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

Sync to iTunes to see if that helps old episodes update. I suspect you have played episodes that are still on the device, they get removed after a day or so as far as I can see. You should also check the settings for each podcasts (pull down to reveal the settings when viewing the feed) - the default seems to be to keep played episodes for 24 hours.

If that doesn't help or if it doesn't resolve itself backup to iTunes or iCloud then erase the device & restore the backup. An erase & restore can cause temporary files to be purged.

I'm having this issue too: the Podcasts "Documents & Data" is taking up 2.5GB of my iPhone. It seems to be slowly edging up and never going down.

I did a little math and figured out that episodes that have been played, and are schedule to be deleted in 24 hours, are still counted in the "Podcasts" memory (fair enough). So that 2.5GB is I guess some kind of relic, and persists through sync after sync.

Has anyone found a way to get rid of these beyond backing up, erasing, and restoring from a backup? I did that only a few weeks ago (for different reasons), and while I don't know if the "Documents & Data" was reduced then, the fact that it's 2.5GB suggests that the erase/restore approach isn't a long-term fix.

I am having the issue here, this is a very anoying problem, this need to be long term fixed, my documents and data is taking 3,9gb!!

How should we report this bug?

Documents & Data for Podcasts is now up to 3.0GB. It only ever seems to edge up - I haven't yet noticed it go down.

No one has any other ideas about how to get rid of that? Total Documents & Data on my iPhone is "only" 6GB, and Podcasts, which as far as I can tell has no reason to be taking up ANY of that, is occupying half.

Interesting - thanks. So your Documents & Data for the Podcasts app is just 30MB? Interesting - that's certainly a big difference from the multiple GB that many of us are getting!

I'm not sure if trying another app would even make a difference. The whole problem is that I can't erase the Documents & Data for Podcasts, or erase the app. Even if I go to another app that memory consumption presumably would linger on until/unless I erase and restore.

I did do an erase and restore about a month back, but Documents & Data was back over 1GB within a few days, and has been creeping up more slowly since then.

Yeah, I've sent feedback. On this and many many other issues. But thanks again.

It only goes up, 7 day after my comment and now it has 4,1GB.

I've contacted apple support and they advised me to backup and restore my phone, this is not a viable solution for me, restoring a full 64gb loaded with tons of photos and music will take me the hole day.

Do you guys know how do I proper file a bug with Apple?

Thanks,

Thanks again - when I see the "first level" of memory consumption, Podcasts takes up 4.9GB; then when I dig further in, the episodes themselves are at the top of the screen, with 2.0GB, and below that is "Documents & Data 2.9GB." As I said before, it's interesting to read that you've only got 30MB for Documents & Data - I believe that's the first time I've read confirmation that this problem isn't universal.

Maybe I'll try shifting over to a different app the next time I have a couple of days free. I already synced and unsynced and resynched my 60GB phone a few times today to get past the "Photos Library unavailable" bug (let's hope it doesn't come back in 48 hours like it did last time), and audiobook and music playlists that steadfastly refused to update until I removed all music and audiobooks from the iPhone (and I seem to need to do that once a month or so). And with 65 subscribed podcasts (man! I'd never counted that before!), changing over will be far from hassle-free.

Your sensible comment that it's "pointless using an app that you apparently can't control its storage properly" makes me think of a lot more from Apple than just the Podcasts app.

It is not universal as far as I can see. I have around 55 podcasts with probably about 40 active subscriptions (some are played manually in the feeds not auto downloaded) & it shows 30 MB, I checked last week & it was also 30MB.

Syncing to iTunes does not delete data that is saved in the caches (the old 'deleted' episodes that are meant to be purged after 24 hours with the correct setting enabled), only when you erase the device does it reset the subscriptions & clear out the older cached episodes.

Some podcast apps have the option to import an OPML or other feed description - it can make moving to other apps quicker.

You can get one out of iTunes on a Mac/ PC by selecting the main Podcasts view & using File > Library > Export Playlist. The select OPML for importing into apps that support it. I don't think the iOS app supports exporting?

The amount of storage Documents & Data is using on my phone is normal, but I'm having an issue similar to this one. All of my downloaded podcasts were deleted when I launched the Podcasts app last week. Now all of the podcasts—that is, the ones that are still available for streaming—have the download icon next to them; however, my phone is not showing the extra space that should be available (~6 GB of free space) now that all of the downloaded episodes have been removed. Losing all of my downloaded podcasts was devastating; trying to resolve the issue with no free space is annoying.

Is the fix for my issue the same fix that's detailed in this thread (i.e., backup and restore)? Does upgrading to 9.0 do anything to fix the issue?

I have the same problem here. My podcast app is using 2.5GB and I really do not consider backup & restore my phone. This makes no sense. Apple has to fix it, not me.

machado.ti wrote:

I have the same problem here. My podcast app is using 2.5GB and I really do not consider backup & restore my phone. This makes no sense. Apple has to fix it, not me.

Take it to an Apple store & ask them to fix it at the genius bar.

I'm simply suggesting that you can try to resolve the issue by backing up & restoring the device, it seems to be a common task that an Apple store will get you to perform to resolve issues like this. Another option is to use an app that does not keep old episodes cached, you could also try deleting all your feeds & resubscribing - that seems like more work than simply letting iTunes erase & restore a device.

hello Drew !

its not that easy to go to an Apple Store when you live in brazil =D. The closest one is 1200 KM from my home.

I also tried the "deleting all feeds and resubscribing" when I noticed the problem some months ago but didn't work =(

I have the same problem. I've deleted all my podcasts and will re-subscribe in other podcast app. Right now, Documents & Data on Podcasts.app is 2.2 GB. All podcasts deleted and synced to iTunes, rebooted iPhone, and those pesky 2.2 GB of this obscure entity "Documents & Data" is still there. iTunes shows me that my iPhone should have 4.7 GB free, but on Storage & iCloud Usage on my iPhone tells me that there's only 1.7 GB free.

When I hear Apple top echelons talking about how iCloud and other cloud services mitigate the problems caused by the small 16 GB storage, I somehow believe it... but then reality hits you in the face and you realise that Podcasts cannot purge itself from Documents & Data, even when it's all been deleted.

I have not been able to find a solution to this. I've reported it to Apple.

On restoring the iPhone to get the memory back: note that the "Restore Backup" option (roughly the middle of the iPhone sync screen in iTunes) didn't work for me - I still had the same problem with Podcast Documents & Data usage. What did work: I chose "Restore iPhone" (near the top of the page), and then it soon gives you an option of setting up as a new phone, or restoring from a backup. I chose restore from a backup at that second point, and that solved the problem for me: I had the memory back!

Fortunately the restoring wasn't as big a headache as I feared. I'd been avoiding it because I thought I'd have to totally rebuild my phone, but iTunes copied everything over, and I didn't need to redo any log-ins or settings or anything. OK, it took a half day or so, but at least I didn't need to do much.

I'm not entirely sure why there's a difference between "Restore Backup" and "Restore iPhone ... from backup", but whatever.

Also note that when I did do a full factory restore, back in the summer (and boy do I not want to go through that again!), it solved the memory problem then too - but it wasn't a long-term fix, and within a couple of months the wasted "Documents & Data" in Podcasts was at 2GB and climbing. If you're continuing to use Apple's Podcasts app (which I'm no longer doing), and you've got the odd memory creep problem, you'll probably have it again even if you manage to wipe it out for now.