Level 1

44 points

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

Top-ranking reply

ananda129

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 6, 2021 10:49 AM

I had the same issue, I have been able to solve it. Doing an iphone reset is not strong enough to clear the “others” sometimes.(for whatever reason that is I don’t know)

So this is what I did I backed up and restored my iPhone on iTunes and that was able to wipe the “others” from my storage.

Just run your iPhone on iTunes on your MacBook or windows device
Click on your iPhone
click restore iPhone
There will be an option telling you to back up before restore, if you have done that already just go to restore without back up
When you click on restore iPhone, iTunes will download the software needed to restore your iPhone; this will take a while, it took me like 4 to 5hours probably because of network issues. It may be less depending on how fast your internet is.
When it starts downloading don’t pause or move the phone till it’s finished
When it’s done the software will wipe your phone and restore it to factory reset and that will wipe the “other” storage problem

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115 replies

Jan 20, 2021 12:44 AM in response to mehde112

I have the same issues so I even erased all content but to my surprise my phone was even more full.

ore96

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2021 5:17 AM in response to mehde112

it is frustrating I can’t do anything on it anymore because it is not the same way at first

azzalynn

Level 1

4 points

Jan 24, 2021 10:16 AM in response to mehde112

Same! After it updated to the iOS 14, other has been filling up like crazy. IPhone 8, 64 GB. Other fills up 37 GB. Tried everything, nothing works.

Feb 1, 2021 2:03 PM in response to mehde112

I honestly can’t believe nobody has figured this out yet! The “other” storage on my iPhone 11 just keeps growing whenever I delete anything! It’s at 30 Gb now!

Feb 6, 2021 10:13 AM in response to mehde112

hey,

did you find a solution for this problem?

Feb 6, 2021 10:33 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I did it already. That’s my second time the I erase all content and settings. its helpful in the beginning but comes back again to be full after 3 days.

very frustrating

Feb 9, 2021 6:46 AM in response to gabzhd

An average photo is 3-4 MB. So132,000 photos would be between 396 GB and 528 GB. 462 GB is about in the middle and would be correct for that number of photos.

Carlbarc

Level 1

4 points

Feb 15, 2021 6:19 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I have iOS 14.4 and same problem! Apple, where are you when we need you??

edwardx

Level 1

9 points

Mar 21, 2021 9:41 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I have 13.7 still happening

Apr 8, 2021 4:00 AM in response to mehde112

Almost one year later and i find myself having this same issue - any solution to this yet?

May 10, 2021 12:41 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Uhhhh. No.

Oct 12, 2020 7:16 AM in response to tirth6111

Repeating from the post right above yours:

Start by updating to the latest available iOS version. There was a problem with iOS 13.5 that could cause deleted content to be moved to Other. Fixed in 13.7 and later (now 14.0.1).

Oct 22, 2020 1:07 PM in response to corona_user_20

Please read my previous reply! You need to delete some data and quickly install 14.1 update and you will get all your storage back. It happened with me. Try closing the tabs on safari and google chrome as well.

Oct 23, 2020 9:29 AM in response to corona_user_20

That’s horrible!! Almost 60% of your storage is other! I would say that I was lucky in the sense that for me it would increase but in like 15-20 minutes and I usee this time to install the new update.

Another thing I did was that I deleted all history on Safari and chrome except the saved passwords. See if that can give you some more time before your other storage increases.

Dec 15, 2020 11:56 PM in response to kellyfar1215

I have exact problem; tried everything; now downloading newest update tonight and to accomplish that I had to nearly delete every application, put all my photos in "optimize"; etc. etc.. I have 128 GB phone and it's reading that 102 GB are "other" which is not identifiable and another 6.2 is "system" with "no space available". I hope this newest update helps. What an annoying situation for us all.

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