Major Storage Bug After iOS 26 Update — Losing Dozens of GB for No Reason

Carlb4u wrote:

In the same situation

Hopefully, we can have a solution can’t back up because there is no storage yet there is storage

Please, Apple resolve this!!!

My partner’s in graduate school and is not able to get to her papers after spending two grand on a Mac

We need this resolved now, so hopefully some technician from apple can give us a solution or an update

You aren't speaking with anyone from Apple here. This is a user to user only forum, which no one from Apple participates, nor reads for user feedback. I don't understand what your partner's Mac has to do with iPhone. Did you mean to post on the Mac Forum, if he's having an issue with his Mac?

pickleprincess wrote:

I appreciate the suggestion, but that’s actually part of the problem: I can’t back up my iPhone because there isn’t enough free space left to even start the backup process. Every time I try, it says “There isn’t enough free space on this device to finish a backup.”

So I’m basically stuck in a catch-22: I don’t have enough storage to make a backup, but I need a backup in order to erase and restore my phone. I’ve already deleted almost everything possible: videos, photos, apps, offline music but the storage never changes. My System Data is taking up over 32 GB, and it won’t go down no matter what I do.

This update has completely trapped me in a loop with no way to fix it. I shouldn’t have to erase my entire phone and risk losing data because of a system bug that came with iOS 26.

If you are using iCloud Photos you can turn if off to free off some space.

Similarly uninstall space hoggers like Youtube or Whatsapp, then do the backup and restore.

Turn iCloud Photos back on

Can you get external storage port - thumbnail storage that’s compatible with Apple connection and move anything there?

you can offload apps saving storage temporarily.

You can remove Google photos. When you reload it it’s the same because it’s saved to your google acct… don’t delete your google photos acct, just the app.

you can go a backup via Mac/pc using iTunes connection. This has cleared other/past updates caches for people.

ios 26 needs the space to download and mostly to install. It only 7 gb. It’s supposed to delete old iOS programs, updates, etc, as in. replace with the 7 gb iOS 26.

Seems different people do it differently so they have different results. Best results reported using Mac/ pc iTunes connection and move.

Why should we have to back up and erase all contents and data. Why can't Apple just resolve this issue in one of their updates, perhaps maybe iOS 26.2? This is "System Data" bloating our devices after all. I don't see why we need lose our data off devices we use everyday. This is on Apple to fix

When I click my initials at the top right of “Collections” in the photo app, it says my name then “[# of] photos, [# of] videos, [# of] items

restoring…”

each photo takes up 2-3x as much space as it did before I installed iOS 26.1 by the way also

I can’t say whether this is enabled for you or not, but my iPhone 15 dropped from 15GB to 5GB after the update to 26.1. Nothing I was doing was fixing the problem, deleting around 4-5GB of music did nothing either.

I really didn’t want to wipe the phone and start anew either so was just dealing with it. Today I took my wife off of our shared iCloud storage and we now pay for separate storage and all of a sudden 12GB came back. It seemed like some type of phantom cache bug or something, didn’t make any sense to me at all since that’s the only thing that changed.

I now have 18GB free. It’s still not acceptable to me but maybe this will help someone else.

So I had this issue a few months ago, right. My issue was with Apple Maps. I had over 10GB of data, even the gent at the store laughed like “what on earth?”.

He told me to restore from back up. I went home and searched a Reddit and LOADS of people had the same issue.

I ended up deleting a bunch of random apps and updating from ios18 to 26.

Problem solved!

Now it’s with system data. This btw everyone, is data we cannot preview. Something isn’t 100% right here…

Apple always come in with the classic “back your photos up and restore from backup”.

But this is two iOS versions with the same issue? I really want to know what goes on in the iOS HQ! Same mistake twice and it’s a BIG one! Absolute jokers 🤣

My phone is so slow now and it’s frustrating. Is this a con from Apple so iPhone users have to upgrade to larger capacity phones earlier than usual. Couldn’t take Christmas photos due to no storage even after deleting almost everything on my phone. It dosnt allow me to use my phone to its capabilities and am wondering whether to go to Samsung. My phone feels like an old Nokia. Can’t do anything.

my iPad is the same. So so slow. Also my phone said it couldn’t download all of ios26 because there wasn’t enough storage so I deleted 10gb to allow this but still says storage full. Good money making idea Apple as people who only have a 64 gb phone will have to be careful for a contract of 3 years as the storage won’t last that long. My phone contract is up in September and my phone won’t last, yeah well done Apple. That’s the bite of the apple they’ve taken think I’ll be doing Samsung after 20years of being with Apple. I’d like a response from admin explaining why they have done this to millions of customers

Garyroche wrote:

My phone is so slow now and it’s frustrating. Is this a con from Apple so iPhone users have to upgrade to larger capacity phones earlier than usual. Couldn’t take Christmas photos due to no storage even after deleting almost everything on my phone. It dosnt allow me to use my phone to its capabilities and am wondering whether to go to Samsung. My phone feels like an old Nokia. Can’t do anything.

my iPad is the same. So so slow. Also my phone said it couldn’t download all of ios26 because there wasn’t enough storage so I deleted 10gb to allow this but still says storage full. Good money making idea Apple as people who only have a 64 gb phone will have to be careful for a contract of 3 years as the storage won’t last that long. My phone contract is up in September and my phone won’t last, yeah well done Apple. That’s the bite of the apple they’ve taken think I’ll be doing Samsung after 20years of being with Apple. I’d like a response from admin explaining why they have done this to millions of customers

No one from Apple will respond to you here. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple neither participates nor reads for user feedback.

If you think going to Samsung is the best option for you, by all means do so. But you'll be very disappointed to learn that no matter what phone you buy, eventually storage grows and can be an issue. Did you actually read any of the helpful posts with suggested in this two page thread? If as I suspect you didn't, take a few minutes to read the replies and try the suggestions, which may help you. Or buy a Samsung. That doesn't matter to anyone here.

Garyroche wrote:

And if you have neither??? Phase out 64gb or put a warning saying 64 gb won’t last a 3year contract. Really done us 64gb users totally lost trust in Apple

Did Apple make you purchase the lowest storage level iPhone you could have at the time of purchase? Of course they didn't. This is the single biggest mistake most people make when buying a new phone. Storage on an iPhone can never be increased once purchased. We always advise people to purchase the most memory they can afford when they buy a new iPhone. Today, the newest iPhones Apple sells come with 256GB as the minimum. And even that for many isn't enough. I now buy my iPhones and iPads with 512GB.

My biggest issue with this argument is that this is a cache bug so that won’t really help. It needs to be fixed so that this doesn’t happen in the first place. For example I’m aware for my 64GB iPad Air to leave a good chunk of space free and this bug ate it all up. Apple develops iOS knowing those products are out there, so either drop them or optimize the software better.

I am having this same issues, starting around the same time. My system data was taking up 156 gb of data on my 256 gb. I erased and restored my phone but the system data is creeping up again. Here are screenshots

"I am having this same issues, starting around the same time. My system data was taking up 156 gb of data on my 256 gb. I erased and restored my phone but the system data is creeping up again. Here are screenshots "

You have a rogue app (think games, freebies, or socials) that is generating huge delinquent system data. Until you find it you will never get rid if the problem,

I have everything in iCloud and function perfectly on 64GB phone.

If you also were fully sync'd with one or more clouds you could reset to factory and nit restore the backup. Install only essential apps one by one only as needed and try to identify the culprit. No games, no free utilities, not yet.

Did you attempt to backup to your computer as was recommended?

Especially the update 26.1