Apple Watch Series 3- Storage Issues

from “hasanfromsakarya”

I have solved the issue.

Here are the steps I took to pinpoint the problem.

1) I paired my watch with another iCloud account and the problem disappeared so it was obvious that the iCloud is the culprit.

2) I checked my iCloud storage to see in a detailed fashion.(in Iphone>Apple ID>Icloud>Manage Storage)

3) I realized that reminders is using 3,9GB which seemed odd.

4) I got on my Mac and found reminders app database(Mac>username>library folder>reminders)

5) I saw that 3 of my reminders which happen to be the only reminders with photo attached have been copied for each day I completed them. 3 photos were 52mb in size and they were repeated 75 days.

6) It was obvious this shouldn't happen.

7) I backed up all my reminders to a note in notes app via a shortcut(shortcuts app).

8) I deleted all reminders in all my devices that use the same iCloud account.

9) I removed all reminders app on all devices. I also removed the watch app on iPhone just to be sure.

10) I signed out of iCloud on all devices and waited for 15 minutes.

11) I turned off all devices and waited for 15 minutes.

12) I logged back in to iCloud in order(Mac > iPhone > iPad > Apple Watch)

13) I waited for several hours so that all data from iCloud servers to sync to my devices.

14) When all finished, my problem was gone.

Finally!

Some strange exchanges with Apple support:

ME: Can you offer me a solution?

Apple Support: No. Wait for an update.

ME: I have waited for 3 updates. How long should I wait?

Apple Support: Indefinitely.

ME: Is this even legal?

Apple Support: This is an extraordinary bug so you must wait.

ME: Shouldn't extraordinary conditions require extraordinary solutions?

Apple Support: We can't do anything that are not on our procedures.

ME: But your procedures don't offer any solution for the iCloud service I still pay on a monthly basis?

Apple Support: We apologize for the inconvenience.

ME: You make your users use a closed operating system and you cause a fatal error since there is nothing wrong with my watch's hardware. Shouldn't you take some sort of responsibility?

Apple Support: Our engineers are doing everything they can.

ME: Are you human?(yes I had to ask that at some point.)

Apple Support: Yes(uncanny valley style)

ME: Fine, I will solve this by myself.

Apple Support: Could you please let us know how if you solve it?

ME: Oh... the audacity!

I figured out that this problem (probably a bug) was fixed for me by deleting old text messages off my iPhone. Even though I did not have text messages synced to the watch, and in the usage report it said messages were 0, once I deleted them off my iPhone my free space on my watch magically went from 400MB to 2.5GB.

Aside from what you've tried, I've also seen Reminders be an issue for some, particularly if you attach a lot of files or images to your reminders.

I'm posting this as my Series 3 storage issue doesn't seem to be related to iCloud, but to Siri instead. There seems to be an widespread issue affecting various Apple Watch models and dating back to WatchOS 6 in that the local Siri voice pack (~0.5GB in size) doesn't correctly download and apply. Predominantly this seems related to people using the British Female voice. If you have this issue the most obvious symptom is that when you hold two fingers to the dial the Watch will speak the time in the more robotic VoiceOver voice instead of Siri. If so your Watch will be continuously trying to download that voice pack whenever it is put on charge, fail, delete the download, and then start all over again. Although it deletes the failed download I've noticed that over time the free space decreases, as though it's not deleting all of it. On a series 3 this is more obvious as we don't have that much free space to begin with!

If you think this is affecting you (try holding two fingers to the dial to tell) I'd recommend first turning Siri off on your Watch by going to Settings on the Watch, and disabling the three Siri options ('Hey Siri', 'Raise to speak', and 'Digital Crown'), turn the Watch off, back on again, re-enable Siri, and then following dave-porter's post here... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251845629?answerId=254126905022#254126905022. Although it didn't work all the way for me (I got it to work with the American voice, but not back to British), it might be worth a try.

I've had problems with decreasing storage on my Series 3 since I bought it last October. In my case I'm convinced it's related to the Siri Voice I'm trying to use, British Female. In summary if I select either of the British Siri voices, Male or Female, the 0.5GB voice file will download when charging, then within minutes of finishing it will delete the file, reclaim most of the 0.5GB consumed storage, and then start downloading again. I've been on other discussion boards where people were seeing this behaviour with newer models of Watch, upto Series 6, but their issues seemed to have been fixed with WatchOS 7.2 whereas my Series 3 issues remain. Over time this repeated behaviour seems to make the available free space dwindle. However, if I select either of the American voices, Male or Female, the Siri voice file downloads and installs successfully. Although American Female is not my preferred Siri voice I've had it on now for a couple months or so and my free space is holding at about 2.5GB, and I've not had issues installing either of the 7.2 or 7.3 updates.

If you're a Series 3 owner on Watch OS 7 and are using British voices for Siri, could you please reply to this and let me know if you have successfully installed the voice? To do this on your Watch go to Settings, Siri, Siri Voice, and scroll right to the bottom. If you see a message underneath he Gender section, "Waiting to download. Download will occur when Watch is charging" it means the voice file is not installed. If there's no such message, the voice is installed correctly.

