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Apps taking up so much storage?

I’ve never ran into this issue before, but as you can see by the screenshot, my APPS are taking up what looks to be over 100gb of storage. I went through and offloaded so many apps and the main ones with the most space are shown on the screenshot but do not add up to how much space APPS is taking up? I’m very confused I have 2TB iCloud storage and when I go to backup it only says my total backup size is 1.3gb!?!!! Every app is selected and I know that the actual “app” isn’t being uploaded but this doesn’t sound right at all.


I have around the same amount of apps as usual and have never had this much storage being taken up. I feel this has something to do with iCloud backup?


any suggestions would be appreciated.


Thanks!

Posted on Apr 26, 2021 6:05 PM

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Posted on Apr 27, 2021 5:38 PM

I plugged my phone into my MacBook to backup on there instead of iCloud and the APP storage turned out to be DOCUMENTS AND DATA, as you mentioned. So I went in and deleted every single app and that only took away 14gb. So I ended up just erasing my phone and restoring from a backup earlier today. Seems to have fixed the problem, obviously, but still not sure what all that data was and why it was.


Thanks for your help!

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Apr 27, 2021 5:38 PM in response to hc1111

I plugged my phone into my MacBook to backup on there instead of iCloud and the APP storage turned out to be DOCUMENTS AND DATA, as you mentioned. So I went in and deleted every single app and that only took away 14gb. So I ended up just erasing my phone and restoring from a backup earlier today. Seems to have fixed the problem, obviously, but still not sure what all that data was and why it was.


Thanks for your help!

Apr 27, 2021 1:35 PM in response to hc1111

Hi HC111, thanks for responding. Sorry if I wasn't clear on why I put the iCloud storage screenshot on there. I put it on there because I thought it was odd that my phone backup was only 1.3gb? So I deleted my previous backups and started with a fresh backup (with all apps selected) and that totaled 1.3gb. I just find that odd and feel that could be a reason why so much storage is being taken up by apps. I don't know, we can disregard that now.


"With regards to the amount of data on your iPhone, have you saved any media from these apps, like audio or video files? If so, are you able to delete these items, then check if the storage amount changes?"


Not to my knowledge. I'm quite familiar with iPhones and iCloud storage and have never come across this issue before, especially with "APPS" being the one taking up so much storage on my phone. Also, as you can see by the first screen shot (iPhone storage) wouldn't that tell me how much space is being stored from each APP on my phone? I even went through and offloaded and deleted a lot of apps but they were mainly 100-200mb, so very minimal space being taken up. The largest ones are those listed on that screenshot. I have a total of 40 apps (maybe 20 offloaded and taking 10mb to even kb of space), apart from the system apps like podcast iBook etc. I even did the math for the listed apps and it doesn't equal anything near what my storage is stating?


I'm tempted to reset my phone and restore through the backup but am very hesitant as its only 1.3gb.


Thanks for listening and any more advice would be helpful

Apr 27, 2021 12:27 PM in response to Caseylh

Hey there, Caseylh!


Thanks for reaching out in Apple Support Communities! We understand you're having trouble with the space on your device. We'd like to lend a hand and look further into this with you!


In your first screenshot it looks like you're viewing the apps and data on your iPhone, and the second screenshot shows iCloud data. These storage amounts are separate, so the used and available amounts won't always be the same.


If you look at the iCloud storage from Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage, you'll see what data is being used and what is available.


With regards to the amount of data on your iPhone, have you saved any media from these apps, like audio or video files? If so, are you able to delete these items, then check if the storage amount changes?


Feel free to provide more details for continued support.


All the best.

Apr 27, 2021 1:52 PM in response to hc1111

Ok, I just went down that entire iPhone Storage list of apps and added them with my calculator which came out to be roughly 20GB of space.


11039mb which equals 11.039gb, Plus the photos, Spotify and podcast which were 5.71gb added together = 16.75gb total for apps. Im very confused as the graph shows FAR more than that and what looks to be 80-100gb?


What is going on here 😔

Apps taking up so much storage?

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