16gb iPhone 4 shows 14gb

Question

Level 1

11 points

16gb iPhone 4 shows 14gb

Just noticed this--in iTunes my 16gb iPhone 4 shows a capacity of 14gb (Summary Tab, Capacity:, in the iPhone section).

Also when I go into Settings|General|About on the iPhone 4, it shows Capacity as 14gb.

Anyone else seeing this, or do I have a faulty iPhone?

iPhone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Jul 15, 2010 12:02 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 15, 2010 12:05 PM in response to dnonnema

I have a 32GB and it reads 29.1GB...

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Answer 2

Jul 15, 2010 12:06 PM in response to dnonnema

You do not have a faulty iPhone.

Unless you have a Mac running Snow Leopard with this reported differently with Snow Leopard, check the storage capacity for your computer's hard drive compared to the advertised storage capacity when you purchased the computer. The actual reported is somewhat less than the advertised capacity for the hard drive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2419

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Answer 3

dnonnema Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 15, 2010 12:09 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Yeah, I get what you say, but my 3G iphone said 16gb for capacity.

I kind of doubt the OS or whatever files system on the iPhone 4 is robbing me of 2gb. That's 12.5% dedicated to system software??? Sounds fishy.

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Answer 4

Jul 15, 2010 12:12 PM in response to dnonnema

It is not "fishy".

Did you read the link provided?

You aren't being robbed of anything. The storage capacity remains the same, just how it is reported by the OS compared to the decimal equivalent or advertised storage capacity.

And once again, check the storage capacity for your computer's hard drive compared to the advertised storage capacity when you purchased the computer. The "actual" reported is somewhat less than the advertised capacity for the hard drive.

Did you not think this was "fishy" after you purchased the computer, or you haven't paid any attention to it until now?

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Answer 5

Jul 15, 2010 12:19 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Thanks for clearing this up

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Answer 6

dnonnema Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 15, 2010 12:45 PM in response to Allan Sampson

Ok, thanks (and of course I did not read the link).

Believe it or not, I never checked my laptop's capacity vs. the advertised storage space.

My 250gb laptop shows a capacity of 249.72 GB. A much, much smaller percentage difference than what prompted me to post this about the iP4.

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Answer 7

Jul 15, 2010 12:48 PM in response to dnonnema

My 250gb laptop shows a capacity of 249.72 GB. A much, much smaller percentage difference than what prompted me to post this about the iP4.

Because you laptop is running Snow Leopard, which reports this differently and which is addressed with the link provided.

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Answer 8

Feb 1, 2011 9:48 AM in response to Allan Sampson

Ok. Well I get the above, my iP4 also shows 14gb, BUT although it SAYS 14gb it says there is not enough space when I hit almost 10GB and on the other side still says 4.1gb of free space, yet cannot fill it. Basically my 16gb iP4 claims only 14gb, but can only hold about 10gb, so I'm loosing 6gigs of space I have normally used on my 3gs, and actually had to remove over 5 gigs of info in order to sync my iP4! Any idea's on that one?

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Answer 9

suede66

Level 1

14 points

Apr 4, 2011 12:22 PM in response to SnowboardG

When you switched to the 4G, did you check that you had checked the Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 bit kbps AAC - this made a dramatic difference for the number of songs when I converted to the 4

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Answer 10

Roguext1

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2011 4:40 PM in response to dnonnema

Hi I recieved my new iphone 4 16gb and later I noticed only have 14gb. I connected my iphone to the laptop and checked that it has 27.8gb total capacity and 13.9gb used. So I have 13.8gb free space and I was wondering whats the 13.9gb being used for as its brand new, has anyone noticed this?

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Answer 11

Jul 25, 2011 1:57 PM in response to Roguext1

not the only one. actualy kinda ******. i payed for a 16 gig and if they have all this extra space then why dont they format it to have 16 gb after the format. i dont get it!

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Answer 12

paulcb

Level 6

19,245 points

Jul 25, 2011 3:04 PM in response to Community User

... and if they have all this extra space then why dont they format it to have 16 gb after the format. i dont get it!

Because they don't make 18GB memory chips. Memory comes in multiples of 2, i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. Been this way for 50+ years.

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Answer 13

Jul 30, 2011 12:20 PM in response to dnonnema

the old iphones used to always say the actual capacity on itunes, i.e. 8gb 16gb or 32gb

then when you looked at the actual capacity available it would say like 6.8gb, 14.2gb, 29.7gb

now on itunes it says 14gb when in fact it should read 16gb, this is really weird and probably just a glitch or something. also it says 14gb capacity and 13.8 available. normally there is way more than 0.2gb of junk already on the iphones.

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Answer 14

deggie

Level 10

167,549 points

Jul 30, 2011 1:28 PM in response to Jeffy2388

Hasn't changed at all on old phones or the latest. This has already been explained in the posts above yours. There is not a glitch.

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Answer 15

falKon

Level 1

11 points

Dec 30, 2011 3:00 AM in response to deggie

So does this mean that my 16Gb iPhone 4s who's showing only 13.6GB available in the Summary section is perfectly normal? I know about the 1GB = in actual fact is a different value but when calculated does it go down that much?

I am running OSX Lion and my 500GB Hard Disk shows my 499.25GB in the Get Info panel.

I assume that the disk's format makes a big difference too right?

What strange I think is that 2.4GB are way too much for a 16GB storage media. I would say 600mb would be enough.

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