iPhone 6 Plus 16GB with really 11,7 GB. I want a solution!!!!!!!!!!

The binary to decimal is NOT a "newer" or "better" way as the way the mechanical components handle the storage of information is in sets of 8. Doing it in decimal makes it less accurate, but dumbed down. The whole thing started because manufacturers could make it simpler & easier to understand to the "dumb consumers" as an excuse to cut corners essentially. That was back when we were dealing with KB & MB. With GBs & especially TBs the discrepancy gets more extreme & everyone should use "true" metrics, not "dumbed down anything

Where exactly do you get that 11.8 GB figure? Part of the 16GB is used by the operating system, as it would on any computing device. I suspect the rest is taken up by apps and content, but again, without knowing where you are getting it, its hard to say.

Germanmaccari wrote:

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡I WANT A SOLUTION RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW: This is a user-to-user forum. Some participants might think that to be a bit rude, considering you are asking for assistance.

It's a given when you buy a drive it isn't going to be as big as you think.

As James Ward4 observed, part of that 16 GB is the operating system. That's several GB right there.

Manufacturers will usually round up numbers. It's easier to say 16 GB instead of 15.xxxxxxxx (I don't know what the iPhone really is).

I don't know if this still applies but there's also a computer mathematics twist in reporting size:

How Mac OS X and iOS report storage capacity - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419 - pre OSX10.6 and iOS use an older convention of calculating GB using a 1024 factor. OSX 10.6+ use a 1000 factor. In both cases some reported size is still lost to formatting.

Your solution is you are still in the time window when you can return the phone and pay for one with more storage capacity.

Germanmaccari wrote:

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡I WANT A SOLUTION RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For some reason I get this image of child stomping their feet and throwing a temper tantrum.

Yep - that sounds about right. What isn't represented there is the space that iOS needs (including not only the code, but reserved space for several functions), and the differences in how electronic storage can be calculated. My five adds up to about 12.6 total, but your 6 plus does have several functions that my phone doesn't, so about what is to be expected.

Your numbers are in line with observations at:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/ios-8-thoroughly-reviewed/2/#install

iOS8 storage requirements may vary depending upon the exact hardware but note in the above article that a 16 GB iPad mini showed 11 GB free after iOS8 installation, and other devices also show roughly a 4-5 GB storage requirement.

You should have a few days left to return the phone (I presume this policy is still in place) for return or upgrade, or to decide you still use it with 11 GB.

Why does Apple advertise it as 16 GB? It has been that way with computers for years and years. Everybody does it that way. Admittedly there are not really any options for operating systems for iPhones but with a computer how much space is really "free" on the drive depends upon which operating system you install, so it is convention to report a simple number for bare hardware. Note, when we went into a store last week to phone shop the Apple sales person did specifically point out replacing my wife's iPhone 8GB 4S with iOS6 with an 8GB 5C with iOS8 would have much less free space than even her minimal demands required (she will go with a 16GB 5s).

There are several factors at work here.

First up, as previously noted, some of your device's 16GB is taken up by iOS and the bundled Apple apps that come with the device (Contacts, Safari, Mail, etc.), so the amount of available space on even a freshly initialised device will be less than the advertised capacity. This most likely accounts for the majority of your "missing" GBs.

The second factor is that for iOS devices the advertised capacity is quoted in decimal gigabytes, i.e. 1GB = 1000^3 or 1,000,000,000 bytes, whereas the operating system always reports capacity in binary gigabytes, where 1GB = 1024^3 or 1,073,741,824 bytes. Thus an iPad that has 16,000,000,000 (16GB decimal) bytes of storage will be reported as having only 14.90 GB of capacity by iOS. Same number of bytes but different number of GB depending on whether you use decimal GB or binary GB. This is not unique to iOS devices, Windows PCs and Android devices work like this too. Macs used to work this way but several releases of OS X ago Apple switched the software to always report capacities in decimal GBs instead. Unfortunately they have yet to do this for iOS.

