Usage does not add up to total storage on iphone

Question

Level 1

11 points

Usage does not add up to total storage on iphone

I recently ran out of storage on my iphone so I deleted the camera roll and did a sync. The photos have gone but the problem still remains. I have done a full restores but the usage shows 1.32GB used and 117MB free on a 16GB phone? What happened to the other 2+ GB?

When I itunes the usage show plenty of free space until the sync finishes and then it disappears. The bar chart also shows 800Mb of 'other' any idea what this might be?

Russell

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Mar 1, 2014 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

russell159 Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 1, 2014 11:51 AM in response to russell159

Oops! That should be 13.2GB not 1.32!

After playing around a bit more iTunes definitely has a different idea about how much storage is on the phone. Going to settings->general->about says that the "capacity' is 13.4GB?

I am on 7.0.6.

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Answer 2

Mar 1, 2014 12:07 PM in response to russell159

The missing storage space is most likely the operating system.

And there are two methods of measuring capacity anyways. For example, some conversions rate 1000 MB to 1 GB. Others rate the conversion as 1024 MB to 1 GB. The technically correct conversion is:

1 Kilobyte = 1024 bytes

1 Megabyte = 1024 Kilobytes

1 Gigabyte = 1024 Megabytes = 1,048,576 Kilobytes

But some measurements round off these to 1000 per. So, it ends up that 1 GB = 1,000,000 Kilobytes.

In a '16GB' device, if they are using the second measurement system, then you 'lose' 777,216 Kilobytes. That means you actually have less storage than you might think, by about 0.75 GB.

So, a 16GB storage device that uses the second (less accurate, but more 'metric') measurement would really only be 15.25 GB of the first (more accurate) measuring system.

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Answer 3

russell159 Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 21, 2014 1:52 PM in response to russell159

The culprit turned out to be genius play lists. These were adding albums which did not appear in the iTunes usage calculations but, of course, used storage on the phone. Disabling genius play lists fixed the issue.

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Answer 4

BeckyF.

Level 1

0 points

May 12, 2015 4:29 PM in response to TJBUSMC1973

What about my predicament? I have a 16 Gb iPhone 5 iOS 8.3, and this phone claims that I have used 10.8 Gb and have only 1.8 Gb left of free space. By this math, my phone holds only 12.6 Gb of data: NOT 15.25. So basically I am missing 2.65 Gb of data on my phone. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

When I click on "manage storage" and I add up all the data that my apps are taking up, I find that I am only using 7.4 GB OF DATA!!!! By THIS math I should be left with about 4.85 GB OF FREE SPACE?!?! Why in the heck is this happening? Even if the iOS is reading the storage differently than the vendor, there is STILL a CHUNK of Gb that are mysteriously MISSING from my phone?!?! If you could help I would sincerely appreciate it!

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Answer 5

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

May 12, 2015 4:35 PM in response to BeckyF.

That's how much free space a new one has, which seems about right for your case.

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