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iPhone storage keeps going back to full after deleting many things daily

I have an iPhone XS 64 GB running on the latest firmware (iOS 13.5.1). I also have 200GB of iCloud storage that I use across all my apple devices. I still have over 100GB of free storage left on my iCloud. For the past couple of weeks, my iPhone has repeatingly been telling me that my iPhone storage is full. All my photos are saved in the cloud. I have deleted many and emptied out the recently deleted in my phone. It gave me the option to offload unused apps to iCloud, which freed up 7GB, but then a couple days later it claimed my storage is full again. I also deleted some apps too in hope it would free space. In addition, I cleared my safari history and website data which freed 5 GB, but then the next day my phone storage went back to full. I have deleted conversations and big files, yet theres no help in that. I look at whats using the most memory on my phone storage through the settings app and tried to delete some stuff. I have also deleted some apps and reinstalled them to clear some of those apps memory. I searched many thing online on how to free up memory. It says my system memory is 6.77GB and "Other" is 31.21GB. I noticed that the "Other" section keeps increasing. When I deleted the Safari History and Website data, the "Other" section went down to 27GB then the next day it refilled to 32GB. At this point, I am convinced the phone is trying to fill up my memory with something every time I delete anything. Nothing is working and it is getting frustrating. Can someone help me out with this?

iPhone XS, iOS 13

Posted on Jul 1, 2020 10:11 AM

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Posted on Sep 3, 2020 2:22 PM

I have an iPhone XR that the same thing is happening to. No matter what I delete the other storage keeps increasing. I did a factory reset a few weeks ago and my phone worked for a while but a few days ago it was completely full all of a sudden with over 40GB of other storage and it’s happening all over again.


I think either my phone is a lemon or there’s an app that’s taking up an abnormal amount of cache/storage. I really hope Apple helps with this as it makes it impossible to use my phone to even check email.

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115 replies

Feb 9, 2021 8:41 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

No, she doesn’t- but, I do! Which is extra frustrating.. 😂 Also, yes, I am completely aware of the ‘Recently Deleted’ album - and I always make sure to permanently delete them from my phone.


Yes, I think it be a storage corruption. That’s why I think running the photos through a third party application helped the phone to recognise some of the media for what it was.


I will be backing it up again and restoring it to factory setting for certain. The last time that I backed up my photos up, earlier this week, my iMac and iCloud counted around 50GB of photos.. I’m not sure, we’ll see soon! Thank you for your reply!


Feb 14, 2021 7:19 AM in response to sinam

sinam wrote:

Dear Mr. Finch,
After reading 7 pages (Actually 6 and a half) of people replying to this discussion There's only one sentence that I can ask you.

PLEASE don't reply if you don't actually know the solution.!!

Let all of us work on it and find a solution if Apple can't.
Thanks!

I know the solution, I have posted it, and it works. As many people who have tried it have posted and confirmed.

Feb 17, 2021 9:35 AM in response to Carlbarc

Guys you can’t believe but I think I find a solution!!

I connected my iPhone to iTunes to backup my iPhone and restore from it, but it didn’t work because there’s not enough place on the iPhone.

suddenly I entered to my iPhone storage and the ‘other’ storage start to decrease and keep falling.

I hope it will not return and just in case I disable my iCloud Drive and will backup only on the computer with iTunes.


Feb 18, 2021 10:58 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I would respectfully disagree. I purchased icloud 2+ years ago and it worked with my iphone 6s just fine. I bought a new iphone 11 today and have 14.4 on it (the newest, most up to date). I wanted to free up some space and began deleting attachments and apps and now the Other folder has grown in size and my available storage is down 25%.


If the icloud synching were functioning the way it was intended (storing dafa off-device and making it available when you reach for it) then how does this keep happening? I too am tired of seeing you post the same link which, per the posts I have read, have worked for vanishingly few. If your solution were correct I would not be having this problem at all with a brand new device and up to date software. I am super frustrated and other than shutting off icloud--which I am paying for--what reasonablw solution is there?

Feb 19, 2021 6:41 AM in response to Furtwixt

Furtwixt wrote:

If the icloud synching were functioning the way it was intended (storing dafa off-device and making it available when you reach for it) then how does this keep happening?

That is not how iCloud syncing was ever intended to work. iCloud, from its inception, has always been a syncing service that keeps data synced across multiple devices. It was never intended for storing data off-device; as has been clearly described in Apple KnowledgeBase articles. There are many services that do what you think iCloud was supposed to do: Dropbox, box.com, Livedrive, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3. If that is what you want to do use one of these. iCloud is not just another “me too” archive service; it has a different purpose that is not offered by any of the other cloud providers.

Mar 27, 2021 12:33 AM in response to mehde112

I recently had the same problem I followed all the steps on buying storage for my phone and then I turn it off and on because i know is not gonna update right away . A day later it says that I need more strange and then again and again it keeps saying I have 63.5GB out of 64GB my question is how ?? If I already bought storage and deleted some stuff off my phone . Someone help !!

Apr 30, 2021 3:59 AM in response to mehde112

Good news and bad news - good news is I haven't tried the reset approach mentioned in the trail Bad news is that this is April 2021 and my iPhone XR just started to do the same thing. First, earlier in the week I started getting messages that my memory was filling and that I should export all of my photos to iCloud (at a monthly cost). I didn't and 3 days later my memory is full and the storage status advises sending photos to iCloud. Nope won't do it.


Now, we all know that Apple have been caught out in the past being naughty (iPhones 6, 7 and SE "battery gate") - let's hope this isn't another one.

iPhone storage keeps going back to full after deleting many things daily

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