially on older iPhones) you may begin to notice problems during multitasking, viewing HD Videos and you may also notice crashing of Apps.
With this understanding, let us go ahead and take a look at the steps to manually clear RAM on iPhone or iPad.
1. Power OFF and Restart
The quickest way to clear RAM on iPhone is to simply powering OFF your device and turning it back ON again.
Go to Settings > General > scroll down and tap on Shut Down.
Allow iPhone to completely Power OFF > Wait for 30 seconds Restart iPhone. This step should make your device run a bit faster.
2. Clear Safari Cache
Safari is the default browser on iPhone and like all internet browsers it stores information about websites that you visit and other data in its cache.
Go to Settings > Safari > scroll down and tap on Clear History and Website Data.
How Do I Clear Memory On My Ipad Mini
On the pop-up, tap on Clear History and Data to clear Safari Cache on your iPhone or iPad.
3. Offload Unused Apps
Another way to limit RAM usage on iPhone or iPad is to Offload Unused Apps on your device. This step ensures that unused Apps are not using resources on your device.
Go to Settings > App Store > scroll down and move the toggle next to Offload Unused Apps to ON position.
This setting will automatically Offload Unused Apps and prevent them from using resources on your device.
4. Uninstall Unnecessary Apps
Clear Browser Cache On Ipad
Delete all the unnecessary Apps on your iPhone that you may have downloaded on impulse or just to try them out.
How Do I Clear The Memory On My Ipad
Locate the App that you want to Uninstall > Long press (Tap and Hold) on the App and select the Remove App option.
Ipad Out Of Memory
On the confirmation pop-up, select Delete App option to confirm.