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

Hi,

”Upgrading” iOS and “reinstalling” iOS are two completely separate processes. When an issue is software related, they way you “upgrade/restore” the device based on the issue will affect reaching a resolution.

Which explains why you are still encountering this issue.

With reinstalling iOS, your issue should be resolved.

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 was able to fix mine with a backup through iTunes via a desktop pc. Once the backup was complete I reset the phone to factory settings and then set up the phone from the backup. Completely took care of the issue.

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,

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,

When you say you can’t transfer data from old iPhone to new iPhone, are you trying to use QuickStart + restore from an iCloud backup to migrate the content to the new iPhone? If so, confirm what error messages you receive and at what point does QuickStart fail?

You mentioned that you couldn’t restore old data from an iCloud backup; if, for whatever reason, you were unable to complete the setup assistant using QuickStart and set up the iPhone manually, and then signed into your Apple ID on iCloud Settings, what content is missing?

when you sign in with your Apple ID on iCloud Settings, all content associated to iCloud would manually appear on the device as long as you are connected to Wi-Fi and your phone is charging.

reply with error messages or alerts received so we can further assist.

hope this helps.

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.

I have exactly the same problem. My iPhone 13 pro max 256GB is sitting there because there is not enough space to transfer from a XS max 64GB!!

(My voice memos data says 7,09TB!!!!!!!!!!)

Come on apple!!!

I struggled with this issue for weeks as I was trying to switch over to my new iPhone 13. What I ended up doing is much more tedious than it needed to be, but I think it's worked so far.

I ended up purchasing a month of iCloud storage and saving only what I needed onto the cloud (mostly photos, messages for me) but NOT via a Backup (the backup method wasn't working for me because every backup still thinks I had over 400GB of voice memos, so my backup was super bloated).

Then on the new phone, I'm syncing everything I need by opening the apps and getting the info back. It's basically a fresh install as I have to download each app individually again, and a slow sync of photos etc.

It's a pain that we have to pay extra money to transfer our phones when it's definitely an Apple issue, but having spent weeks trying to figure this out, it wasn't worth it anymore. I'd rather pay a small fee to do the transfer, then I'll cancel my iCloud subscription.

I hope this helps someone out there. And remember, don't bother with the iCloud backup if you do this. Just sync the bare basics you need to your iCloud and transfer that way.

One thing that annoys me and reverts everything back to square 1 is that, due to the voice memos glitching and taking up 26TB on my 256gb phone, my phone hasn’t been able to Back Up since April 2022. And it’s the first step required for this “fix”…. Where does one go from here?? I tried backing my phone up with my PC but after successfully plugging it in and selecting the “Back Up With Computer” option, it says “Iphone isn’t connected” after 10 minutes

Exact same problem here, other than my (sons) iPhone thinks the voice memos take up 2TB!!! Unable to make a backup because of this, so restoring is no option... Has anyone found an alternative fix for this?

Well it seems this issue is not unusual. I have voice memos in the amount of 1.5 Terabytes and which far exceeds my data limit. I am about to demand a full refund for this new iPhone and stop using their products all together. Two days running back and forth to the apple store and on the phone with them for over 10 hrs in just two days! This is ridiculous and horrendous.

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.