Synced Content iPhone Storage - iOS 17 Update

This discussion is also going on in the MacRumors forums. I spent a good deal of time with Apple support on this and this is what I found.

Initially, my Storage said I have 66.67GB of music on my phone from previously ripped content. It also showed 66.24 of Synced Content. The category under Synced Content is Photos at 58GB and then Gmail at 625MB. Here is a screen shot.

Tech support eventually said the Synced Content under storage was doing what it was supposed to do and was not doubling up on used storage. So I tried something.

I unsynced all my music via iTunes. The pic above showed the storage figures before I unsynced. Here is the comparison.

Before Unsynching:

256GB - Total storage

177GB - Total Used Storage

Music - 67.65GB storage

Synced Content - 66.24 storage

Other Storage Categories:

Photos Storage - 61.26

iOS (17.02) - 11.09

System Data - 11.52GB

So by my reckoning - and maybe I am wrong here - by deleting my music and thus deleting my synced content, I should have gained about 133GB of storage, right? 67GB (music) + 66GB (synched content) = approx. 133GB.

However, after unsynching, I only instead gained the amount of storage used by my music, 66.67GB and I now show 116GB used and 139.5GB free. The category synced content is no longer listed in my iPhone Storage section of settings.

After Unsyncing:

256GB - Total storage

116GB - Total Used Storage

Music - 0 GB as I unsynced Music

Synced Content - 0 GB as I unsynced Music and nothing else shows as synced.

Other Storage Categories:

Photos Storage - 61.26

iOS (17.02) - 11.09

System Data - 11.52GB

So, if the Synced Content was really being double counted, shouldn't I have been left with about 200GB of free storage out of the 256?

Maybe Apple was correct and the Synced Data category is not being counted against total storage.

If my thought process is wrong, please let me know. Thanks.

BTW, here is the screen shot of my storage AFTER unsyncing:

It absolutely is blocking access to the storage in the amount of twice the total amount of storage space needed to store the music copied from my desktop. How else can you explain why my availability memory shrunk by over 24 gigabytes after installing iOS 17.0.1. I didn’t add any additional music. If that storage that is shown as synched data is not actually locking up the space shown, I should have more than 24 gigabytes of available storage to run the iOS update to v.2. It says it only requires 5 + megabytes of available storage and reports that it can’t install due to lack of available memory

Same issue here. My synced content takes up additional ~60GB now interestingly enough my music copied from my PC is in the same size category. 

iOS 17.0.1 did not fix this and apparently this exact problem is already known in earlier iOS 17 versions. (Apparently the reply gets auto deleted when you mention the public be*a)

It’s incredibly stupid to lose TWICE the space for half the music. If I can find a 3rd party software that will eliminate this problem once and for all, I’ll do it.

Like I said earlier, others ARE having a storage problem, including me. THere's as much synced content as there is music, and I have deleted it all and put it all back, only to find 30gb music and 30gb synced content that sholdn't be there and wasn't there before updating to 17.

ExWin wrote:

I am curious if you were able to find an MP3 player for your iPad that will play your local music?

i am in the same shoes. I have many MP3 music that I ripped from my CDs. I bought an iPad with 512gig storage, yet no player to manage my music stored. It is sad to see this lack of support.

If you have a Mac running macOS Catalina, or later, you should be able to use the Mac's Music app, and Finder-based synchronization, to load music onto your iPad.

Sync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

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If you have a Mac running macOS Mojave, or earlier, or a PC that is running Windows you should be able to use iTunes to load music onto your iPad.

Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer - Apple Support

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Note if your iPad is running iPadOS 17, Mac- or PC-based synchronization probably requires:

• macOS Catalina 10.15 or later using the Finder
• macOS High Sierra 10.13 through macOS Mojave 10.14.6 using iTunes 12.9 or later
• Windows 10 or later using iTunes 12.12.10 or later (free download from apple.com/itunes/download)

That is, El Capitan and Sierra are no longer an option. I believe that "iTunes 12.9" is a typo and that High Sierra users can use the most recent version of iOS 12.8.3, possibly with a patch that iTunes itself will prompt them to download. If I remember correctly, the iPhone 15 Technical Specifications used to refer to iTunes 12.9, but now say iTunes 12.8 or later.

iMazing, on a PC, works quite well with my Apple devices. I can upload / download / backup with no issues.

It's much better than iTunes on Windows which frankly is a piece of s**t.

