Iphone XS storage full on bootloop want to update software no restore!

The problem is - when my iPhones of the past were full I’d take things off and it would be fine. This time - June 2020 - I not only could not take things off but my phone was working ok until that last morning and I had NO INDICATION that if I restarted my iPhone I’d lose everything. I restarted my phone thinking that would help and instead I got stuck in permanent boot loop. Apple please we beg you fix this in your new iOS.

That’s exactly what happened to me. Same process of deleting and deleting and then reading online how to restart using button combos and falling from loop to connect icon.

apple store can’t help. I’d shelve the iPhone and pray Apple creates a fix. 10 years is a lot.

Sad to say I have the same issue. Storage full. Purchased more iCloud storage, did a back up, back up failed. Phone been stuck on boot loop since. Any point in my appointment at apple with a genius on Thursday? 100 mile round trip.

This happened to two of my phones... iPhone X 6 months ago and now on my iPhone 11 pro...

For iPhone X I was unaware and had no idea it could happen, I knew the storage was full, I got a notification that it's full, I couldn't take pictures because of it so I deleted some and freed up some space, it let me take pictures but I didn’t because I didn’t want to fill up the storage. Then I couldn't open my apps so I restarted my phone and it got stuck on Apple logo. I went to Apple and all they told was to restore and delete everything. They told me even celebrities, politicians get this problem and lose all their data and live their life normally. I was like uh no. I'm a singer, I had pictures and videos of me and other artists, I had videos of concerts, pictures from tours, trips and travels, moments of me and my relatives’ weddings, graduations,childbirth and etc…There was a lot of stuff basically. Probably the most important thing for me which was in the phone is the information of my studies I’ve been storing it for about two and a half years (since I bought the iPhone X) for my exam which is next year. I can’t lose everything, I don’t have anybody who could give me the information.

After I made a drama in the Apple store they told me that I can try and go to the 3rd party place, maybe they’d help, because Apple doesn’t do stuff like data recovery. I remember even when my inner screen cracked and was glitching they told me they’ll delete everything... So now I went to that place and they tried everything, they tried updating but it showed Error 14.

Thankfully I had cracked my screen recently and I brought it to them and they had saved my whole backup in their computer. I put the iPhone X in the drawer, I don’t want to restore it. Then I bought the iPhone 11 pro and they put the backup they had in it. Then I did all data backup to iCloud (because I didn’t do it with iPhone X), it showed about 250 GB (literally everything what was in the phone. Pictures used about 220GB(I have 2 TB plan for iCloud) of backup in iCloud. I thought my data and memories were safe. But no.

After a month and a half of having the iPhone 11 pro I took a nap one day (few days ago) and woke up to my apps not opening again. And actually, it’s been happening previously after I bought it, for some reason. I wouldn’t be able to delete any pictures and apps weren’t opening, I was afraid to restart because I thought it’d get stuck again. So I’d just delete some apps to free up space and restart and it would be fine. This time it wasn’t fine. I couldn’t delete pictures, of course. My storage was stuck on 255.5GB even though it was about 230GB before. I deleted an app which was using almost 15GB of my space and it was still stuck on 255.5GB! Now I surely knew if I restart it it will get stuck on apple logo. After a while it showed that I won’t be able to call, text and use mobile data before I update my phone. I couldn’t do a quick new backup because I’d need to verify my Apple ID first with an SMS. But I knew there was an old backup, so…THEN, after another while it suddenly went from 100% to 1% (battery health is 99%) and almost turned off. I put it to charge at least a little bit. The next day I brought it to the same place they used to fix my phone all the time and told what happened. They tried to back up my files to the computer but computer didn’t show them. We checked iCloud and it showed a backup of 250GB (not the files, just we checked backup amount). It was Friday and the place was closing already so I decided to come on Monday. The worker called me on Monday and told me that he came and found the phone on Apple logo (it was on charger all the time). I thought okay, I don’t have a choice, I don’t have money to buy a new phone, just restore it. I still had the iCloud backup, yeah? So it restored and I could choose the backup. It showed the backup from last Friday (the day I brought it to fix). We thought maybe it was doing the backup but it didn’t show it maybe? Alright I decided to wait till the backup recovers. It finished updating but only 1% pictures or notes I had were there. They were useless by the way. Before that, I logged into iCloud on computer. I only saw less than a quarter of the pictures (obviously not the ones I needed) but the backup amount still showed 250GB (all of it). It now finished updating finally and it’s still not here. Now iCloud backups show only a backup of 1GB I did in 2018…. Where did the 250GB backup go? And why it didn’t appear fully when I was doing the file restore from iCloud backup? Phone was always on WiFi and charger.

I’m still keeping the iPhone X hoping Apple will do something and help us all to find the solution for this issue and we all can get our data back. My friend told me I could try sending it abroad but as I can see Apple users worldwide are suffering from this (I am from Lithuania). This problem is growing day by day, I have hope Apple will think about it and help. Cheer up everybody.

