Available space, ain't what it seems

[n4uau]

In an earlier post I was worried about my diminishing 3Gb available space (on my 16 Gb ipad 5, ios8). Well today the iPad froze when I shut it down, only the apple logo displayed. Call to Apple and guided through a restore from iTunes (glad I backed it up before doing ios8).

BUT THE POINT, I now have 6.4 Gb available with all the apps and data and photos restored vs prior the 3.1 Gb. So the Ipad obviously does fragment or otherwise cordon off memory that is useable. It would seem that periodic defragging would be in order for iPads OR why the increased free memory???

Meanwhile the pressure to buy a 32Gb device is down.

WHY, how to defrag, or should one somehow force periodic 'restores' ??

 

[J. A.]

It's not possible to "defrag" an iPad. The "Other" storage was what took away your storage, and to get rid of this, you'll have to restore it from time to time.

 

[scifan57]

When you connect your iPad to iTunes on your computer and look at the summary page, you'll notice the bar graph at the bottom of the page. One of the categories on that graph is "other" this is where all that missing storage space was. It can be made up, among other things, of cached app data which some apps are extremely reluctant to release. Your restore forced those apps to release their cached data, freeing up several gigs worth of storage. Sometimes a restore won't free up this cached data and you may have to delete, then re-install the app in question.

As for defragging, there's no way to do that on an iPad, nor is it necessary. Data in flash storage doesn't fragment like it does on a hard drive.

 

[n4uau]

Long ago we discussed apps like Facebook which kept growing and taking space. An example of "other" creep and I was advised here that it was "c'est la vie" live with it. Or words to that effect.

How about a guideline on eliminating is "other" space creep. In the prior thread I was advised about the deletorious effects of defragging but clearly restore is a defragging and clearly it recovered a LOT of wasted memory.

Apple, I'm sure, is happy to have me think I am out of space and go buy a new unit. Not so happy to tell me how to free up lost space.

If Apple won't help us here maybe you gurus here can give us some guidelines. I see there are lots os ipad 2 people who might gain much with a restore.

PS don't mean to sound grumpy, you guys are great!! Guess I am a bit mad at Apple for not addressing this hidden issue.