WePhoneMA
Level 1 (9 points)

Q: Can not free up storage space after deleting all photo

I have a iPhone5 with ios8.1. I deleted all photo and videos in my photo library to free up space. however, in usage it still shows the photo library used more than 6gb space. in "about" page of setting, it shows 800 photos and 70 videos in my iPhone. but I cannot find any photo in photo library, and not from iTunes or iPhoto by connecting to MAC. it bother me for a few weeks. does anyone have a solution?

 

Thanks

 

Ann

iPhone 5, iOS 8.1.1

Posted on Nov 23, 2014 6:30 PM

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Q: Can not free up storage space after deleting all photo

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  • by gchilcoat,

    gchilcoat gchilcoat Apr 26, 2015 8:44 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 26, 2015 8:44 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Thank you for posting this solution - I'm very grateful!

  • by TJM3,

    TJM3 TJM3 May 3, 2015 1:57 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 3, 2015 1:57 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Hi, I did all this and still have not retrieved my storage.  I do not have cloud turned on, tried turning everything off and on a few times, nothing seems to be working.  Nothing shows in the recently deleted items folder, either at todays date or when I turn back the date manually.  I had a lot of photos from a big trip so now it still shows 29 GB in my Photo Library under usage but they have all been deleted!  I hope you can help.  Thanks.

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch May 3, 2015 6:12 PM in response to JonathanBoy
    Level 8 (37,952 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 3, 2015 6:12 PM in response to JonathanBoy

    If you are running iOS 8.2 or 8.3, and you have really followed the steps that I posted exactly, including setting back the time 2 years, then opened the Deleted folder even if it says zero images, then your phone's memory is hopelessly corrupt and you will have to restore it and set it up as new.

  • by TJM3,

    TJM3 TJM3 May 4, 2015 4:38 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 4, 2015 4:38 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    I did follow all the steps, even tried it more than once, but in the end needed to do a factory reset.  Kind of scary as I am not that knowledgeable about computers but after doing this, restoring saved info from iTunes and then doing a restart it all finally worked!!  Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated, and also for the quick reply to my query.

  • by houston9820,

    houston9820 houston9820 Jun 15, 2015 10:20 AM in response to WePhoneMA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 15, 2015 10:20 AM in response to WePhoneMA

    The one and ONLY way to recover storage on an iphone is to reset to factory defaults. Back up your

    photos and contacts etc. and reset the sucker. None of the other options offered on this forum work.

    Save yourself the aggravation and reset!

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jun 15, 2015 10:22 AM in response to houston9820
    Level 8 (37,952 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 15, 2015 10:22 AM in response to houston9820

    houston9820 wrote:

     

    The one and ONLY way to recover storage on an iphone is to reset to factory defaults. Back up your

    photos and contacts etc. and reset the sucker. None of the other options offered on this forum work.

    Save yourself the aggravation and reset!

    WRONG.

    Why does my iOS device say I have more photos than I can find?

  • by houston9820,

    houston9820 houston9820 Jun 15, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 15, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Sure beats the silly 99 step procedures being touted. None of which work. Back up and reset. Quick, easy,

    effective. (set back date two years indeed!).

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jun 15, 2015 10:44 AM in response to houston9820
    Level 8 (37,952 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 15, 2015 10:44 AM in response to houston9820

    Back up and reset to factory defaults is fine if you don't mind losing all data on your phone. But most of us would prefer to keep our data on the phone, and not have to manually re-enter it, and re-earn the top scores in our games. If you read this and other threads on the subject, the process I posted works and has been endorsed by dozens of users. 

     

    But by all means, if the content of your phone means nothing to you, then restore your phone to factory defaults. BTW, you cannot restore to factory defaults and then restore your backup, because the hidden image files will still be in the backup, and will be restored to the phone, so you have lost an hour or more and gained nothing.

  • by Figster512,

    Figster512 Figster512 Jun 15, 2015 10:50 AM in response to WePhoneMA
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Jun 15, 2015 10:50 AM in response to WePhoneMA

    Go to Settings>iCloud>Storage>Manage Storage, then click the first button on top that displays the name of your iPhone, and press delete backup. I had the same problem and iCloud was storing my deleted photos. You can create another backup of your iPhone you just have to delete your old backup.

  • by NanaPf,

    NanaPf NanaPf Jun 19, 2015 6:09 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2015 6:09 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    You are my hero!!!  Thank you! 

  • by Gerard Kieffer,

    Gerard Kieffer Gerard Kieffer Jun 22, 2015 6:47 AM in response to WePhoneMA
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 22, 2015 6:47 AM in response to WePhoneMA

    Hi, I had the sames issue and struggled with it for a while until I found the solution.

     

    Problem:

    I had disabled iCloud Photos, deleted all local pictures and emptied the recently deleted album. Still, the Photos app was using 1.3GB of space on my device.

     

    Reason:

    there are some kind of thumbnail files left on the device that weight several hundred MB each.

     

    Solution:

    I used PhoneView, an app for Mac that lets you browse your iPhone's memory and even delete some files (without jailbreaking). There are other utilities than PhoneView, for Windows and Mac, that do the same thing and some are even free.

    The files to be deleted are located in PhotoData -> Thumbnails and are named XXXX.ithmb. In PhoneView's settings, I had to enable "show entire disk" to display these folders.

     

    phoneview.png

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jun 22, 2015 7:30 AM in response to Gerard Kieffer
    Level 8 (37,952 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 22, 2015 7:30 AM in response to Gerard Kieffer

    I sure hope the OP has resolved this in the 8 months since the original posting

  • by vinaysilla,

    vinaysilla vinaysilla Jun 24, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 24, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    I tried this procedure but it didn't work for me. any other solution for this?

  • by Al_Mon,

    Al_Mon Al_Mon Jul 4, 2015 8:29 AM in response to Gerard Kieffer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 8:29 AM in response to Gerard Kieffer

    Thanks for the great advice Gerard!  On my iPhone 5C the issue was a phantom folder in the "DCIM" folder that was filled with old pictures I had deleted.  You saved me an unnecessary restore, thanks.

  • by Gina Romanchuk,

    Gina Romanchuk Gina Romanchuk Jul 29, 2015 5:13 PM in response to WePhoneMA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2015 5:13 PM in response to WePhoneMA

    Lawrence Finch...  I have the same question, but it's not photos..  it's a video..   I have deleted all movies & TV shows, but it is showing that I have 1 video and it's taking up allot of space...  Do you have any idea's on how to get rid of a video that you can't find anywhere in itune?



    Thanks for any help


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