Storage data different on iPhone and iTunes

I'm having this problem too. My phone says 9.2 GB used and 2.8 GB free but when I add up all the usage information there's roughly 4 GB "missing" of the 9.2 that my phone says I'm using. When I link my phone to iTunes it says I have 4.5 GB free....Where's all my storage space!?!? I switched to Apple from Android and have been regretting it ever since. Never once had a storage issue with a 16GB Android but am constantly having issues with this phone.

(I hate to post things like that, but, yeah) same issue here.

758 MB on phone vs. 3.68 GB on iTunes.

But, hey, maybe this would shed light:

I suspect one thing: this may be caused by music streaming cache. When you listen to some song, it is being downloaded to your iPhone in the background, but never gets deleted. You DON'T see any indication that the song is on the phone, because you didn't download it manually our synced it via iTunes; according to icons, looks like it's still in the cloud.

What I did, via iTunes I synced recent albums I listened to (there's a history on Music app, which may come in handy) and then removed them again (also via iTunes). In other words, overrode the cached songs, and then got the ability to delete them (because now they were not a cache anymore and could be accessed).

The result is: free space became more honest both on iTunes and on iPhone. iPhone - 1.5 BG, iTunes: 2.86 GB.

Of course, I didn't address ALL the cached songs, only part of them, and that's why there's still a difference of ~ 1 GB, but I'm convinced that if I sit and redo this process with all my music, this will solve the problem.

Now, Apple. Are you going to address that issue someday? Hope I found a place where to search the bug for you 🙂

Cheers!

Also, something else interesting happened. I made a reset (I don't know how this kind of reset is called, but what I did is held power button with home button and released right after the screen went black and right before the Apple logo appeared) and after that I was able to see all the songs (that I considered as "cached" previously) as downloaded. So I just removed them (using my iPhone) and freed more space. Now the free space is 2.3 GB, which is almost what iTunes shows.

The problem is solved in my case. Good luck to you all!

I've encountered the same issue with my iPhone 6s. Being that my size is only 16gb, its rather frustrating.

One solution that saved up a lot of space for me was to turn off iCloud Music Library and turn it back on again. As others have pointed out, looks like it saves cached versions of the songs you listened to on you device.

Settings -> Music -> iCloud Music Library (slide off, then back on)

Before I did this, free space on device said 1.4gb. After the switch, free space jumped to 3.2gb (still didn't match what iTunes said I had, but it was much closer)

Weird point to note was that the very second I simply opened the music app and then closed it (i didn't listen to anything), the free space dropped to 2.7gb. Again, none of this data appears to be accounted for anywhere.

I have a feeling something similar is happening with Photos too. Ive deleted every photo from every album (even the recently deleted) yet my phone still says i have 656mb on data in the photo library. I simply cannot account for half a gig of photos that I can't see anywhere in the photos app. everything iCloud related is turned off for photos. Oh apple, this is painful!

I just copied a new cd to my ipad and I went from 1.1gb of free space to 3.1gb of free space #magic

Yeah, I'm having a similar issue to the one mentioned on the last couple of pages. When I connect my iPhone 6 to iTunes, it says I have 7.43 GB of free space, but after I sync, it says I have 499.5 MB of free space. Which is right? And why does this even happen in the first place?!

I am able to free up a few GB of space by going to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Apple ID: ~~~~ > Sign Out

The sign in again.

Thanks, Averysgrammy. I have been struggling with this for a while. I trained all the solutions here that did not require a restore. And your solution is that one that worked for me. Thanks, again.

OMG thank you thank you! I've had this issue recur on my iPhone 5s multiple times with the differences being very large, this time around 512mb free according to iPhone vs. 3gb free according to iTunes. Previously I did the hard reset and the backup and it worked but I don't want to be doing this every couple of months! And something always goes "missing" in the process.

Averysgrammy's fix is beautiful in its simplicity, I simply signed out of my Apple ID, shut it off, turned it back on and had 2.5gb free! You're my hero, thanks so much

I was able to cleared some space by changing the time general/date time go back a year or two . Then go to photos and you''l see your deleted photos. Delete them one more time and don't forget to go back to your settings and change the time

Hope this helps

Well, thank you. But I was just passing along a suggestion I had read. I'm glad it worked for you, as it did for me.

This was magic! Here's what I did that freed up 40 GB of space.

I went on my iPad and Settings - Music - iCloud Music Library - and turned the Music Library to OFF

I then went to iTunes & App Store and logged out of my Apple ID, waited a minute, then I logged back in

Then I went back to the iCould Music Library and turned it back ON again asking it to REPLACE the old library when prompted (you may not get this prompt)

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!

I started with 4 GB of free space (checking it in Storage & iCloud Usage on the iPad) while seeing nothing in the way of "other" when checking it on iTunes on my Mac. According to iTunes on my Mac I had all the free space in the world and according to my iPad I had almost nothing in the way of free space.

And after I did what I told you above....

44 GB of free space (checking it in Storage & iCloud Usage on the iPad) and the EXACT SAME amount of free space when looking at it on iTunes on my Mac.

THEY ARE IDENTICAL! YIPPPEEEEEEEEE!

Now, go, live long, and prosper.

Yep. Thats's definitely the problem in my case, it also happens in my other devices, like iPhone, iPad, and iPod. This cache should be deleted automatically (Nice to have), as for 16 GB devices this is a complete nightmare!, because you think you are only streaming music, but you are actually downloading it, Please Apple fix this one. If you don't know this, you end up restoring your device, (a waste of time) this will recover the missing space, but as you listen music from Apple Music, it will happen again soon.

I did this AND the log out of ITunes things as mentioned below and now my available space matches ITunes. Thank you!!!!..was driving me crazy

Thanks for the info. App worked great! Went from a little over 1 Gb to 6 Gb free!! Finally have space again!