Along with music, movies and photos many people have some mysterious “other” data on their iDevices, which seems to increase over time. One reader is wondering how to get rid of this data and free up space:

When I look at my iTunes summary of my iPad it shows that there is 2.9GB of “Other” stored on my device. I haven’t put much stuff on my iPad and have no idea what is taking up so much space. I only have a 16GB iPad and like to put movies on it for when I travel, so space is a premium. How do I find out what is taking up so much space, and what is the best way to maximize storage space on my iPad?

Thanks, Kyle

Hi Kyle,

I get asked this question often by my clients, and unfortunately I haven’t found one single answer. Sometimes it may be app data, album art, etc., other times it may be bad storage disk optimization or caches not getting cleared after the system has been in use for a while.

You can usually reclaim the space by making a backup of your iPad, then doing a Restore to the latest version of iOS. After the process completes reload from your backup, and in most cases the “Other” data is gone.

Thanks, it worked like a charm.

Readers, have any additional suggestions on this topic, or corrections/clarifications on the advice above? If so, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Got a question about your Mac or iOS device? Email (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address) and we’ll try to help out.

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Okay… so like a month ago when they announced it, I rushed over to sign up for a beta invite for “Google Music” like I do for all new Google services. So after a month, I received my invite today. But guess what… I don’t think I really care anymore.

What happened?

(Apple announced iTunes matching. I’ll get to that in a minute.)

Google Music will allow you to take your music library and upload it to Google’s servers so it’s accessible from the web. This is great because that means you don’t have to try to squeeze that large music library on your tiny little music device. (iPhone)

Even though I have a small music library by todays standards, I still have 20GBs of music in my iTunes library. Some I have purchased from iTunes and some I have “acquired” along the way. My internet connection isn’t the greatest. I’m lucky to get about a 700k upload on my home DSL connection. If I wanted to start uploading my music to Google now, it may be another month before it’s actually finished.

Not to mention my habits dictate that my newest and most favorite music always makes the cut to be synced to my iPhone first. That means that less favorite songs of yesteryear are still sitting on my home iTunes library. But I never find that to be a huge deal.

And if this wasn’t enough, I find myself listening to streaming Internet radio and music discovery services like Pandora or Last.fm. I spend more time when I am away from my desk listening to the “radio” then my own library. So once again.. “Why?”

iTunes Matching

Okay, so the big difference here. Apple announced iTunes sharing at WWDC 2011 about a week and a half ago. At first I was a little turned off because I was hoping for a model similar to what Google and Amazon are pushing. Then I thought about my listening habits. How often do I find myself complaining that I can’t listen to my entire library because it’s not in my pocket? NEVER.

BUT.. I do find myself talking to friends and getting into music conversations where I say, “Hey do you remember that song by…” I reach for for my trusty iPhone and start to search when I realize that was one of the songs that didn’t “make the cut”. This is where iTunes Matching will excel!

iTunes Matching will scan you’re entire library, and instead of uploading it to Apple and killing your internet connection for the next month it will “match” your songs and keep their master version of the song on iTunes cloud servers for you to access anytime. iTunes matching will cost $24.99

From Apple’s website:

“If you want all the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. It lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. For just $24.99 a year.²

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.”

Sorry Google, it just makes more sense to me. Maybe I am wrong. What are your thought? Will you keep your music at home, in your pocket, or in the cloud?