iPhone Photo Library "Ghost" Space

For me the issue was the "PhotoData" folder. It was over 500MB in size even though my photo library contained only 5 photos. I deleted the PhotoData folder by trusting my computer and using my file manager to delete it from my iPhone's storage.

Did you ever delete photos using a 3rd party app from your computer (Or Windows Explorer)? If so, that's why you still had photodata.

I did not delete anything using any 3rd party app prior to deleting the PhotoData folder. The largest folder in the PhotoData folder had something to do with metadata (I don't remember the exact name). The only action that could have broken something that I remember taking is mass deleting photos (~1000+ photos and videos) and clearing out the recently deleted album.

Having the same issue with my daughters iphone5C. ITunes says she has over 400 pictures and she has none. We have never plugged her phone in to a computer cause we don't have one, only use our phones now days, but I brought it to work to reset. I have totally reset her phone and it still says it has all these photos. I only have one back up point from today so I can not go back to a different day. Any other suggestions?

edit... I just downloaded file manager app and it shows no files in her photo album. Also she does not have any other apps on her phone other than what the phone came with cause the ghost photos are taking up all her room and she cant download any apps.

I just found this. It brought up over 500 pictures that were phantom photos. No 3rd party app necessary!

I have deleted photos from iphone 6 but the photo library still takes up a lot of space in internal storage. How can I d…

Go to Settings

1. Date & Time
2. Untoggle "Set Automatically"
3. Manually change the date back. For example, if today is March 15, 2015, choose August 1, 2014. (You can change it back once we're done)
4. Close out of that
5. Open "Photos"
6. Select "Albums"
7. If, like me, you had already cleared out everything from the Camera Roll and "Recently Deleted" folder, you'll smile to see that your "Recently Deleted" folder now has thousands of images back. Those are your phantom photos
8. Open it, "Select" and start deleting
9. Now, go back into Settings - General - Usage - Storage - Manage Storage - and you'll notice your Photo & Camera isempty if you deleted everything

The solution above has been posted multiple times in this thread already....

Cheers,

GB

gail from maine wrote:

The solution above has been posted multiple times in this thread already....

It's even covered in a user tip: Why does my iOS device say I have more photos than I can find?

I sincerely appreciate your offering very helpful information on this problem, but I couldn't agree that suspecting Apple intentionally doing this is non-sense.

For those reading this thread, they know what's going on. But for those don't, they begin to come up with the idea that oh... my current 16G/32G/... iPhone/iPad couldn't afford my usage pattern. And when it's time for upgrade, I may have to consider choose a model with larger space (and at higher price). This bug at least has the potential to mis-guide the users.

Further, this bug is so ugly in a way that it can block upgrading OS! Yes. Apple fixed the bug, but you couldn't upgrade your iOS with the fix if there is not enough space, which is what the bug is causing. This becomes a Paradox! Again for those not reading the thread, they may come up with an idea that "Oh no, next time I may have to buy a larger model since my poor 16G couldn't even afford an upgrade while I have removed most of my photos -- and the rest are so important that I don't want to delete."

Suspecting Apple could be regarded as non-sense only after Apple takes enough care to break the Paradox. One thing Apple could do is in latest iTunes, when upgrading devices fails due to space problem, users will get informed of this problem, offered enough details for users to work-around, or even iTunes automatically delete "deleted" files for me to free up spaces. But Apple hasn't done so.

Therefore, I still incline to the idea that Apple at least is not active in clarifying some facts which will change users' mind buying larger models.

Well, yes, you are undoubtedly right. They were also probably in on the "landing on the moon hoax"....

GB

im using an iphone 5 in ios 8.1.2 i cant update to ios 9.2 because i have no space left however i have no photos in my gallery and my recently deleted folder is clear but when i go to usage i have 3.4gb in the photos application...help please

Look 4 messages above yours: Re: iPhone Photo Library "Ghost" Space

And if that link doesn't work due to a forum bug, see: Why does my iOS device say I have more photos than I can find?

The date work around does not work for me unfortunately...I have tried numerous time to get it to work and nothing....I have got 129 current pictures seemingly taking up 2.7gb of my iCloud Photo Library...

This discussion is about how to remove photos from the "Recently Deleted" items on an iOS device, not about iCloud Photo Library which is an entirely different topic. I would suggest that you start a new thread with your question, what you are seeing, and what you have done to fix the issue.

Best of luck,

GB

TouchCopy is my savior. Same issue as everyone else: deleted all photos from phone, but still 400MB of ghost pictures in Photo Library. Nothing in Recently Deleted. Did the "change the date" trick, nothing happened. Sync'd and resync'd. Tried everything (except a restore). Downloaded TouchCopy for free (I guess it was the trial version). Just went through the folders, found a bunch of videos, deleted them and VOILA! ghost picture are gone. Now I've got just 2.4KB of ghost pictures (mostly album covers)(and yes, that's KB, not a typo). Ahhh, my phone can breath.

How did you delete them? I downloaded touchcopy and i was able to see all the photos in the camera roll, but there was no option to delete. I tried right clicking and it still didn't give me an option to delete. Help please!