Coonikol

Q: Where exactly are my 16GB in iPhone?

I have bought a 16GB iPhone 6.

 

I am surprised how little memory I can use. I installed a couple of apps, made a dozen of pictures and all of a sudden I have less than 9GB free.

 

if the 7 gigs were my files then I would not mind it, but actually it's used by something else.

 

to be precise I went to settings And checked for storage usage. It says then that :

- I have 9 gigs available

- I "use" 3 gigs

 

this is adds to 12 only. So more is missing than I actually use.

 

but that's not the end.

 

Below I found a list of apps installed. I decided to add the size reported for each app and it summed up to..

1.1 GB.

 

So what's the catch. How is it possible that after using 1 gig out of my 16 gigs I have 9 gigs free?

 

 

Best regards,

Kamil

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2, null

Posted on Jan 10, 2015 5:11 AM

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Q: Where exactly are my 16GB in iPhone?

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  • by luuklp,

    luuklp luuklp Jan 10, 2015 5:12 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 3 (695 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 10, 2015 5:12 AM in response to Coonikol

    16 gb iPhones all have around the 12 gb free space (with nothing installed except iOS). iOS (operating system) uses 4 gb, which makes 12 gb free space.

  • by Coonikol,

    Coonikol Coonikol Jan 10, 2015 5:16 AM in response to luuklp
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:16 AM in response to luuklp

    Thanks for a quick response.

     

    but why it reports I use 3gigs when all aps with their data add up to 1gig?

  • by TJBUSMC1973,

    TJBUSMC1973 TJBUSMC1973 Jan 10, 2015 5:17 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 5 (7,636 points)
    Jan 10, 2015 5:17 AM in response to Coonikol

    Coonikol wrote:

     

    I have bought a 16GB iPhone 6.

     

    I am surprised how little memory I can use. I installed a couple of apps, made a dozen of pictures and all of a sudden I have less than 9GB free.

     

    if the 7 gigs were my files then I would not mind it, but actually it's used by something else.

     

    to be precise I went to settings And checked for storage usage. It says then that :

    - I have 9 gigs available

    - I "use" 3 gigs

     

    this is adds to 12 only. So more is missing than I actually use.

     

    but that's not the end.

     

    Below I found a list of apps installed. I decided to add the size reported for each app and it summed up to..

    1.1 GB.

     

    So what's the catch. How is it possible that after using 1 gig out of my 16 gigs I have 9 gigs free?

     

     

    Best regards,

    Kamil

     

    The operating system of the iPhone (called the iOS) uses up a portion of that 16GB.  Whatever isn't used by the operating system is the available capacity of your device.  The list of apps doesn't include all the user data on your device.  If you have used 3 GB, and have 9 GB available, that means your maximum usable capacity is 12 GB out of 16 GB.  That sounds about right.

     

    Your computer, for example, may be advertised with, say, a 500 GB hard drive.  But you don't actually have 500 GB of available storage, because the computers operating system needs to take up space to operate the computer.  This is true of all computers, and has been for decades.

  • by Coonikol,

    Coonikol Coonikol Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

    if I knew that iOS uses 25% of my storage then I would buy a different phone

  • by TJBUSMC1973,

    TJBUSMC1973 TJBUSMC1973 Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 5 (7,636 points)
    Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to Coonikol

    Coonikol wrote:

     

    Thanks for a quick response.

     

    but why it reports I use 3gigs when all aps with their data add up to 1gig?

     

    Your apps and their data aren't the only thing that is taking up space.  Every piece of data on your device requires space.  You're over analyzing it.  If you're running out of space on your 16 GB, then perhaps you need to upgrade?  If you're within 14 days of your purchase, you should be able to return it.  If not, you'll either need tone more selective about what data you keep on the device, or sellout or trade it in and get a larger capacity device.

  • by Coonikol,

    Coonikol Coonikol Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:19 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

    I Don't have anything else on the phone...

  • by luuklp,

    luuklp luuklp Jan 10, 2015 5:20 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 3 (695 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 10, 2015 5:20 AM in response to Coonikol

    You will have the same with Android phones.

  • by TJBUSMC1973,

    TJBUSMC1973 TJBUSMC1973 Jan 10, 2015 5:23 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 5 (7,636 points)
    Jan 10, 2015 5:23 AM in response to Coonikol

    Coonikol wrote:

     

    if I knew that iOS uses 25% of my storage then I would buy a different phone

     

    Then perhaps you should have done more research?  You're going to see approximately the same amount of space being used by comparable operating systems, such as Android's OS.

     

    And iOS doesn't use a specific percentage.  It uses what it needs to use.  This is all in the available information about the iPhone, prior to purchase.  Again, this is a matter of consumer responsibility.  Everything about the iPhone and how it operates (at least everything a user ever needs to know) is available online, not just from Apple but many, many different resources.  It's your responsibility, as a consumer, to make an educated purchasing decision.  Obviously, you did not.  Learn from this, or take the actions I recommended, or both.

     

    On my iPhone, the operating system only takes up about 3% of my total space.

  • by Coonikol,

    Coonikol Coonikol Jan 10, 2015 5:25 AM in response to luuklp
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:25 AM in response to luuklp

    You can have an sd card quite often there.

     

    I understand that the OS uses the same storage as the user, but why so much.. It 's 25%..

     

    are there any tools that track down what's eating up space?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 10, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 9 (50,968 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 10, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Coonikol

    Coonikol wrote:

     

    if I knew that iOS uses 25% of my storage then I would buy a different phone

    Take it back, get another phone.

  • by luuklp,

    luuklp luuklp Jan 10, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 3 (695 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 10, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Coonikol

    If you prefer another phone, stop annoying us.

    Keep in mind iOS is an advanced operation system.

  • by Coonikol,

    Coonikol Coonikol Jan 10, 2015 5:33 AM in response to luuklp
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:33 AM in response to luuklp

    Dont get me wrong, i love how the phone works etc.

     

    i am simply sad that out of 16 gigs advertised on the box

    - 4gigs are taken by OS (ok , I can understand)

    - another 2 gigs are lost and it's not even explained where..

  • by stedman1,

    stedman1 stedman1 Jan 10, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 9 (73,992 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 10, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Coonikol
  • by para_shard,Helpful

    para_shard para_shard Jan 10, 2015 6:24 AM in response to Coonikol
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 10, 2015 6:24 AM in response to Coonikol

    The fact that you have realized this marketing gimmick in 2015 is a surprise. All phones that say they come with 'X'GB storage never have all of X available for use. If you buy a brand new Nexus 5 - 32gb and go to storage settings, you'll see only 26.76 gb free to use (source - my previous phone was a Nexus 5 32gb). Same goes for any phone that even comes with expandable storage, lets take Note 3 32gb model for example - if you buy a brand new one and go to the storage settings again you'll see around 25 gb available for use (Samsung's OS is bloated and heavy).

     

    The same goes for iPhones. Here's a rough 'usable space' estimate I found on another forum:

    16 GB ~= 12 GB

    64 GB ~= 56 GB   <--  (I have verified this figure personally - I currently use the 64gb model)

    128 GB ~= 114 GB


    As you see increased storage space means the pre-installed OS and file system data uses up more and more space. There are several technical reasons behind this that I wouldn't want to go into but let's just say as the storage capacity increases the OS reserves a larger space to save file system data (because stuff stored in a larger space is harder to track)

    Here's another interesting read as to why 'X' gb is read as being lesser by the OS: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201402

     

    Hope that cleared up a few things.

     

    EDIT: had the three figures wrong, corrected them.

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