svkrzn
Level 1 (36 points)
iPhone

Q: iOS Photo library wrong size

Hi, I'm trying to restore some space on my 16GB iPhone 5s and I've already imported all the photos in my computer and deleted almost all the photos from iOS Camera Roll. Now I have only 80 photos in camera roll, total 72mb (just 10 photos are 2mb size, taken with the phone, others are downloaded from internet). The problem is that iOS says that photo library is still using 749mb!!! How come? I have only those photos. The Recently deleted folder is empty!

 

How can I restore that space without resetting the phone?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1.3, 16GB Gold

Posted on Mar 4, 2015 5:13 PM

by Lawrence Finch,Solvedanswer
Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch
Level 8 (37,982 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Have you checked the Recently Deleted album in Photos? If it's empty you may have run into a strange bug, where deleted photos don't actually get removed. To check for this follow these rather strange instructions:

  • Go to Settings/General/Date & Time
  • Disable Set Automatically
  • Tap on the current date/time and roll it back about 2 years
  • Tap <General in the upper left
  • Launch the Photos app and go to the Recently Deleted album (even if it says there are 0 photos)
  • Is it full of photos? If so, delete them
  • Go back to Settings/General/Date & Time and turn Set Automatically back on

Posted on Mar 20, 2015 2:58 PM

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svkrzn

Q: iOS Photo library wrong size

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  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Mar 6, 2015 8:10 AM in response to svkrzn
    Community Specialists
    Mar 6, 2015 8:10 AM in response to svkrzn

    Hello svkrzn,

     

    I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue with your iPhone. If you have unaccounted for data associated with your photos, you may want to try the following portion of this article (the article is addressing a slightly different issue, but the instructions may still be useful in this case):

     

     

    If your device gets stuck during startup

    When starting up, you might see the Apple logo or a red or blue screen for a long time, or your device might restart again. Try these steps:

    1. Make sure that you have iTunes 12 or later on your computer.
    2. Put your device in recovery mode.
    3. When you get the option to restore or update, select Update. This will reinstall iOS without erasing your data.

     

    If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch doesn't respond or doesn't turn on - Apple Support

     

    Sincerely,

    - Brenden

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Mar 19, 2015 6:24 PM in response to brenden dv
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 19, 2015 6:24 PM in response to brenden dv

    No luck here with your solution.

  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Mar 20, 2015 2:53 PM in response to svkrzn
    Community Specialists
    Mar 20, 2015 2:53 PM in response to svkrzn

    Hi svkrzn,

     

    Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Given the nature of the issues you are describing and your current configuration, you may be better served by reaching out to one of Apple's other available resources for more direct assistance - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

     

    Regards,

    - Brenden

  • by Lawrence Finch,Solvedanswer

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 20, 2015 2:58 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 20, 2015 2:58 PM in response to svkrzn

    Have you checked the Recently Deleted album in Photos? If it's empty you may have run into a strange bug, where deleted photos don't actually get removed. To check for this follow these rather strange instructions:

    • Go to Settings/General/Date & Time
    • Disable Set Automatically
    • Tap on the current date/time and roll it back about 2 years
    • Tap <General in the upper left
    • Launch the Photos app and go to the Recently Deleted album (even if it says there are 0 photos)
    • Is it full of photos? If so, delete them
    • Go back to Settings/General/Date & Time and turn Set Automatically back on

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Mar 20, 2015 3:36 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 20, 2015 3:36 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    HI, that solved my problem. I had like 360 photos in there. Is that a known bug? Do I have to manually delete photos instead of leaving them there for 30 days and being automatically deleted?

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Mar 20, 2015 4:11 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 20, 2015 4:11 PM in response to svkrzn

    One more thing I forgot to mention, is the Usage reporting the correct size of memory used and it's based on the sum of all the apps or are there any hidden items not shown in the list? Because my iPhone says 9.2GB used, 2.8GB available, so I summed up all the items displayed in the usage and I've got 6.8GB. Am I missing something or I've lost 3GB somewhere?

  • by Lawrence Finch,Helpful

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 20, 2015 6:05 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 20, 2015 6:05 PM in response to svkrzn

    Connect the phone to iTunes and look at the graph at the bottom of the iPhone summary screen. You will probably see that the difference is "Other".

     

    What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Mar 25, 2015 3:10 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 25, 2015 3:10 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    After reading thoroughly that discussion, I've ended up to download PhoneClean and with a quick scan it says to be able to recover only 1.3GB. I was missing 3GB of "other" - What are the remaining 1.7GB supposed to be? System hidden files?

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 25, 2015 7:12 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 25, 2015 7:12 AM in response to svkrzn

    1.7 GB is in the normal range for Other (typically 1 GB to 3 GB, with the larger number for phones with more storage). 1.7 is a little high for a 16 GB phone. The User Tip lists what it may include; MMS and iMessages with photos can take up a lot; likewise for email.  Some of Other is operating system data, including the storage map (i-node table) that manages memory used by files. The size of this is directly proportional to the amount of storage on the device; it should be relatively small for a 16 GB iPhone. The rest is data storage for the built in apps.

  • by blabor,

    blabor blabor Apr 4, 2015 6:50 PM in response to brenden dv
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2015 6:50 PM in response to brenden dv

    Outstanding.

    Showed over 800 photos.  Deleted them and cut my storage in half.

     

    Thanks

  • by ElliotFriend,

    ElliotFriend ElliotFriend Apr 7, 2015 7:56 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2015 7:56 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    I don't typically register for forums just to say thank you, but I had to make an exception for this time.

     

    My wife's iPhone showed 1,130 items in the "Delete items" app, and saved her about 4 GB of space. Thank you!!

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Apr 8, 2015 6:31 AM in response to ElliotFriend
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 8, 2015 6:31 AM in response to ElliotFriend

    Great!. glad it helped. While I posted this solution here, the original research was done by another user, @txforever. He (or she) got me started down the path.

     

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

  • by Lazworks,

    Lazworks Lazworks Apr 10, 2015 11:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2015 11:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    I had 4.2 GBs of space chewed up in my Photos even after clearing the Recently Deleted folder.  I tried this and that did the trick!  Thank you for that!

  • by rafael51,

    rafael51 rafael51 May 18, 2015 3:45 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 18, 2015 3:45 PM in response to svkrzn

    OUTSTANDING !!  PERFECT !

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