Davy_ray

Q: Unaccountable space loss

I have an iPhone 6 w 128gig.  The about menu it tells me that it has 114gig total space, 77 free and 37 used.  When i plug in my phone to my computer in order to sync it shows me a graph on the bottom of what each section is using in space.  When i add the "music" " photos" " other" "apps" and everything else that it lists below it totals 23 gig.  where did the other 14gig go?

 

I did notice at one point i had 10gig of photos.  The other day i copied the photos to my computer.  Generally i delete them right from the Windows Explorer window, but this time i wanted to delete them from the phone.  So i deleted them from the camera roll and then deleted the  "recently deleted folder" to make sure everything was cleared.  iTunes still showed i had 10gig of photos.  I tried to close and reopen itunes. plug and unplug the phone, but it still showed i had 10gig.  So i synced the phone again and it went down to its usual 1gig of photos that i sync in folders.  This is when the phone shows i have 75gig free when i should have closer to 90.  The funny thing is that this data is not showing up in the "other" or any of the other sections.

 

Any idea where this data is or how i can reclaim my space?

iPhone 6, iOS 8

Posted on Jan 13, 2015 10:24 AM

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Q: Unaccountable space loss

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  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jan 13, 2015 10:52 AM in response to Davy_ray
    Level 8 (38,171 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 13, 2015 10:52 AM in response to Davy_ray

    You have several questions. I'll answer the first one. The phone has 128 GB total storage. The reason it shows as 114 GB is a combination of several factors:

    • On the phone storage is displayed in base 2 measurement, where 1 K = 1024 bytes. So when displayed in base 2 the 128 GB will appear as 119.2 GB (see How OS X and iOS report storage capacity - Apple Support). It's still 128 GB, but in a different measurement system.
    • i-node table. The file system has an internal map that finds available vs allocated storage. The larger the memory, the larger this table must be. This data structure takes a significant amount of space.
    • iOS. The operating system, iOS data and built in apps take space, which also reduces the amount of space available for your use.

     

    So the difference between 119.2 GB and 114 GB (5.2 GB) is the sum of the last 2 items above. It will be smaller on devices with less memory, because the allocation map is smaller.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jan 13, 2015 11:49 AM in response to Davy_ray
    Level 5 (7,714 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 13, 2015 11:49 AM in response to Davy_ray

    I can't seem to get iOS to agree with iTunes in terms of data usage. iTunes says one thing, iOS says another. I did backup, erase & factory restore the iOS device in question & regained around 4GB on a 32GB device (approx 30GB was in use).

     

    I suspect it is because of cached downloads like videos, podcasts etc but haven't been able to work out accurately.

     

    I'd suggest you enable encrypted backups in iTunes (DO NOT LOSE THE PASSWORD), then backup the device in iTunes. This will keep all passwords & login details from iOS in the backup. Then factory reset the device & restore the backup. See how much space you get back.

    It's a pain, but you can regain some storage this way, in my experience.

     

    Obviously it will take a long time to restore a 128GB device, so give yourself time if you plan on trying it and do not do it over wifi, use USB.