And then there is a final factor that affects how many usable GBs you have on any device or hard drive - formatting. Every storage device has to be formatted before it can store data files and the formatting process uses some of the device's storage (the exact amount varies depending on the OS and filesystem in use, it gets quite technical). The storage capacity for iOS devices (like PCs and Macs also) is advertised as unformatted, some quantity of that number will be used by the formatting process and is thus unavailable to the user. This will be the smallest contributor to your "missing GBs" issue, but it will make a small difference in addition to the previously described factors.

Why does apple say that the capacity is 11.8? They should say that the capacity is 16 and you have 11.8 available. This just causes confusion.For instance my old htc phone shows my usage breakdown out of 32 gb, not out of (32 - os). SO dumb. Apple advertises the phone as 16GB but the phone reads the storage as 14.90 "GiB". So the 11.8 GiB capacity is equal to 12.7 GB. So the OS is taking up 3.3 out of 16 GB. Which is almost 21% of the total storage, which is completely ridiculous. Apple should alert buyers that almost a quarter of their hard drive will be taken up by OS. Or make 32 GB the entry level.

This doesn't make a lot of sense. All manufacturers of hard drives and computers give the hardware size of their storage devices, i.e. you buy a 1 TB hard drive. But buy the time you set up the drive to use with your computer you will not have near 1 TB as software addresses the size of the drive different than hardware.

For more information: How OS X and iOS report storage capacity - Apple Support

And this also applies to Android.

Yes I understand this. The software is using a different definition of GB. It considers 1 GB to be 1024^3 bytes, which is greater than 1 billion bytes. So the number of GB displayed is lower, however the actual storage is the same. Example: The hard drive holds 16 billion bytes. This can be considered 16 GB or 14.9 GB (GiB). Either way it's the same.

I don't think you understand what I was trying to say ( I didn't state it very well). I was making two major points:

1. The way apple displays your hdd usage is confusing.

- Yes other companies display storage in the "GiB" version of the unit, but they don't all do this. Like i mentioned my HTC phone does not. A previous poster mentioned newer versions of OS X don't do this. This adds to confusion for many people.

- When you look at your storage in the settings it tells you your Capacity, as well as the storage you have remaining. Capacity should mean maximum amount the hdd can hold.However it does not tell you the maximum amount of the hard drive. It tells you the amount left over after the OS. And then it also tells you the amount left over after what you have downloaded on to the phone. This makes no sense to me. If it's a 16 GB hard drive and the software displays the amount in the GiB form, okay fine, but at least say the capacity is 14.9, not 11.8 (14.9 - OS and accompanying apps). I just feel like CAPACITY should be a hard number that tells you the max storage of the hard drive, not a number that changes based on how big the OS is. I get it, but its a confusing way to display it.

2. The IOS 8 operating system is huge.

- 16 GB hard drive does not leave enough storage left over after this huge OS is installed.

- Apple should make consumers more aware of the size of the OS, or not offer a 16GB hdd version at all. Most android phones start at 32 GB ( even ones from 3 years ago).

https://www.apple.com/support/feedback/

When iOS 7 came out, there were a lot of complaints that people had to delete their personal content like picture to free up enough space to install the new iOS. You don't have to do that anymore because space is now reserved for downloading future iOS updates. So when you update, the new iOS is downloaded into the reserved space in addition to the previous iOS that you still have installed. Once installation is complete, the previous iOS is deleted and space is again reserved for a future update. Bottom line is that iOS takes double the amount of space that it really needs.

This is all for your convenience though. It doesn't matter if you want to record some video right now and then move it to your computer. You may not even want to do an iOS update right now. Apple has made the decision for you that you will not be able to use the space that a future iOS update is to download into. Maybe someone wants to sell you a more expensive model.

mine, too, i hv no idea...

he/she is right, mine, too. i have the iphone 6-16gb. apart from the fact that is stated in the "information", if one adds used and free he gets the 11.8, like mine. my used is 8.8 and free 2.8=11.6 ca 11.8.