Why does "other" take up so much space on my iPhone?

I got an iPhone 5s 16 GB at the end of June 2014.  I keep running out of memory and when I recently plugged my phone into iTunes, I noticed that "other" is taking up around 3 GB of space. I know the usual delete pictures and browsing history spiel, and I've done it all. People also say that Settings>General>Usage>Manage Storage is a good way to tell what is taking up space, but I went there and manually added all of the numbers and they only add up to 8.6 GB vs the 11.6 that my phone says is occupied, leaving an extra 3 GB unaccounted for and confirming my suspicions that "other" is not included in this. People keep telling me it's the operating system but isn't that already taken out of the original 16 GB and why you really only have 12 GB of storage to begin with? As I was looking through different forums and discussions, people kept saying to restore the iPhone from the iTunes backup and I am wondering if that would actually work...does anyone have experience with this? (Also would this delete my apps and music as well? I'm not very familiar with the restore from backup and could not really find any good information on it.) Do I just have to live with "other" eating up this much space on my phone? I've had iPods and I have an iPad, and I've never had this problem. Any help at all would be very appreciated, as this is very frustrating. Thanks.

ihaveapetfish wrote:
I got an iPhone 5s 16 GB at the end of June 2014.  I keep running out of memory and when I recently plugged my phone into iTunes, I noticed that "other" is taking up around 3 GB of space. I know the usual delete pictures and browsing history spiel, and I've done it all. People also say that Settings>General>Usage>Manage Storage is a good way to tell what is taking up space, but I went there and manually added all of the numbers and they only add up to 8.6 GB vs the 11.6 that my phone says is occupied, leaving an extra 3 GB unaccounted for and confirming my suspicions that "other" is not included in this. People keep telling me it's the operating system but isn't that already taken out of the original 16 GB and why you really only have 12 GB of storage to begin with? As I was looking through different forums and discussions, people kept saying to restore the iPhone from the iTunes backup and I am wondering if that would actually work...does anyone have experience with this? (Also would this delete my apps and music as well? I'm not very familiar with the restore from backup and could not really find any good information on it.) Do I just have to live with "other" eating up this much space on my phone? I've had iPods and I have an iPad, and I've never had this problem. Any help at all would be very appreciated, as this is very frustrating. Thanks.
That is normal size for others.. mine is around 2 GB.
What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?

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