ceeslans

Q: Iphone 6+ 64Gb, actual memory is just 55.6Gb

I have a Iphone 6+ 64Gb, the iphone reports a total capacity of just 55.6Gb memory.

Where are the lost 8.4 GB used for, or is this a hardware failure?.

I use 10.9 Gb the iphone reports 44.7 Gb as available.

Thanks in advance for your comments

Cees

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 27, 2014 5:13 AM

Close

Q: Iphone 6+ 64Gb, actual memory is just 55.6Gb

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2 of 3 last Next
  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Jan 6, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Moratomac
    Level 9 (59,146 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 6, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Moratomac

    Moratomac wrote:

     

    I would like to have this explained in detail now that we have the numbers out of the way

    The link with the explanation has been posted three times so far in this thread. Perhaps if you could explain what you still don't understand after reading that, someone would have an answer.

  • by C.Acosta,

    C.Acosta C.Acosta Feb 21, 2015 5:38 AM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2015 5:38 AM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Hi,

     

    So, I'll try to be more clear about what is bugging me in all this question.

     

    We know that 1Gb means actually 1.073.741.824 bytes and that when we buy a 128Gb iphone it actually comes with 128.000.000.000 bytes, and therefore the real number of Gb is 128.000.000.000 bytes/1.073.741.824 bytes = 119,209.289.551 Gb (=119 Gb)

     

    This means, as posted before, that:

     

    On 16Gb - 14GB

    On 64Gb - 59Gb

    On 128Gb - 119Gb

     

    Now what is strange to me is that what we see in the iPhones is actually:

     

    128 Gb - 110Gb free (less 9 Gb than supposed to)

    64 Gb - 56,0 Gb free (less 3 Gb than supposed to) - this is what I had in mine after coming out of the box.

    16 Gb - 13 Gb free (less 1 Gb than supposed to).

     

    So, I'm not worried with the binary system conversion, I am wondering is why in similar iPhones (all iPhone 6), the 128Gb comes with less 9Gb, the 64 with less 3Gb and the 16 with less 1Gb than supposed to. The apps are supposed to be the same, the hardware/software is supposed to be the same, so why the difference???

     

    And to my knowledge this is not explained on that link to the apple page...

     

    Thanks for clarifying.

  • by jimmychimp,

    jimmychimp jimmychimp Mar 13, 2015 8:49 AM in response to ceeslans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2015 8:49 AM in response to ceeslans

    ADD ON NOTE IF ANYONE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS

     

    If like me you have had an iPhone for a while and like to keep a lot of photos and videos going back many years and you are at capacity so constantly deleting photos and videos to free up space... 

     

    I just discovered that in iOS8 when you delete from your camera roll the files go into a "recently deleted" folder (album) for 30 days.  Only if you go here and re-delete them will go free up space - otherwise this will temporarily eat into your "available space"

  • by turbocomppro,

    turbocomppro turbocomppro May 20, 2015 2:57 AM in response to C.Acosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 20, 2015 2:57 AM in response to C.Acosta

    You have to also account for losses in "allocation size" as well.  When a disk (or internal storage) is formatted, it is set to a certain allocation size.  In other words, blocks of space.  Think of it as a bunch of small boxes that's put into one big box.  The small boxes have a certain allocation size to it.  I can't find what the size is on the iPhone but let's just say it's 4k (4096 bytes).  So any file that is smaller then this will still take up 4096 bytes.  Even a 1 byte file will take up 4096 bytes.  A 5000 byte file will take up 2 boxes, or 8192 bytes.  So if an app have many many small files, it will take up a lot more space then the total size of the app on paper.

     

    In a hypothetical situation, let's say you have 1 million 1 byte files.  On paper, this will be 1 megabytes in total.  But if you put those 1 million files on a disk with 4096 allocation size, it will take up 4,096,000,000 bytes (4GB) of your storage. Crazy right?

     

    So depending on how many small files iOS 8 or apps have, it can take a lot more space to store them. Temp files are usually small and take up lots of space then you see. Of course, once you delete those, you will free up a lot more space then you see as well.

  • by secured2k,

    secured2k secured2k Sep 25, 2015 12:28 PM in response to ceeslans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 25, 2015 12:28 PM in response to ceeslans

    Currently, when storage devices are marketed or advertised to consumers, the storage space is measured in a base 10 decimal system.

    I believe this was a way for the storage industry to save some $ because they don't have to provide as many bytes.

    64 GB now means 64,000,000,000 bytes vs 68,719,476,736 bytes.


    This means 64 GigaBytes = 64 x 1000 (GB) x 1000 (MB) x 1000 (Bytes) == 64,000,000,000 Bytes.

     

    When storage is displayed in an operating system based on a binary system, a different storage unit (GibiByte) is used.

    A Gibi Byte is measured in binary or base 2 system.

    This means 64 GibiBytes = 64 x 2^10 (GiB) x 2^10 (MiB) x 2^10 (Bytes) == 64 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 == 68,719,476,736 Bytes.

     

    The problem is most people think or call both measurements of data by the same common name, GB (GigaByte).

     

    HDD/SSD/Storage manufacturers are giving customers 64,000,000,000 Bytes or 64 GB (GigaBytes).

    When the OS calculates 64 GB to GiB (which is what it displays), it looks like less.

     

    64,000,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 == about 59.6046 GiB.

    When your iOS device shows you have some capacity (ex. 55.4 GB), it really means GiB and this is the space left over after the OS.

    59.6046 - 55.4 = 4.2046 GiB used for the OS.

     

    Available space is even lower as some apps (books, music, podcasts, camera) have used up some space or have temporary files/caches that are not included as a part of the base application.

