Q: Actual App Size (iTunes is incorrect)

I haven't got anything helpful for you, but you're not the only one looking for this kind of thing.

I just spent a bit too long going through the iTunes window for how much memory my apps should take up (i.e. I tallied up the individual memory required for each app): according to iTunes, it's around 7.4GB, but the actual memory consumed is 9.6GB - so there's a hefty chunk of added information that it's missing.

Like you, I want to find just WHAT is taking up that memory and probably get rid of some of it, but right now I can't find a way to do that. I assume a great deal of it is Kindle books and the like, but I wish I could figure out what's "worth" that kind of memory consumption to me and what isn't.

Just adding links to a few other posts on the same issue - which apparently no one can resolve.

How to see how much each app takes up (including data)

How can I find out how much space certain apps are taking up on my iPad?

I have less than 1.5Gb of apps but they are taking up 5.6 Gb of space. Is there a way of finding how much space each app is actually taking?

How much space used by App + Data

On your computer, how much space does Microsoft Word take up, including app data? And how would you find out?

On my computer, I'd use Spotlight for all the DOC and DOCX files and find out if any are of an unusual size. When I use SugarSync I need to limit the size of what I sync, and it's quite easy. Back when disk space was more of an issue, I'd periodically go through Mail to find the large emails - usually with picture attachments - and delete attachments. It's pretty straightforward and most of us have been doing it for years: if memory is an issue, go through the larger files and get rid of/ archive the ones you don't need.

I just wish I could do something similar with the iPhone: something's taking up 2GB "extra" in the apps, and while much of that I'm sure I want, there's other stuff I don't want. I'd like to be able to identify the pieces and get them off my phone, and just keep them on my computer.

On most desktop computers, memory is no longer much of an issue, but it still is on iPhones, SugarSync, Dropbox, USB sticks, and the like. As far as I can tell, the iPhone still lacks a good mechanism to monitor what's in that memory: the green "Apps" bar is roughly the equivalent of the computer's Applications AND Documents, but all that iTunes gives us is the Applications size, not the Documents size. It's as if your desktop computer told you your memory was full without letting you see what's in your Documents folder.

The PhoneView program described above comes close, but the major flaw is that you can't find out the total size of a folder (without lots of opening folders and calculator work).

All I really want is a Finder for the iPhone. "Eh? Why is that 3MB bus route app's folder taking up 1GB of memory? I should have a closer look at that!"

Just following up on this a few months later: in iOS 5 this is now possible; go to Settings / General / Usage. After the wheel spins for a bit, you'll see a list of how much memory each app is using. Click on an app to get a breakdown of the "App Size" (what you can see in iTunes, and in the iTunes store) and then the separate "Documents & Data" (other material you've added). So, for example, I figured out that most of my extra memory came from a Chinese dictionary (which I won't mess with), but there were also a lot of scanned PDFs buried deep in an app that I'd totally forgotten about - and I got 1GB of memory back.

Thanks Apple!

I hadn't noticed that. Thanks, @LostinAsia!

Hi Lost in Asian,

Could I ask that when you figured out all the breakdown of the "app size" on your iphone with ios5, how do you delete the "Document & Data" of a particular App in order to get more free phone memery back?

For example, if i have installed a "Twitter" App in my iphone, this App itself takes 11.8MB but there is an extra "Documents&Data" of 19.5MB which I actually don't want to keep it in my iphone. So how can I get rid of these "Documents & Data" to free my iphone memery??  Thanks very much!

That's up to the app's designer. Or you could delete the app, reboot, and add it back. However, the data will again accumulate. Look at the apps settings; many apps allow you to set how much data you want cached.

Thanks very much Lawrence, will follow your suggestions~!