Synced Content iPhone Storage - iOS 17 Update

Wrong feedback page above and I was too late to edit the link. I will put money in the swear box but fortunately I noticed before anyone demanded free beer!

The correct feedback will be Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Hello all. I have had this same issue, which I feel is now resolved for me, actually, its just 'explained' really, I suggest there is no 'issue' I think its just that Apple must have changed their labelling of the memory allocation on the iPad during one of the mysterious software updates and (I dont think) its that clear. So I'm hoping to summarise - in an attempt that it explains / helps...

As I said, I had this 'issue' - a huge chunk of unexplained memory use - 17gb of my 64gb - on my iPad, called 'Synced content' (red colour) that I could see 'in addition' to photos (yellow*) and Music (green). Which made me think duplication was occurring - madness!

See attached screenshot.

*Here's the first point - I thought that the photos memory use was actually orange in colour which was in fact 'Applications', the difference in colour isn't that much if you are not paying attention (clearly I wasn't!)

Anyway, it turns out that the green, music section IS NOT the music that I had put on my iPad from my Mac. That is actually (in) the synced content. I proved this by unticking the 'sync music' when my iPad was connected to Mac and then syncing - hence removing my music from the iPad. The synced data disappeared - or almost completely did - I cant exactly remember.

(Of course I then re ticked the box and put my music back on my iPad , but it proved the point)

The green 'music' memory use is in fact music that has come from other sources - in my case this is Spotify music that I have downloaded. Your music from Mac ('iTunes' if you like for old school thinkers) is within the 'Synced content'

So my confusion was caused by two things really

1. Being relatively new to this idea of being able to have Spotify music offline (ie download it). In the past, I never had any memory use in that way
2. I think the 'synced content' label is 'new'. (Though I may be wrong).

But the above two factors meant I leapt to the conclusion, unfairly that there was wasted / duplicated storage on my iPad. When quite frankly there wasn't at all.

I dont know if that helps anyone, but if I had seen this myself before, I feel it would have explained the situation quite simply and allayed my concerns.

Hope it helps

(PS I should add, that as my iPad was within warranty, I got 'help' from Apple. Using the Apple Support icon. At first I spoke to what I think may be called 'The iPad team' who, quite honestly weren't able to help and explain at all! They just caused more confusion! The issue was escalated and I had a call back and eventually spoke to a guy called Seamus from what you might call the 'proper Apple team' who was brilliant - and gradually got to the root of the confusion. So credit to him!)

43 Gig for me

I have done a complete reset of phone as suggested by apple support who said they weren't aware of any issues, and it has made no difference.

I am still getting synced content in storage which seems to be a duplication of my music files which means I do not have enough storage on my

phone to sync with iTunes on pc.

SE2020 photo shows storage used on old phone using ios 16.7.

IPHONE 15 PRO photo shows storage on new phone using ios 17.0.2

– you can see the extra storage being used by the “synced content”

My new phone was set up by transferring from old phone at

initial set up.

The issue was first noticed when I wanted to sync my new phone

to iTunes on pc but it cannot due to lack of storage, even though there should

be plenty of storage required.

I tried emailing these details to apple but it bounced back that it isn't monitored, so I will call apple again to ask when they will fix this important issue.

First time i have bought a new iphone at launch and I am beginning to regret it - should have waited for the bugs to be fixed first.

very frustrating that apple don't test their software in the real world, including syncing to itunes on a pc !!

I’ve been having this issue too. I just turned off music sync so my Apple Music downloads are down to 1.66gb but the synced content is still 16.17gb. I did just get 20gb back but it should be more like 40GB.

after varying sharing settings in the music app and shutting off Apple Music settings for home sharing and other experiments, but no joy. The new synched content feature still logically blocking access to the storage it has claimed but it lead to a conclusion that it was an underhanded attempt by apple to discourage transferring music files from your own library that aren’t linked to the iTunes Store to a mobile device in order to drive market demand for music streaming

heres two screenshots that leads to that conclusion. The first shows the settings general iPhone storage report of storage shown as consumed by music files and a different amount locked up by synched Data. Note that the Synched Data blocks slightly less storage that the music files use. The second from the about this iPhone menu is a screenshot showing that the music app size is the difference between the two large blocks of storage. All my music has been collected and burned from media over decades. And subtracting the size of synched data from the size of the music storage is exactly equal to the size of the music application itself. would be interesting to see a similar calculation by someone who owns both purchased music from the iTunes Store and mp3 files they have created from cds.

That's not true on my iPhone 12. I see Synced Content and also about 1.2gb of Music. None of it makes any sense.

So I downloaded and installed ios 17.0.3 yesterday.

The iphone storage then didnt show a duplication of music as before so I thought happy days its sorted.

Then I connected phone to pc and opened itunes. It backed up OK but when it was about to sync music I got the same error message saying not enough storage.

I have emailed the support engineer with my findings and we will be discussing further.

I only sync music to my pc I dont use icloud.

You think they would test an iphone syncing on their own itunes software on a pc.

This is so frustrating !!!

No, I sync the "...important data on your iPhone to iCloud".

my entire music library is on itunes on my hard drive.

I was getting the out of room error too before i did the steps above. Once I erased all the contents and then restored (from both iCloud and via iTunes) everything worked fine.

Share3141, is iMazing able to manage mp3 music saved locally?

I am frustrated with the same as you and have not found an answer to my saved music files, except to use iTunes to sync.

Yeah, I don't own any of Apple's music and the limited access to the Music app is infuriating. iTunes and iMazing are the only ways I am aware of to get your own music into the app.

I am going to delete all Apple Music and my own library, and just use "Tidal,"

We cannot let Apple dictate what we have on our Equipment.

I have the same issue. Have lost a whopping 17.53 Gb!

ios 7.2.1 fixed my problem. The synched content is now 11.2 G and matches the memory reported to be used by all my music under the music app size report. It no longer shows on the total memory report as music. Only the music app size is accounted as memory used for Music category.

ios 17.2.1 fixed it for me. See these screenshots showing that music files are tabulated only under the synced content category. The data reported as Music on the color bar showing allocation by categories appears to only be the size allocated to the music app. Opening the music app detailed report shows this. The Music memory size no longer includes the 11 G of music synced from my computer and the synced content size is identical to my size of my music files. Before it was fixed iOS was encumbering 11 G as both synced content and another 11 G + the music app size. This double allocation appears to have been fixed