Voice memos is taking up 13 GB even if I permanently deleted all the recordings and the app.

Going to answer this as I've experienced in my 52 terabyte case...

Since discovering that any action will take at least 2+ hours for the phone to process things, I have now been trying lots more stuff, and the consistent error is "there's not enough space at [the destination]", even when there is always clearly plenty of space. Keep in mind I have a 256 GB iPhone, and I know there is less than 50 GB of actual space taken up on the phone. Note that in my screenshot above, the colored bar and Voice Memo totals are incorrect, but the number right underneath the bar indicates that only 46.4 GB is used and that matches my guess of how much is actually consumed.

1. I left a Finder/iTunes backup running overnight, and the next morning it said there was not enough space on my drive to do the backup. My Macbook has over 600 GB of free space, certainly enough even if my iPhone was actually full.
2. Tried another Finder backup on a friend's Mac with over 500 GB free space - same error - not enough free space on the Mac.
3. Then I tried iTunes backup on a Windows computer with over 350 GB free space - same error - not enough free space on the hard drive.
4. I then tried to transfer to another blank 256 GB iPhone using the normal "bring your old iPhone close to this one" flow. I left it overnight, and lo and behold, the next morning it said the new phone doesn't have enough storage to transfer my data.
5. I tried another libimobiledevice backup on Ubuntu, which again hung at the same spot as the log I shared in my previous post, telling me that I would need 52 TB more free space on my computer in order for the backup to even begin. I let it sit for another 8 hours and nothing changed (presumably, libimobiledevice just doesn't know to translate this into a message saying "there's not enough space to take the backup").

I haven't yet tried an iCloud transfer to the new device, but would like to avoid that, especially if it's going to actually try to upload 52 TB of garbage data (I don't think my internet connection is fast or stable enough for that to be feasible). I also don't have an iCloud subscription in order to try a full iCloud backup, but I would like to avoid paying for any tier just to have it tell me that either I need the highest tier for my ghostly 52 TB of voice memos or simply that the backup can't be completed, especially if it's then likely to fail because of my internet speed/instability.

I haven't yet tried deleting my voice memos data/app yet either, because I don't want to do that when most people in this thread are reporting it didn't solve the issue. I am assuming - and hopeful - that the issue will need to be resolved by an iOS update, and would rather wait for that than start losing data on this phone.

Once again, any help is super appreciated!! Hoping these details can provide some useful information :) Thank you!!!!

Dear k_p95,

This is literally the first useful response I've read related to this issue.

I don't know if it will work, but at least you have tried to address the actual problem in a way that clearly makes sense.

I'll probably try restoring my phone using the method you've suggested. Hope it works. Thank you!!

Hi,

When you see that the backup couldn’t be completed, is this seen under Settings > Name > iCloud > iCloud Backup?

What is the specific error when attempting to back up using your computer? Is it a Mac or PC? And is it running the latest version of iTunes or macOS?

Resetting all settings can be a useful option for certain issues, but not this one. It just restores your device settings to defaults.

When you are attempting to complete your backup on your computer, did you confirm that the backup is encrypted?

Hi,

If your preferred method of backing up is via Finder/iTunes, and the issue has been replicated on multiple devices, i would absolutely assume that the backup itself is corrupt.

• If you can't back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup

I know you mentioned you do not have iCloud Storage available to complete a backup, and then setup your new iPhone. To resolve this, you can get free temporary iCloud Storage to backup your iPhone; this temporary storage is offered for the sole purpose of setting up a new iPhone.

• Get temporary iCloud storage when you buy a new iPhone or iPad

This will enable iCloud backup for that device & create a new, encrypted backup that will be separate from the corrupt one.

• Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup

Note: make sure you have everything that you want included in your iCloud backup enabled in Settings > Name > iCloud > prior to starting the backup.

• What does iCloud back up?

Once you have restored your new iPhone from the iCloud backup, confirm if the issue persists with your voice memos in Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

Hope this helps. Keep us updated!

Hi,

For the “iPhone isn’t connected” error, make sure you are running the latest version of iTunes on your PC & have no pending Windows updates that need to install. I would also recommend confirming you have trusted the device, and that you have USB accessories enabled within Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked > USB accessories.

That set aside, do you get the same error when plugging in another device to the PC for the purpose of backing it up? If so, change the port your charger is plugged into, and if that doesn’t work, try switching chargers.

let me know if this helps.

