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iPhone says I've no storage left, but this doesn't add up!?!?

I am so frustrated, I really need some help with this!

For months my iPhone has been telling me that I have no storage left. It often refuses to let me take a photo, I can't download any apps or anything. I have barely anything on my phone as it is. Here's the numbers:


My phone tells me I have used 11.3GB, with only 338 MB available (this number fluctuates a lot, it's often approached 0).

But when I look at the applications, it simply does not add up. Here's a partial list-

Photos & camera 3.3GB
WhatsApp 231MB
Facebook 138MB
Podcasts 114MB.

I've calculated the total GB used from the list of photos/ applications and it's approximately 4.4GB. So where on earth is the rest?!

When trying to resolve this issue I've read online that a lot of space can be taken up by 'documents and data' or 'other' that is only shown when you connect your phone to iTunes.
So I connect my phone, look at my summary on iTunes, and iTunes informs me that I actually have 4.30 GB free!! What?!


Can someone please help me out, I feel like I can't make the most of my phone at all at the minute, I've had to delete my music and apps just to get by :/
16gb is a really, really small amount of storage for a phone nowadays. Apps, photos and videos are taking up more space these days so to be honest it's always going to be a struggle.

Might be worth upgrading if you can. Mobiles.co.uk have refurbished higher gb iPhones that are pretty cheap: https://www.mobiles.co.uk/apple-phones
Reply 2
Guys. When I go onto general->storage & iCloud Usage-> iCLOUD -> Manage Storage, under BACKUPS it is showing a backup of my sisters iPhone (we share iTunes accounts) which sums to 4.1GB. Just to clarify, this relates to iCLOUD and so shouldn't relate to my phones storage should it?
Reply 3
Original post by Twinpeaks
I am so frustrated, I really need some help with this!

For months my iPhone has been telling me that I have no storage left. It often refuses to let me take a photo, I can't download any apps or anything. I have barely anything on my phone as it is. Here's the numbers:


My phone tells me I have used 11.3GB, with only 338 MB available (this number fluctuates a lot, it's often approached 0).

But when I look at the applications, it simply does not add up. Here's a partial list-

Photos & camera 3.3GB
WhatsApp 231MB
Facebook 138MB
Podcasts 114MB.

I've calculated the total GB used from the list of photos/ applications and it's approximately 4.4GB. So where on earth is the rest?!

When trying to resolve this issue I've read online that a lot of space can be taken up by 'documents and data' or 'other' that is only shown when you connect your phone to iTunes.
So I connect my phone, look at my summary on iTunes, and iTunes informs me that I actually have 4.30 GB free!! What?!


Can someone please help me out, I feel like I can't make the most of my phone at all at the minute, I've had to delete my music and apps just to get by :/


I'm assuming that your phone is 16gb?
Basically usually about 3 or 4gb is used just for the system software and the apps that you cannot delete, such as calendar and notes etc.
Memory is used to store things like text messages and emails so delete any that are unnecessary.
Delete your internet history as this used up memory.
Basically, you should just never get a 16gb as its never enough for anyone.
Reply 4
Original post by 09craige
I'm assuming that your phone is 16gb?
Basically usually about 3 or 4gb is used just for the system software and the apps that you cannot delete, such as calendar and notes etc.
Memory is used to store things like text messages and emails so delete any that are unnecessary.
Delete your internet history as this used up memory.
Basically, you should just never get a 16gb as its never enough for anyone.


Yeah 16GB. I get that, so really we only have 11GB. But the point is, my phone storage only adds up to 4.5 GB, no way near 11GB.

And my iTunes is informing me that alongside documents and data and this 'other' component, I have used just above 6 GB, and have 4.3GB remaining. So that sums to around 11GB. Which would make perfect sense, however, my phone is telling me I only have 338MB left.

So even if you factor in the fact that 3/4GB is used for system software etc, and so we only really have 11GB, my storage adds up to no way near 11GB.
Reply 5
Original post by Twinpeaks
Yeah 16GB. I get that, so really we only have 11GB. But the point is, my phone storage only adds up to 4.5 GB, no way near 11GB.

And my iTunes is informing me that alongside documents and data and this 'other' component, I have used just above 6 GB, and have 4.3GB remaining. So that sums to around 11GB. Which would make perfect sense, however, my phone is telling me I only have 338MB left.

So even if you factor in the fact that 3/4GB is used for system software etc, and so we only really have 11GB, my storage adds up to no way near 11GB.