     

    The GB vs GiB frustrates me because in the beginning, it was always based on base 2 and the numbers added up and made sense. At some point storage manufacturers made the change and I think GiB/MiB, ect were created to differentiate between base 2 and base 10 measurements. Computer operating systems are still calculating things correctly from the decimal base 2 system and still call them GigaBytes/MegaBytes (GB/MB) which I believe in computer science is still proper and accurate.

  • by celliott147,

    celliott147 celliott147 Sep 25, 2015 1:50 PM in response to secured2k
    Level 4 (1,590 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 25, 2015 1:50 PM in response to secured2k

    Thank you for posting the math so people can stop whining about a non-issue...

  • by MadelynsGuardian,

    MadelynsGuardian MadelynsGuardian Sep 29, 2015 3:48 PM in response to Moratomac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2015 3:48 PM in response to Moratomac

    Great point, and I would also like this explained.

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Sep 29, 2015 3:53 PM in response to MadelynsGuardian
    Level 9 (59,146 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 29, 2015 3:53 PM in response to MadelynsGuardian

    MadelynsGuardian wrote:

     

    Great point, and I would also like this explained.

    There's nothing to explore. The system software takes up memory.

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Sep 29, 2015 4:16 PM in response to celliott147
    Level 8 (38,064 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2015 4:16 PM in response to celliott147

    celliott147 wrote:

     

    Thank you for posting the math so people can stop whining about a non-issue...

    Unfortunately, that doesn't stop people whining.

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Sep 29, 2015 4:19 PM in response to MadelynsGuardian
    Level 8 (38,064 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2015 4:19 PM in response to MadelynsGuardian

    MadelynsGuardian wrote:

     

    Great point, and I would also like this explained.

     

    It has been explained. Just read some of the other messages in the thread that you posted to.

  • by theycallmesike,

    theycallmesike theycallmesike Sep 29, 2015 5:09 PM in response to ceeslans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2015 5:09 PM in response to ceeslans

    When your iOS device shows you have some capacity (ex. 55.4 GB), it really means GiB and this is the space left over after the OS.

    59.6046 - 55.4 = 4.2046 GiB used for the OS.

     

    I understand the other math, but I thought iOS 9 is just 1.3GBiOS-9-update-for-iPhone-and-iPad.jpg

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Sep 29, 2015 5:14 PM in response to ceeslans
    Level 8 (38,064 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2015 5:14 PM in response to ceeslans

    .

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Sep 29, 2015 5:20 PM in response to theycallmesike
    Level 8 (38,064 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2015 5:20 PM in response to theycallmesike

    That is the size of the update installer, which is a compressed file. But iOS, just like every operating system, has many components.

    • Core code
    • Data areas where your settings are stored and operating system parameters are kept
    • Caches
    • The inode table - a map of all of the storage used on the device. This is proportional to the amount of storage, so it will be twice as large on a 128 GB device as it is on a 64 GB device.

    The installer only installs the code. It does not contain any data areas, cache, etc.

  • by secured2k,

    secured2k secured2k Sep 29, 2015 7:28 PM in response to theycallmesike
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2015 7:28 PM in response to theycallmesike

    //Edit: Corrections to iOS update size statements.

     

    In response to Apple's size comparison of the new iOS *update*.

     

    They have compared the free space requirements to download and install iOS 9, not the size of the OS.

     

    If you already have iOS 8.x, the update to iOS 9 is smaller because the updater does not waste bandwith and processing power to download some re-used graphics and code that are already present in your current iOS release.

     

    In the past, the updater would take all current data and copy them to a temporary update location and then download/extract the update data to the temporary location. This would result in a full mirror copy of the OS thus requiring more device storage to update.

     

    With the new update method, current data is left alone and only update data is downloaded. When the update is applied, only files that are replaced or changed in the update are processed meaning less free space is needed to perform the update (Common problem for those full 8 GB and 16 GB iPhones).

     

     

    I have personally downloaded the full iOS 8.4.1 for an iPhone 6 Plus and the iOS 9.0.1 release version for the iPhone 6 Plus and the download sizes are as follows (Actually in GiB measurement - Base 2):

    • iOS 8.4.1 (iPhone 6 Plus) ~ 2.22 GB (Actual: 2,388,837,241 bytes)
    • iOS 9.0.1 (iPhone 6 Plus) ~ 2.03 GB (Actual: 2,184,384,362 bytes)
    • iOS 9.0.1 (iPhone 6s Plus) ~ 2.21 GB (Actual: 2,368,629,853 bytes)

     

    For an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.4.1 going to iOS 9.0.1 the update size is about 1.18 GiB.

     

    In my previous reply, I stated an example OS size of 4.2046 GiB. If the full update is only 2.03 GiB, how is it using 4.2 GiB of space? This is because the update file contain compressed files that are expanded for speed during normal use of the files. iOS has a few highly compressible database file formats. For example, a 1 GiB file that is empty (all Null or Zeros repeating) or a log file that stamps the date/time over and over would compress extremely well (1GiB down to 100 KB when compressed could happen). In additional to file system overhead and other random temporary/reserved space and data files, the total size used for the iOS installation ended up being ~ 4.2 GiB.

     

    I did try to verify the actual file sizes of the data in the update, but found Apple has protected (encrypted) many of the contents of the iOS update.

  • by Vaulther13,

    Vaulther13 Vaulther13 Oct 31, 2015 2:35 PM in response to ceeslans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2015 2:35 PM in response to ceeslans

    This make no sense whY does AN OPERATING SYSTEM TAKE  MORE MEMORY TO OPERATE FOR EXAMPLE A16 CAPACITY 12 GIG 4 GIG TO OPERATED, 64 GIG TAKES 11 AND 128 GIG TAKE 14? SHOULDN'T THEY ALL TAKE THE SAME.

Previous Page 2 of 3 last Next