They are working on a new version - not sure when the release date is.

However, it doesn't resolve the problem with storage being reported by the device itself.

Moving to IOS 17 consumed about 10% more storage on my devices and I have not heard of a good explanation or discovered a way to resolve the issue.

I can only conclude this is a deliberate tactic by Apple to penalize users who have their own music files and did not buy them from Apple but ripped them from CDs or got them from non-Apple sources.

I like to be able to use my iPhone in particular in my car via Bluetooth for long drives and listen to my own music. I can only do so with the Apple app on my phone.

So I started looking for a device - a MP3 player - that I could use.

This would allow me to delete all my music from my Apple devices and recover a lot of storage.

I would have to maintain my files on my PC which I do now and upload them to a MP3 player but that's really do no big deal.

Of course, I would have two devices to deal with - my iPhone or iPad and my MP3 player.

I've not had any luck finding a MP3 player that works.

My wife has a lot of music files and they definitely don't fit on her iPhone.

I wanted an MP3 player for her as a gift when we went a month long road trip so she could listen to her music.

I tried one - don't remember which one - and it failed after I loaded the files. Couldn't hold a charge.

Since then I haven't really looked.

I suppose I ought to try again before our next trip but I'm mad and discouraged by Apple's approach.

I've invested a lot into their iPads / iPhones for numerous people in my family.

I suppose I'll have to live with their crap way of doing business or find an MP3 player that works.

Apple really doesn't want you outside of their ecosystem and penalizes you accordingly.

Interoperability across platforms is discouraged (e.g., Android, Windows and others).

Hope that all helps.

Feb 1, 2024 and same problem here on iPhone 11, even with 17.3 update.

I have a 64 GB phone with 20.56 GB of "synced media". It is clearly duplicating my music. In "iPhone Storage" Music lists 1.02 GB of storage being used but when you then click on it, it shows 20.56 GB of "All Songs", which is accurate since I have a lot of music. Synced Media appears to be duplicating that exact number.

Interesting to note that the storage graph at the top of the iPhone storage graph shows that 20.56 GB of Synced Media and roughly the same amount being used by "Applications". My storage is filling up once a week and I have to constantly manage it. Very annoying!!! Waiting for a fix.........

The music library that is large and showing under the Music app details isn’t booked as music in the overall memory allocation. It is booked as synced content. In the storage bar. There is a memory allocation called music. The music allocation is for the app itself and any metadata tied to the 25 GB of music files that are now booked solely as synced content

You are confusing memory categories. The memory allocation for synced content is because you have accumulated lots of music. 26 GB of it. A typical music file for a single song takes about 5 MB of storage. The music app is around 185MB in size. That is the app and your music library metadata. I’ll bet you have a lot more than 40 songs in your library ( 40 songs would fill around 200MB of storage). When you look at the music app memory allocation, it is just reporting the size of the app and library metadata. When you click on the music app details, it will show you the total amount of music in the library, but it will be roughly 26 GB, and is booked in the phones memory map a synced content. Looks at the memory bar at the top of the screen. There is still a music allocation for the music app and music library’s metadata, but that category DOES NOT INCLUDE the space required for your large collection of Music files.

Well joespagg1, you can either store 192.72 of synced music or delete some of it. It’s up to you. But if you chose to keep all of it on a 256GB phone, why are you surprised that it is using the space that you chose to store it in. ???

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 17.2.1. My synch data is 15.9GB. I have loaded 15.1GB of my own music into the music app (I have 0 Apple music). My Music app says it has 839MB of data.

Exactly. But it’s also preventing adding anything else to that storage. Not just interfering with the installer. Can’t add photos, music, or other content that exceeds the storage shown as available in either the about menu or iPhone storage report

Doesn't work for a PC. Also- even for a Mac - why is it even necessary to have duplicate files? At the most you could save pointers that identify music files as synced which would consume a lot less storage.

It's just bad design or untested software or Apple developers ignoring feedback from b**a users. And why no comment from Apple?

I have a brand new fully updated iPhone 15 Pro Max. I synced 60 GB of music with over 7,000 songs. I checked Storage and it showed 60 GB Music and 60 GB Synced Content. I tried to delete the music which also cleared the synced content. Now the phone thinks the music is synced and it isn't. I have all my space back, but very little of my music library. I have a few purchased songs from Apple and none of the 7000 songs are on my phone. I try to sync, it runs a few seconds and does nothing.