ibdata1 back to it's original size after deleting it I have followed the following steps in order to save space but I am surprised after restarting MySQL ibdata1 gets back to it's original size.


  As you want to reclaim the space from ibdata1 you actually have to
  delete the file:
  
  
  Do a mysqldump of all databases, procedures, triggers etc except the mysql and performance_schema databases
  Drop all databases except the above 2 databases
  Stop mysql
  Delete ibdata1 and ib_log files
  Start mysql
  Restore from dump
  


Source
Did you have innodb_file_per_table = ON?

Regardless of the above setting, ibdata1 will have some stuff in it.  Without more specifics (size of that file, the above setting, number of tables, number of .ibd files, etc.), I cannot be more specific.

In my opinion, "tiny" tables may as well be built with file_per_table = OFF.