Hi k_p95 - thank you for informing us of the update and helping us all work through this issue!!

Unfortunately, the same goes for me - I upgraded to iOS 15.6 and the issue remains with 52 TB of voice memos reported in settings (after waiting two hours for that screen to load). This persists after multiple restarts. Backups are still not working either.

When I was still on 15.5, I did try an iCloud-based transfer to the other iPhone. I let them both sit for over 28 hours, both connected to power with the screen on, and they never left the screen saying it was transferring the data. My router reported that apart from a few MB at the very beginning, they only ever transmitted a few KB sporadically here and there - definitely no indication that it ever started transferring the minimum 13 GB of photos that I would expect to have been uploaded. I will try this again now that I've upgraded both devices to 15.6. However, I'm not holding my breath, given that backups are still not working on the new version.

I am hopeful that 15.6 will prevent other users from ending up with this crazy and difficult issue. However, even according to the language in the release notes - "Fixes an issue where Settings may continue to display that device storage is full even if it is available" - I am the third report in this thread which indicates the fix has not worked for us, at least under the assumption that the word "continue" implies it was supposed to catch and fix devices already presenting with the issue.

Even in the case the language was misleading and this fix was only intended to prevent future occurrences, I do not consider the overall issue to be fixed by the update if it requires resetting the device in order to remove the issue, since the entire issue is that backups and transferring are both prohibited by the issue. This means all the people in this thread are still left stranded with data that they cannot extract from their phones without deleting it.

I am confident that a future update could actually fix the issue, given that we know Voice Memos itself is accurately reporting the correct size of individual memos. I will not reset my device until such an update is available.

If you are in contact with Apple in regards to this, please do not report the issue as fully fixed until the users in this thread have the ability to back up their data prior to resetting. Thank you once again for all your assistance - I appreciate it!!

one additional info, while I was on call with apple senior support they made me do Reset All Settings, DO NOT do that on your phone, it has no impact and will not solve this problem at all.

I did sort of a bit of this step - upgrade my operating system. What I think it is is that I have an old phone in storage I haven't turned on for ages and it might be hogging part of iCloud that won't budge as long as my current device is synced..

I have been on and off the phone with Apple support folks since yesterday, and this problem persists. I can't even make a back up of my phone, because it somehow it is trying to create a backup that is over 400gb large, due to the voice mails on my phone adding up to 447.48 gb, even though my iPhone capacity is only 64gb. This is completely screwed - even the last support agent told me he's never seen anything like this:

Help???

Thanks for your response and attempt to help. I have updated to 15.5, and the problem persists. I would gladly backup my phone, wipe it and reinstall…..however I am not able to back up the phone due to another ongoing error message I get when connected to my iMac saying the back up file is too large despite have half a TB free….I downloaded iMazing, and completed a back up successfully with that but it says it’s 289.41 GB somehow (again, makes no sense as it’ only has 64 gb capacity), so I’m not going to risk losing all my stuff via wiping and restoring from that backup…it seems as though I’d be restoring the same corruption I’m trying to rid myself of….please help us Apple!! Please fix this bug!

Hi There, I have the same issue and cant't even transfer the data from old phone to new iPhone I bought recently. Couldn't restore old data from iCloud backup as well. This is very serious issue and its killing my time to find alternative solutions.

I def think I got you beat on the size it’s saying my voice memos are. Especially since I deleted all of my voice memos and the app. Lol however it appears to have something to do with the documents & data related to that app.

to prevent losing voice memos, I backed up by moving them to icloud drive.

open voice memos, hit edit, select the voice memos you want to back up hit Share button > Save to Files > Icloud Drive and hit Save on right top. before hitting save I created a new folder and saved my voice memos which were only 215 MB in size as opposed to the 913 GB which is shown in iphone storage.

deleted the app and it grayed out but i'm unable to take the backup.

icloud backup keeps failing without any specific reason, just says, last backup could not be completed.

itunes fails constantly saying phone is disconnected.

working with apple tier 2 support

apple tier 2 support couldn't do anything.

I'm still stuck with not able to back up either to icloud or to my computer.

if anyone has gone through this process while having voice memos showing high storage, please share the steps.

Hi @Kspur7504

i'm trying to backup through iTunes to my desktop and it's taking almost same amount of storage as it shows on my iphone 920GB. you said you were able to back and restore using iTunes. My question is when you restored it back to iPhone, did you see the voice memos issue showing high storage after restore ? please share your experience.