Ironically, whether it's installed or not, Siri will appear to work fine for most operations.

For me, my decreasing storage is definitely related to an enhanced Siri language pack. I noticed by looking at my wi-fi router interface that the Watch was daily downloading 0.5GB of data, but only at the times the Watch was charging. That's normal behaviour consistent with a new Apple device downloading the enhanced voice, and normally just happens in the background without user intervention. I also notice than on the Watch if I go to Settings > Siri > Siri voice, there is a message at the bottom which says, "Waiting to download. Download will occur when your watch is charging". After charging the Watch (and the accompanying 0.5GB download) this message momentarily disappears, but then re-appears after a few minutes. The following day the cycle repeats all over again, more downloading, and loss of free storage. I'm sometimes able to free up Storage by momentarily changing the Siri accent (or even toggling between Male & Female). It seems to me that it's successfully downloading the enhanced language pack, but failing to apply it on Watch Series 3 (with WatchOS 7.1 in my case) and then doesn't clear the downloaded file before trying again the next day. It shouldn't make a difference, but I'm going to try changing the accent from British to American next to see if those files work any better.

Not sure if this could help, but it did for me. There was someone on here yesterday that told me about an issue with reminders. If you have pictures added to your reminders....erase them. This is what worked for me. I was unpairing and pairing my watch three times a day. Bought two separate watches and used two separate phones. The issue it seems was the reminders. You may have to restart your watch one more time after deleting the reminders.

Whoever told me that yesterday...thank you so much if you see this!

To all recent users who have posted in 2021,

An Watch Series 3 ONLY has a rated internal data storage capacity of 8 GBs.

After initial flash memory drive formatting this drops to 7.5 GBs.

watchOS is now over 4 GBs in size now. Leaving your Series 3 watches with between 3 amd 3.5 GBs of actual usable internal data storage space.

Also, you must leave some internal data storage space, in reserve at all times, to maintain normal and expected operation of watchOS.

Not sure of how much space for watchOS ( I know what it needs to be for iOS/iPadOS ), but not sure for watchOS.

Let's just say it is between 500 MBs to 1.0 GB of reserve watchOS space ( it is between 3-4 times more for iOS/iPadOS devices, so I am basing this amount on that figure for watchOS reserve storage ).

This leaves all of you with series 3 watches with only a practical, usable internal data storage space of only 1-2 GBs AND THAT IS IT!

This is hardly any space to store much of anything on an older series 3 Watch.

In contrast, the series 4 had 16 GBs of internal storage for a much more actual, usable data storage amount of 8-9 GBs.

The series 5, 6 and SE models all have 32 GBs of internal data storage for a much more flexible, actual, usable internal data storage amount of 22-23 GBs.

Your series 3 watch storage is being eaten up by the ever growing size of watchOS.

It is the same issues with users of current iOS/iPadOS compatible16 GBs iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch devices are having with the ever growing size of iOS/iPadOS.

These OSes are now taking up a significant chunk of the very low intenal data storage of these lowest cost, base model, older iOS/iPadOS devices, now.

32 GBs iPhones and iPads are quickly becoming the “new” 8 and 16 GBs devices, now, in 2021, and this situation is only going to get worse for these users of low internal data storage devices.

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities rsruss67,

I see that you're having an issue with the storage on your Apple Watch. I can certainly understand your concern, and I'd be happy to provide you with some information that could help.

Have you tried to restart your Apple Watch and then check to see if the storage remains the same? If so, then next step would be to unpair the Apple Watch from your iPhone and pair it back and test one more time.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch

Let me know how this goes and if the issue persists.

Have a great day!

Hello,

thanks, it is working. The problem was the huge big message folder in the iCloud.

At first I switched off the message synchronising in the iCloud (with delete all message data), reinstall the watch app, force restart the phone and pair the watch.

I’ve been experiencing exactly the same issues with my watch. The suggestions to check the reminders on the iCloud storage worked well as they were taking up over 4GB. I wiped the reminders data completely off my iCloud and then signed out of the cloud. When I signed back in and restarted the watch (as a new watch) it seems to have stabilised on using 1.3GB and having 2.9GB free. I am also now running Watch OS7. Hopefully this will solve it...

Thanks for all the help on here- you’ve made more sense than multiple ‘experts’ out there!

I tried fixing this by deleting all of the text conversations on my watch... it Freed up 200 mB...

I'm having this issue too. After reboot the memory is temporarily restored. I have to reboot about every week to make sure I don't run out of storage. Here's a before and after reboot screenshot.

I think restarting is the way to go (hopefully just for now). I get over a gig of storage back just by rebooting.

Same exact issue. my watch has very few apps, no photos or music and randomly I get a storage full message. Once I restart the watch storage goes back to normal but only for a few days.

this seems to be a log bug or a buffer overflow that builds up and takes up all the space available. Tried to locate the file but no luck.

I’m on watchOS 6.2.5 with a series 3 version.