# What is the "other" on my iPod Touch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973 "2010-05-01T17:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/1 "2010-05-01T17:24:53Z")
During a sync, you can see a how much of the memory is audio, apps, other, and free. Photos, too, if you have any. What is this “other?” There seems to be a fair amount of it. Nearly 280mb worth. ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/2 "2010-05-01T17:32:12Z")
Files it can’t account for, such as those transferred via disk mode? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/3 "2010-05-01T17:51:21Z")
I had this too. Normally, “other” represents things like contacts, calendar and mail info and so forth. But sometimes, if it’s excessive, it can mean something got corrupted during a sync. I had an “other” of over 1gig. Try to do a resync, and if that doesn’t work, do a restore and then a resync of all your stuff… that should do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/4 "2010-05-01T18:43:44Z")
A lot of it’s the OS itself. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/5 "2010-05-01T18:51:05Z")
I always thought it was tag information, like year, grouping, composer, lyrics, etc. Is it not? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/6 "2010-05-01T18:55:45Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > I always thought it was tag information, like year, grouping, composer, lyrics, etc. Is it not? Surely all that stuff is stored in the music files themselves? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/7 "2010-05-01T20:36:49Z")
The tag information is, indeed, stored in the music files. The “other” on your iPod or iPad is whatever you want it to be. If you enable the option (I can’t remember the name of it at the moment), then your iPod will show up in the Finder and you can use it just like any other removable storage device. I use mine like a thumbdrive: I keep backups of my most important data on it. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/8 "2010-05-03T05:56:53Z")
On my old Photo iPod it was album art. It’s not the OS – i believe that’s just not counted in the total space. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/9 "2010-05-03T15:28:53Z")
If you’re like me you don’t normally “reboot” your iTouch. From what I’ve read, resetting your iTouch can help. Hold down the top button for 4 or 5 seconds until you get the option to power down. Worst case you may have to do a restore to reload everything. But I don’t think that would be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-other-on-my-ipod-touch/537973/10 "2010-05-03T18:38:51Z")
Interestingly, when I synced it this morning, it displayed no “other” at all, but showed that space as now being occupied by “apps.”