iPhone 4 - photo storage space not being freed after deletion

Question

Level 1

0 points

iPhone 4 - photo storage space not being freed after deletion

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone could help me with this - I'd be incredibly grateful!

I've got an iPhone 4 (32GB) and I ended up taking so many photos and videos that they were taking up over 16gig in total (I have well over 3,000 including lots of videos).

Anyhow, they were only on the camera roll, I hadnt synced any photos through folders etc., literally just had my camera roll. Anyhow, I have deleted all of these photos but for some reason they are still being recognised as taking up over 16 gig of space on the storage bar when I connect it to itunes. I've also gone into 'settings' and 'about' and whilst its acknowledging that the photos arent there in numbers, its still saying I have only 9gig left which is ridiculous as I only have like 12 songs on there!

Any suggestions on what to do - I've tried doing a restore from backup, a soft reset etc. etc. I really don't want to do a factor reset as I will lose all my notes etc 😟 which would really irritate me.

Posted on Jan 14, 2011 2:54 PM

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Answer 1

sn4p2k

Level 4

1,228 points

Jan 14, 2011 7:20 PM in response to Ellythrion

you may have to restore the phone as new and resync over your notes and things..

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Answer 2

hotoru

Level 1

13 points

Feb 9, 2011 7:41 PM in response to Ellythrion

Yep, I am having this same problem. I did not pull my photos and videos off for several months. I noted photo space up to 7GB. So I pulled off all photos and videos in iPhoto and selected delete originals. Space did not change. So, I deleted ALL photos off the iphone so that the photo album is empty. That dropped space from 7GB used to 6.7GB used 😟 I have not yet tried restore from backup. But, from your experience is sounds like that may not work. I guess notes will sync to iMail? Wish was a way to manually delete.

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Answer 3

hotoru

Level 1

13 points

Feb 12, 2011 9:33 AM in response to hotoru

Does anyone know if the photos stored in the Text message area count towards the "photo" space shown in itunes? I have a good bit of photos that people have sent me in text messages. Though, I have trouble believing that it is 6GB worth.

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Answer 4

hotoru

Level 1

13 points

Feb 12, 2011 9:37 AM in response to hotoru

Nevermind, Two days and three syncs later and itunes finally figured out it had removed the photos. I have magically dropped from 7GB to .5GB of space consumed by photos. If you are having same problem I would keep syncing over a few days to see if it fixes itself.

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Answer 5

bobstrac

Level 1

0 points

Feb 15, 2011 7:16 PM in response to Ellythrion

Hey just to verify that, I removed almost all my photos and videos and sync'd and iTunes was still showing 5GB of photo storage being used. Which was frustrating. But then I unmounted the phone and sync'd again and the storage was reset correctly to 0.05 GB.

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Answer 6

amild

Level 1

0 points

Apr 10, 2011 10:48 AM in response to Ellythrion

I had the same experience. I just restarted the iPhone, unplugged it from the computer, then plugged it in. iTunes recognized the storage space after that.

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Answer 7

Jan 28, 2012 7:42 AM in response to Ellythrion

I have the same problem. I deleted all my pictures then restore it and still i have the same problem. Please help. What can I do??!!

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Answer 8

Jun 14, 2013 6:33 AM in response to Ellythrion

The links below have instructions for deleting photos.

iOS and iPod: Syncing photos using iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236

iPad Tip: How to Delete Photos from Your iPad in the Photos App
http://ipadacademy.com/2011/08/ipad-tip-how-to-delete-photos-from-your-ipad-in-t he-photos-app

Another Way to Quickly Delete Photos from Your iPad (Mac Only)
http://ipadacademy.com/2011/09/another-way-to-quickly-delete-photos-from-your-ip ad-mac-only

How to Delete Photos from iPad
http://www.wondershare.com/apple-idevice/how-to-delete-photos-from-ipad.html

How to: Batch Delete Photos on the iPad
http://www.lifeisaprayer.com/blog/2010/how-batch-delete-photos-ipad

(With iOS 5.1, use 2 fingers)

How to Delete Photos from iCloud’s Photo Stream
http://www.cultofmac.com/124235/how-to-delete-photos-from-iclouds-photo-stream/

Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 9

Sep 18, 2013 11:58 PM in response to Ellythrion

OK! so after trying everything I could find to solve my same problem... I finally found one that worked!!

http://www.ipodrepublic.com/iphone/fixing-issue-other-files-iphone-memory/2010/0 3/31/

This person mentions a software called DiskAid... and that it what I had to use!!

You open up the software and then click the folder "file system" then "camera roll".... on mine it popped up with a bunch of random files, I deleted them all... since I had them already saved... I have no idea where or how these files were there... it was like they were hidden, anyways that freed up most of my space!!

Also if you noticed when you connected to itunes that it shows the data as other.... it should go down after you delete those files...

if its still large it might be voicemails as well... I'm going to try to delete some and see if that helps.

God Bless and good luck!!

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Answer 10

Jun 10, 2014 3:30 AM in response to Ellythrion

Did you enable iTunes Match on your iPhone? If so, disable it by going to Settings > iTunes and App Store > iTunes Match > OFF

In addition, you can delete photos from any iDevice using copytrans manager without the need to sync/unsync with iTunes.

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Answer 11

LindaYNM

Level 1

5 points

Dec 7, 2014 5:46 PM in response to Ellythrion

I just had this same issue. Here's what I found
IOS 8 has enabled a "safety" feature that allows photos to be deleted but puts them in a holding area for 30 days
(this is why they still take up all that room)
View your photos by Album
you should notice an album called recently deleted - view this album
now select and delete again
(should solve the problem)

It seems we need to "double" delete now to be sure they do not take up "space"

Hope this helps

L

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Answer 12

jarasmus

Level 1

4 points

Mar 17, 2015 12:02 PM in response to Ellythrion

Here's a Solution which works 99%.
After giving up on studying various sources on this topics and trying to delete it from my iPhone 3GS, I gave a last chance and Vualá!

A quick tip: simply clean your DCIM folder it via iFunBox. If not familiar with this keyword, read below:

Step by step Solution:

download latest iFunBox;
install it on your PC, run it, connect your iPhone via USB;
Click on GENERAL STORAGE, then get back to Media folder:
Open DCIM folder:
Select ALL folders in DCIM, right-click for sub-menu, choose DELETE:
Wait until is done, disconnect you iPhone, go to Settings ... Usage, scroll down until you'll find Photos and tap on it.
At last, you must see a 0 bytes of taken space:

Enjoy.

And please FB Share it, Twit it, Pin it... just spread the word, as seems this issue been discussed all over, but never was easy way to solve it.

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