Hello everyone dealing with this horrible glitch by Apple,

My iPad was acting weird, some apps were invisible on the home screen, so i went to storage and noticed it was full. So I quickly tried to delete apps, but they didn't go anywhere. Not enough space to delete an app, what!?

I ran over to 'Recently deleted photos' and tried wiping that in hopes to quickly clear some space, nothing. The iPad then restarted on its own. Now enter the bootloop.

I booked a genius bar appointment only for them to tell me there is nothing they can do. I oversold the story and claimed my life's work was on it to get a reaction. He said we can try an update but you would have to sign a form that your data could be lost. I asked him "if you were me, what would you do?" he said lets not do the update, call this data recovery company, its expensive but they might help.

I called them on my drive back home. They offered a free appraisal and a no data no cost guarantee. Sounds great.

Then I got home, and started my research and then told myself, its not even a year old, Apple has to help! So I called AppleCare. They told me to try the Recovery Mode Update via iTunes. She even promised me the Update will NOT wipe the iPad. We sat on the phone for 45 minutes while it downloaded the update. Then the progress bar on the iPad began and we both were rooting it on. Then the nightmare. My Mac alerted me that my iPad had to be restored and that it is now ready to use. Absolute shock. The lady on the phone was terrified, she quickly transfered me to a higher up who gave me run around statements. He even tried to tell me that pressing Update allows a restore if the update does not work. I was never prompted after the iOS update was downloaded to my Mac.

What did I lose? I always use iCloud Photos. I recently came from a trip overseas. During my trip my iPhone would fill up often as the data signals were slow and iCloud needed time, so I would occasionally AirDrop videos to my iPad to allow my phone to upload to the cloud easier.

My mistakes:

-I never airdropped those videos back to my phone after phone made space. (I operate the iPad on another icloud account)

-I never connected my iPad to Wifi during the trip. Except for once or twice.

-I should have been AirDropping to my Mac not my iPad which is inaccessible if it can't turn on.

-I should never have used my iPad as a 'data bank'. Horrible mistake.

Half way through the trip I noticed the iPad did upload a good amount. However that stopped at some point.

Fast track to my return from the trip. My iPad was definitely NOT full when I left Europe, as a lot of videos did upload. I set my iPad to charge on my desk knowing its on wifi, it'll take care of itself, but also noted to myself a 'To-Do' (Airdrop videos back to my phone.)

Im wondering if when I plugged it in to charge did it kick in a 'Download iOS14 Update' and fill up doing that?

I read all your messages and quite honestly the last 3 weeks I have been miserable since this happened especially since an Apple Rep wiped my iPad.

Its not years worth of content or family pictures so I can't imagine what some of you are going through. I feel truly sorry that a device/OS that has been world class since 2007 and has been refined on a yearly basis has led to this absolute disaster for some of you. How on Earth is there not a safe guard to not FILL up your device, especially if the reason COULD be on their part attempting to download an update which we DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR! And to not know this has been going on for months and their AppleCare reps advise to an Update that could WIPE all data.

Originally when they said a Recovery Center could possibly recover it but it could cost ~$2K, I told myself I would not pay that since it was just some 'scattered videos from my trip' and if I airdropped it to my iPad it probably wasn't the best video clip of the day. But the stress that this has caused me the last 3 weeks mainly because Apple literally wiped the drive, I told myself I probably now would pay, just for the relief. But from what I'm reading, I don't think they could have recovered data because the guy on the phone at the Recovery Center also did mention that 'The iPad needs enough space for us to get in there and install a program to extract the data'.

Even though a patch at this point will not help me one bit, I truly hope all of you do get a chance to recover your data one day. Especially if you are dealing with real data loss like baby photos/videos, family events, photos of loved ones, projects. Keep your iPhones/iPads shelved until then. They are not worth recovering and using.

While I've been a wreck since this has happened, I am grateful this wasn't my entire trip. I lost some 'vacation views' but I've always hoarded a few things in my life so it could have been videos I'd never watch again, but I agonize on the idea of what did I actually lose, I will never know.

I hope you guys do find out, one day.

Tony

Well...for everyone dealing with this problem...I called a small company in the neighbourhood and the guy in charge told me he might be able to fix this. He had a program that tries to safe all data until the very last end...he didn’t make a promise, but said that quite often it works. Ik took my phone and crossed my fingers. 4 hours later I got my phone back, all data safed!!! It cost me €25,-. You can imagine I bought this guy champagne and a take away lunch 😁

Dear leodegreeff,

I'm sorry I ask it again. I live in Belgium and i can maybe go to the shop you are talking about but I'm wondering if you have the same error due to no storage.

Because i contacted every data recovery company in my country and neighboring countries and they told me that it's impossible to retrieve the data in this situation.

Therefore i unfortunately doubt it and i'm scared that if it doesn't work, the data will be gone forever.

I'm looking forward to hear from you

Any luck????

Did you go? What did they do?

Hi Leo, wat een geluk! Zit jouw iPhone ook vast op de apple logo loop met vol geheugen en hij heeft data kunnen recupereren?

Woon zelf in België, maybe worth a trip? Thanks alvast voor meer info!