Mysterious large memory requirement preventing sync

Question

Mysterious large memory requirement preventing sync

iPhone 6, 64 GB memory, trying to sync with my Mac Mini.

I am getting error messages saying I need another 14 GB spare memory on my phone to sync (in addition to 12 GB already free). This seems unusually large and I have no idea what would require that kind of memory. I updated iOS the other day, so it shouldn't be an OS update. I don't sync videos to the phone. I do sync music, but almost all of my collection is already on the phone. I'd really rather not have to delete 14 GB of stuff off my phone if I can avoid it - surely I shouldn't need 26 GB free for a routine sync!

How can I find out why the requirement is so large?

iPhone 6, iOS 12

Posted on Feb 13, 2020 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ckuan

Level 10

120,788 points

Feb 13, 2020 2:24 PM in response to some_user_876

Suggestions:

Do a local backup using your Mac iTunes.
Restore from that backup

Your "Other" should be smaller in size.

Sometimes you get better results doing twice.

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2020 2:20 PM in response to ckuan

Music 25 GB

Photos 19 GB

Apps: about 6 GB

System/Other: 9 GB

Oddly, when I view from the phone it shows 59.9/64 GB used, but when I look at it from the Mini it shows about 52 GB used/12 GB free - the view from the phone settings shows audio and photos as a couple of GB larger than the view from the Mini.

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Answer 3

Feb 13, 2020 7:32 PM in response to ckuan

I got errors when trying to restore from backup, again complaining about insufficient memory.

In the end I deleted all my music off the phone and then I was able to restore from backup and sync OK (even though restoring replaced all the music? Maybe it just needed a lot of temp space?)

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Answer 4

ckuan

Level 10

120,788 points

Feb 13, 2020 2:10 PM in response to some_user_876

Tell us what you have in

Settings > General > iPhone Storage > here ???

Especially the size of "Other" (scroll to the bottom) ?

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Answer 5

Feb 13, 2020 3:31 PM in response to ckuan

Thanks, I will try that as soon as I can get iTunes to set a password for my phone so I can do the backup... seems like iTunes has it in for me today.

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Answer 6

ckuan

Level 10

120,788 points

Feb 13, 2020 3:45 PM in response to some_user_876

You're welcome.

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Mysterious large memory requirement preventing sync

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