“iPhone storage almost full” bug

Same problem with the XR. Latest IOS update.

But the problem seems to occur when I plug in the phone to charge. When looking at the Storage, the "System Data" fills up the storage. When so, I cannot open any apps (as there is no storage left free). Rebooting the phone sometimes helps.

For example, I had to re-plug the phone several times before I do a backup.

Can anyone else verify if the issue occurs when plugging in the phone?

It is not fixed. I am on 15.4 and both problems (memory leak and sporadic misreported storage use) are still occurring.

Given that this has been going on since I upgraded to iOS 15 in September, I finally was forced to fix the problem myself, the only way Apple allows me—buying another phone.

Needless to say given this experience, not one made by Apple.

After many months of having this frustrating bug, I tried your method - except on a Windows 10 PC, i.e., restoring my fully updated (v14.4.1) iPad from a backup on iTunes.

The bug showed up for a little while after the restore, but half a day after the restore, the bug has disappeared (I guess the restore does some indexing and clean-up on the device in the hours after the restore). All has been fine for a week now.

Maybe it really is full - it should have been finally fixed for all models in iOS15.4

Settings, General, iPhone storage - Do some adding up of the numbers of GBs.

Make sure you empty the recently Deleted all in one go from those settings.

What does it say after step 2 if you set it up as new without restoring backup?

To all: I've not been seeing this issue lately.

Also, it doesn't do us any good to complain about it here, please report the issue at the feedback link I posted earlier in the thread so that Apple is aware.

Yes for me that is the same now too after the first reset which solved it. That turned out to be temporary.. Just reset my XR again and updated to 15.2.1 hoping that this is solved in this release 🤞 We’ll see in a week or two.

Judging by the comments it seems to be an problem mostly happening on the XR 🙁

My XR experience is gradual increase in memory usage. Starts with 24 GB when I do a factory reset and then steadily increases to 32 GB over a 4 week period. And then more, the rate increases further.

Sometimes the camera application malfunctions suddenly and the usage increases to 50 GB. I had to switch off and on... The usage comes down to the steady state level.

I thought I had resolved this but after three months it has returned. Initially iOS updates seemed to temporarily fix the problem and I have been running 15.4.1 on iPhone XR without issue...then this morning the 'iPhone storage almost full' appeared again.

I postulated a few months ago that this could be linked to WhatsApp, and when I checked there was a WhatsApp update yesterday.

Is there anyone who has this bug and does NOT use WhatsApp?

Thank you for the WhatsApp feedback.

In the end my iPhone XR required Recovery mode to get it back. This results in considerable work rebuilding all the Apps, passwords, settings, music etc despite having a backup.

The bug has yet to return…

I don't use WhatsApp and I had the bug until I did a restore of the iPad from Windows iTunes, as described above.

I'm having exactly the same problem. I'm still on ios 15.0.2 but was hoping that going to 15.2 would help but it sounds like it won't help. It is extremely frustrating and really debilitating. We NEED Apple to fix this bug!

AGREE! AGREE! I'm still on 15.0.2 and sounds like going to 15.2 won't work....and states I can't do anyway due to storage. our phones are such critical tools in our lives....it is debilitating not to have it working properly.

Thanks for the information. Mine has the error with 30Gb free on an XR running 15.2. It also will not backup as it says the ‘computer is full’. I am trying to backup to a PC using iTunes which has 2Tb of free space.

I have reported this all to Apple a couple of times but no response, either directly or via a fix. The iPhone is now to all intents and purposes unusable and will not permit a backup.