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

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Level 1

15 points

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

Hi

Recently, I have had some issues with the memory of my iPhone, where I get warnings that the memory is full or almost full.

I have had a look at settings>general>usage.

There are two things that strike me as odd:

-The first is that it tells me that 12.2 GB of space has been used, but when I total all the memory usage for all the apps, I only reach 6.8GB. Does the operating system really take up that much space? My initial guess would be that the capacity of the phone is 16GB, and that the 12.2 represents the remainng capacity after 3.8GB has been taken up by the OS.

-The second is that when I have a closer look at Podcasts, which is the app with by far the greatest memory useage at 3.7GB. It tells me that 933MB are taken up by podcasts, and it then shows how much space is taken by each of my podcasts. But then, at the bottom, it says "Documents and data: 2.8GB". What are these documents and data? Presumably, they are not the podcast episodes themselves, as those should be what are listed in the 933MB..

Any advice on any of these issues would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know what model iphone I have, it says "Model A1457" on the back. It was purchased some time in 2014.

It seems the operating system is 8.0.2 (if that is what the "version" in the "about" section of settings talks about).

Posted on Feb 9, 2015 3:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

May 2, 2017 10:50 AM in response to bodkast

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.

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

May 2, 2017 11:52 AM in response to bodkast

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 🙂

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Answer 3

NatorDom

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2017 2:47 PM in response to steriana

To anyone still having is issue on the iPad, I have just fixed the problem with a great app called Memory & Disk Scanner Pro. It deleted 1.56 GB of other data in my podcasts. Around 250 MB first go, 1.25 GB second and the remaining circa 60 Mb on the third 🙂 you need to pay 99 cents after this but job done for me...for now at least! Happy hunting.

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Answer 4

Feb 16, 2017 9:12 AM in response to dr_bab

I came to this thread as I had 2.0 gigs! of documents & data on my podcast app that I couldn't clear *-* I went through a bunch of different options before I thought of just deleting the podcast app. Worked like a charm!!!! I had 2.9 gigs of podcast data in storage before & went down to 374.8 MB after it automatically reinstalled my podcasts upon re-downloading the app. Just make sure your podcast subscriptions are on your iTunes are how you want them before downloading back on your iPhone (if you don't limit the episodes on your favorite podcast it will try to download them all).

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Answer 5

bodkast

Level 1

4 points

May 2, 2017 5:11 AM in response to steriana

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.

Reply

Answer 6

bodkast

Level 1

4 points

May 2, 2017 11:36 AM in response to Drew Reece

Many thanks for that. I had considered backup per the recommendations here, but am afraid to lose my Notes, which don't seem to go up to iCloud, helpfully enough. Will a backup restore them i wonder?

Then i also found i don't have a 'Restrictions Password', which seems required for a Reset.

Thanks again, sorry to be so backward; i only use iphone for notes & podcasts anyway. Should really get much more familiar.

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Answer 7

B.E.L.

Level 1

4 points

May 30, 2017 12:31 PM in response to dr_bab

I tried the battery doctor app suggested. Did not work to reduce the "Documents & Data" for Podcasts app which had grown to something like 16 GB of storage space on a 32 GB IPhone 5c. Was seeing Storage almost full warnings and forced me to delete many photos, music and other data from other apps.

What worked for me was to follow suggestions of Backup & Restore via iTunes which took about 1 hour but completely removed the Documents & Data from podcast app.

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Answer 8

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Feb 9, 2015 3:53 AM in response to dr_bab

Read here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/191264/how-to-free-up-space-on-an-iphone-or-ipad/

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Answer 9

dr_bab Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 9, 2015 4:04 AM in response to wjosten

Thanks for the tip.

From that document:

"You can’t actually clear an app’s Documents & Data from this screen. Instead, you’ll need to either delete the app and reinstall it or clear the an app’s temporary data from within the app. [...] Not every app has this sort of option, so you may have to delete and reinstall an app if it’s using too much space for its temporary data."

So I would need to delete the podcast app, likely with all my downloaded podcasts, in order to clear this "documents and data"?

And presumably, this is something I would have to do on a fairly regular basis?

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Answer 10

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Feb 9, 2015 4:13 AM in response to dr_bab

You can't delete the Podcasts app. Read here on how to manage/delete podcasts:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202949

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Answer 11

dr_bab Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 9, 2015 4:30 AM in response to wjosten

I can't delete it?

I know how to delete podcasts. I have deleted some podcasts and some individual episodes, but the main culprit is the "Documents and Data". This is what I need to get rid of. I did not find a way from within the podcast-app to do this. Is there one?

Also, did you see my first question above? Is it correct that the OS takes up 5.4GB, and that the TOTAL capacity of the phone is 12.2 GB, and that the OS takes up some of this 12.2 GB?

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Answer 12

dr_bab Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 9, 2015 10:29 PM in response to dr_bab

Ok.. so i listened to a few podcast episodes yesterday and deleted them.

Now the "podcasts" part of the memory usage for this app has gone down to 908 MB (from 933MB), while the "documents and data" part has gone up to 2.9 GB (from 2.8 GB).

So, it seems like a plausible explanation that when episodes delete, they are not really deleted from the phone even though they disappear visibly from the app. The data is still there in the "Documents and Data" part of the app. Is this correct? If so, I have to ask, WHY?

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Answer 13

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 9, 2015 11:36 PM in response to dr_bab

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).

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Answer 14

dr_bab Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 9, 2015 11:45 PM in response to Drew Reece

Med vennlig hilsen/

with kind regards,

Halvor

Den 10. feb. 2015 kl. 08.36 skrev Apple Support Communities Updates <discussions-updates@apple.com<mailto:discussions-updates@apple.com>>:

http://www.apple.com/support/assets/images/external/emails/logo.gif

You received a reply

Drew Reece<https://discussions.apple.com/profile/Drew+Reece?ac_cid=op123456> has replied to your question. You can view the full discussion<https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6822791?answerId=27641879022#27641879022&ac_cid=op123456#27641879> in Apple Support Communities.

Where is my memory? (How to clear "Documents and Data")<https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6822791?answerId=27641879022#27641879022&ac_cid=op123456#27641879>

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).

Correct Answer <https://discussions.apple.com/email/thread/6822791/correct/27641879> Helpful Answer <https://discussions.apple.com/email/thread/6822791/helpful/27641879>

Use the buttons above to tell Drew Reece and the rest of the community if this reply solved your question or helped you get closer to finding a solution.

To reply to Drew Reece, go to the discussion<https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6822791?answerId=27641879022#27641879022&ac_cid=op123456#27641879> in Apple Support Communities.

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Answer 15

dr_bab Author

Level 1

15 points

Feb 12, 2015 11:30 PM in response to Drew Reece

This issue just randomly solved itself.

It seemed as if deleted podcast-episodes were somehow still stored within the application, and thus took up memory within the "Documents and Data" category.

Whenever I listened to an episode and then either deleted it manually, or waited the 24 hrs that I have set for automatic deletion of played episodes, the memory spent on that specific podcast would go down, but the "Documents and Data" would go up with the same amount.

The episodes were not available to be played without wifi or mobile data, so it doesn't seem as if the application knew about them either.

It started to get incredibly annoying, where I was unable to take photos because there was only 0kb of available memory.

But then yesterday when I went to check the status of my memory I suddenly had 3GB available and the "Documents and Data" of my podcasts had dropped to 14MB.

Thanks for all the input here. It would have been nice to know what the smeg was going on with the phone, but at least it is working again.

Happy everything.

-Bab

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