Try resetting it to factory default and then syncing it back up with iTunes making sure you have the most recent iOS. I'm pretty sure there is a way to defrag iPhones, but I'm not sure how. If this is possible, this would clear up a lot of space.
Reply 6
Free up some space by deleting videos ( they take up the most space)
Then download "battery doctor (orange)"
After that click the option to clear junk and boost memory
It will clear all junk and empty files without harming your phone
(edited 7 years ago)
Having exact same issue with an ipad mini. iTunes can see the space that maths says should be there, but the device is hiding it and saying device is full. Device was fine for years, but with latest updates it's been getting worse each time. We did a factory reset, treated it as a new ipad, yet other is taking up 14.3gb of a 16gb device. This bloating is unacceptable. Updates and operating system should not fill up a device rendering it useless before you can even begin to use it. Any ideas to regain the stolen storage space?
Original post by MerCurious
Having exact same issue with an ipad mini. iTunes can see the space that maths says should be there, but the device is hiding it and saying device is full. Device was fine for years, but with latest updates it's been getting worse each time. We did a factory reset, treated it as a new ipad, yet other is taking up 14.3gb of a 16gb device. This bloating is unacceptable. Updates and operating system should not fill up a device rendering it useless before you can even begin to use it. Any ideas to regain the stolen storage space?


It can be apps getting bigger; if you have Facebook installed, try deleting it and re-install it. Also, try clearing cache on Safari.

If you've got iCloud Drive, switch it off if it's not needed.
Original post by RoyalSheepy
It can be apps getting bigger; if you have Facebook installed, try deleting it and re-install it. Also, try clearing cache on Safari.

If you've got iCloud Drive, switch it off if it's not needed.


Hi, no apps installed, iCloud off. Immediately after factory reset the system is taking up nearly the whole 16 GB. This is why I'm perplexed. Any ideas appreciated.
Original post by MerCurious
Hi, no apps installed, iCloud off. Immediately after factory reset the system is taking up nearly the whole 16 GB. This is why I'm perplexed. Any ideas appreciated.


Odd. It could be a downloaded update (which is waiting to install). Check on your usage, in settings.

It could just be a lot of photos you've got on there?
My iphone 5s is exactly the same- I have very few fairly large-ish apps, such as snapchat (459GB), instagram (111GB) and whatsapp (154GB). Then my messages and music combined sum up to 1GB and my photos take up 1.24GB. If we add these together along with the other apps, I have only used 3.5GB out of the 11.95GB available and yet my phone is completely full. Whatsapp doesn't work half the time, snapchat says 'disk full' often and my iMessage has now ceased to work. My phone used to work fine and I used to have many many more apps which I have had to delete in order to try and make my phone work. Is this all Apples doing in trying to get me to buy a new phone because I think it's working...
I did not say that!:angry::angry:
Excuse me for the mistake yes I meant MB but I think you get the point... and I think you will find that a few people have also posted from 2018 so I am afraid I do not see the problem here! Simply just stating that I also have this problem...
Let's share with you tips on cleaning up your iPhone:
1. Is the photo the first time that the iPhone storage space is insufficient? Clean up the “camera film” because the photos you take are far more than you think, and the space occupied is very large. In order to free up space, sometimes you need a strong man to break your wrist and filter and delete the photos in the album. After deleting some photos, we can also back up some memorable photos to a computer or cloud storage space, so that the memory occupied by the photos can be freed.
2. Invisible memory thief: App cache the common app in the iPhone takes up more space than you think, especially for some games and social applications. These apps will cache a lot of images and data so that users can open them next time. However, these caches take up your storage space, and their documents and data size are even larger than the App. We can view the space occupied by each app through the path of Settings > General > Storage and iCloud Usage > Manage Storage. In addition, not many of the many apps we download on the iPhone are used frequently, and unloading apps that are not commonly used (especially old ones) can make room.
3. The browser Safari cache Safari is the iPhone built-in browser application, it will also generate a lot of cache files. We can use the "Settings> Safari> Clear History and Website Data" to these cache files are cleared away, to the lack of storage space available for iPhone free some space.
Maybe we can also consider the brush system, because the system itself is a big memory user. Of course, remember to back up your contacts, apps, and photos to iCloud before swiping the system, then re-brush the iPhone once and use iCloud to recover the data.
Please, when someone asks for help on a subject, try to help out with an answer, I`m sure the questioner is well aware that he doesn`t have enough memory, he has just asked for help to get him by for now.

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