Where is my memory? (How to clear "Documents and Data")

Same problem here. I'm using an old 16GB iPhone 4s.

I deleted all episodes from all podcasts, but it tells me that 2,4 GB are being used as "Documents and Data". Has anyone got to a conclusion on how to handle this issue?

I am having similar problems with Documents and Data though not with Podcasts. storage was getting full so I did a full restore from backup, that's done the trick for me before and cleared out some of the junk and given me more space. i don't know whether its a 9.2.1 issue but since upgrading my Documents and Data is increasing rapidly. After the restore I had about 3GB free space. This wasn't a surprise as I had had to delete a lot of music and apps over the weeks to keep giving myself space. However, within 48 hours that 3GB diminished to nothing at all, to 0 bytes at one point. I've now removed 4.8GB of music half an hour ago and now have 4.2GB of free space and my Documents and Data has swelled to 3.8GB, it was 1.25GB a week ago. I've tried Battery Doctor but it says there's no cache or junk to remove And every time I remove something Documents and Data seems to fill the space.

in fact, in the time it's taken me to write this post I'm down to 4.1GB free space! It's unbelievable, there's hardly anything actually stored on my phone so where has all the space gone?!

After nearly six months of scouring the internet, I finally found the answer to the mysterious memory Documents & Data hogging problem within the Podcast app. This requires no computer syncing and it doesn't require you to restore your iPhone.

The steps are as follows:

1) Download the Battery Doctor app on your iPhone (it's the first one that shows up in search)

2) Hit the "Junk" icon on the bottom and tap "Clean up Cache."

3) Repeat until your space frees up. The folks I learned this technique from on some other message board said it took 10-15 tries; it took me +30 attempts. The memory savings start small at first and then it starts knocking off hundreds of MBs at a time.

All of this sounds crazy I know, but I went from having less than 200 MB of free space to 3.6 GB. Great thing was, my podcast app had only been hogging 1GB of data, so the Battery Doctor app found 2.6 GB elsewhere. Best of luck to you all, and you're welcome.

Erase & restore if you want a short term fix, it tends to purge older episodes that may be still cached, I don't know if it resolves it permanently, mine hovers around 30 MB but the episodes do take up many GB.

If you think it will help report an issue…

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

If it really bothers you try another app, Overcast, Downcast, Acast, Castro… there are many to choose from in the store, it seems pointless using an app that you apparently can't control it's storage correctly.

You simply delete all your feeds in the app, erase the device & restore from a backup. Then the OS should not have the old feeds & you should get your space back. Other apps work in different ways, some will stream episodes, some will download to the device - it really depends on how many feeds you listen to & if you keep old episodes on the device. Make sure you screenshot the feed list if you can't remember all the shows you need to add to any new apps you try.

I don't know if you are reading the same figure as me - it may differ across iOS versions, on iOS 8 I have a listing of the feed sizes & the documents & data is separate.

fernandogarcez, backing up to iTunes via USB & restoring can take a few hours, but simply choosing to ignore the advice offered here & by Apple support isn't going to help you at all, good luck with it.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ select iPhone, Select 'Bug report' from the 'Feedback type'.

IanAD wrote:

I have the same problem

Have you tried backing up, erasing & restoring the device?

I keep suggesting this as a workaround because it worked for me - space was reclaimed after restoring, the alternative is to post to Apple's feedback form & wait for them to fix it. This issue has been around for over a year (I had the issue in an earlier iOS version) I don't think it is a top priority - it appears not all users see it.

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Personally it seems like if you can't control an app as you desire you should try using another app, I realise that no other apps integrate into iTunes podcast syncing, but that is the risk you take with Apple devices, there are some podcast players that are better than Apple's own app, see the App store or review sites for info.

Linahl wrote:

Since last restoration, I have only listened via wifi and I have not downloaded a single episode. "Documents and Data" still takes up nearly 3GB.

You do realise that Podcasts app has to download the episode to play? It isn't just streaming them it caches a copy on the device - watch the 'playback bar' it slowly fills as the entire episode is downloaded (this is ahead of the play position, in feint grey). That process causes the file to be put into temporary storage, so you can listen offline or replay etc. The app (or the OS) is failing to remove these temporary files in these cases (other apps have also done the same - the video app or youtube have done this on occasion for me). It has been like this for a while now http://www.imore.com/streaming-itunes-videos-eating-storage-your-iphone-or-ipad- heres-fix

There are older articles discussing it for other iOS versions.

Tell Apple if you think they will fix it…

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Your time may be better spent searching the app store for other podcast apps. Otherwise try to get a genius to look at it at a store, I suspect they will tell you the same erase & restore procedure.

You need to post your suggestions to the feedback form. It is never clear if Apple employees read these forums or if they pass on ideas & suggestions.

We all know iOS has issues & quirks, we are just other users who can't change any of that. Apple can change it if they get to hear about it.

http://apple.com/feedback

I thought Battery Doctor may try to fill the cache to bursting, but Battery Doctor don't seem to mention or discuss the feature so it is somewhat impossible to guess what it is doing.

How much data do you have in iCloud drive?

iOS will try to sync almost all of it as far as I can tell, it may explain why it slowly fills.

I'd backup to iTunes, erase and set it up without restoring from a backup then enable iCloud drive. If it fills up again you know iCloud drive is the issue. Many other users with 16GB phones seem to have this issue…

Re: "Other" Space Huge in iPhone 6 - 16 Gb

bodkast wrote:

Thanks. There is another Battery Doctor, made by Ignis America, which also does not help disk space. It reduces, but only by about 25 to 50mb each time.

Currently my Apple podcast app, under 'Documents & Data' (which cannot be accessed to delete, nor can the app itself be deleted) is taking up 6.2gb of a 16gb phone.
***...? Thanks Apple. Any solutions, please post them here - if you care at all.

This is a user forum & Apple rarely respond here (normally in the form of 'Community managers'). You can wait forever for an answer or you can post to Apple directly…

https://ssl.apple.com/feedback/

Or ask for help at a store or via the main support page.

The answer has been posted numerous times but many choose to ignore it because it requires time. Backup, erase & restore the backup. Cached data is not restored via backups. I would disable all podcast feeds before backing up to prevent it downloading again after restoring.

These third party apps are simply trying to trigger the cache to clear by requesting device space. Eventually it can work but if something takes 10-30 attempts to do something I don't consider that a valid solution. The apps appear to bend the app store guidelines & eventually get banned from the store too.

I don't use Apple notes so I can't speak from experience.

Apple explain backups…

What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

Your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backup only include information and settings stored on your device. It doesn’t include the information already stored in iCloud, like Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Mail, Notes, shared photos, iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, and files you store in iCloud Drive.

I don't understand your 'restrictions password' question. A restrictions password is not required for backups as far as I can tell. If you have enabled the restrictions you will need to know the password to change settings if you locked them but not to backup or restore.

Also consider making an iCloud & iTunes backup…

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

For iTunes enable the encrypted backup if you want to keep passwords & health app data. just do not lose the backup password or the iTunes backup all be unusable (iCloud already encrypts that data).

If you have other questions please make a new thread, this is getting off topic & this thread is too long, link it from here if you want people to follow 🙂

Podcasts are not instantly deleted you need to check the settings for each feed & look for any saved episodes.

If you want to test this, play an episode, disable all wifi & cellular then try replaying it.

It's unclear to me how long episodes stick around, you will need to examine the settings in the app (pull down when viewing the feed).

I don't understand what is going on in yiur documents & data, but if you can't get it under control try a third party podcast app.

Syncing to iTunes on a computer can sometimes cause old episodes to be flushed, but that may be different for me (on iOS 7).