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My wife's iPhone 4s has 11.1GB of "documents & data" that is Messages (saved). How the heck do we get rid of those so she can free up needed space on her iPhone? Deleting the message threads doesn't affect it when we sync.... AARGH
Thanks, but... I'm at a loss. Been trying to make head or tails out of this "Documents & Data" for a couple of weeks now, since I found it chewing up 29gb out of my 64gb phone. I'm pretty sure I know the solution -- factory reset, reload apps, etc., but am still hopeful there's a less painful way to correct this. Searching the Apple forums and Google, it seems no one has really found a good answer, however.
After plugging my 64gb iPhone 6s in and bringing iTunes up about a couple of weeks ago, I noticed with a bit of alarm that this "Documents & Data" category was chewing up a little over 29gb (!!!) of space. So, I went through, deleted a few apps, cleared out some old messages and some old voicemails, etc..
Unplugged the phone, restarted, plugged the phone back in. Now, iTunes was reporting that Documents & Data were taking up 19gb of space. Quite an improvement, but that's still a pretty good chunk... So, figured I'd back up and delete my old photos (about 1gb worth) off the phone. Tracked down and found another small app I could delete. Restarted and plugged the phone back in. iTunes fires back up, and now reports Documents & Data are taking up 26gb (!!!???). This made no sense to me whatsoever as I didn't open any apps or install anything, but that's where it still stands today -- still around 26gb.
At this point, I went in to Settings -> Storage & iCloud Usage -> Manage Storage (under Storage), went in to each app listed, and tallied everything up. This is what I came to:
Apps: 9.91gb
Data & Documents: 9.32gb
This included native iOS apps like Photos & Camera, Music, Messages, etc. I know that's not 100% accurate, but I would think it should at least be in the ballpark. iTunes, for comparison, reports this:
Apps: 7.82gb
Data & Documents: 26.22gb
I don't know. I'll give it until this weekend to see if I can figure anything out... if I don't by then, I'll just get the wipe and reload over and done with. If I do have an epiphany, I'll be sure to post here what I figure out.
I had the same problem. 5.67 GB of space was being wasted and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I just went into my Podcasts (which I NEVER use/listen to) and turned OFF "sync podcasts" when my iPhone was connected to my laptop, and it magically freed up over 2GB of space. I also went into my phone and deleted any old podcasts that I listened to as they took up a huge chunk of space. Hope this helps!
I am having the same problem (5 GB of "Documents and data") and none of it shows up in any of the apps. I can only see it in iTunes.
What the heck is this and how do I delete?!
This answer will vary depending on your IOS, I currently have 10.0.1 and this is how I cleared it:
1. Settings>General>Storage & iCloud Usage
2. Under "Storage" tap "Manage Storage", there you will view the apps that are taking the most space. In my case "Messages" was the issue if this is your case go all the way back to Settings and tap into "Messages" and go down to "Message History" and tap "Keep Messages" and change your settings to "30 Days" or "1 Year" anything older than that will be deleted. This same example should work with any other apple app
You go to Settings>iCloud>Storage>Manage Storage> go through and turn off and delete what you really don't need or use. If you delete it it deletes all the apps. I tried to only kept my pictures and I'm trying to move those on my laptop. I'm guessing either buy more storage through the cloud. I only have 5GB ($0.99/month) and it said I needed an additional 18.95GB so I removed all. On my iTunes Summary I had 24.5GB of Documents and Data, I now have 9.28GB and thats my photos still -_- . Hope this helps. ***** either pay more for storage or prioritize. If this isn't correct let me know what I can do to get rid of that 9.28GB.
If you go to Settings>General>Storage & iCloud Usage>Manage Storage> you may notice a VERY large amount of Storage relates to facebook (in my case nearly 1Gb).
Delete it (the app - yes it says you will lose documents and data, but thats the idea) and then when you come out, the App hasn't been deleted, but when you log-back in (as it will 'lose' your stored password), mine went down to 150Mb.
Try Iphone Cleaner app on your pc.
Thank god this worked for my iPhone7 Plus!
Thanks a lot 🙂
I fixed this after seeing that I had 7.68gb of Documents and Data!
For iOS 10:
Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage. Then wait for things to load up.
It'll list the app using the most storage first. You can click on each app to see some options to reduce the storage.
Mostly it's just a Delete App option. But at least if you do this and re-install you'll save heaps.
I have almost 2.6 gigs of this documents and data crap on my 6s, and it's getting bigger. It's less than a year old. It drives me nuts. I have no videos, podcasts, music, ibooks, photos nothing on my phone. Nothing in icloud storage, I deleted apps but the docs & data still did not go down in any significant manner. Also, once I start using the app again it goes up again. I cleaned up all my email, sent, deleted, huge files all gone, cleared the data on my browsers, any apps that have the option to clear data I have done it, I have tried every single suggestion here and then some and still nothing..
What is interesting is that my iphone 4 and 6s have basically all the same info, basically the same apps, except on the 4 that is where I have all my music and vids, yet the documents and data on the 4 is next to zero....Even on my 2nd gen ipad I have my email, crazy amounts of vids and even there the docs & data is next to nil. Apple what's up with that...it's almost going to get to a point where all your space is taken up by docs & data...
And it seems the only option then is to reset the phone?!! Yea right, Apple you need to come correct...😠😠😠
There is no "usage" button on my iphone5. I hate, hate, hate the way Apple operates.
There's no such option on my phone. Apple is garbage.
When you go to your settings and scroll down, there is no icloud option? are you sure?
Yes, I've got icloud, but there's no docs and date option on my phone.
So when you go to icloud and select storage what do u see?
Also to add, there is not necessarily going to be a "docs & data option" on your phone. The docs & data is what the apps on your phone save on your phone. Do you have saved messages? Lots of pics? Emails? If you browse on your phone check the browser and see if u can clear the history and such...If you have icloud set up do you have things saving to it? It did that for me by default when I got my phone and I had to turn all that off. I would advise you go to your settings and look at every single item...and keep selecting the forward arrow option till you cannot go any further, then move on to the next setting..there are lots of little "hidden" items that save info to your phone and take up space.
How do I delete "documents & data" that is consuming space?
