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

I have the same problem. I've restored my phone several times, but it has been only a temporary solution. After a few days / weeks, the memory is full of "Documents and Data" again. 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.

Yeah, mine just started doing this to me with the latest update 9.2.1(I'm on an iPhone 6 Plus). I hadn't had this issue before now, and I've been listening to Podcasts for over a year. I didn't even know 'Documents and Data' was even a category until it said it's taking up 4GBs of space(of which ~1.5GB I can't account for). Don't worry though only 2.2 GBs are from the Podcast app.

Searching 'Battery Doctor' in the store turns up many apps, each country can have a different list, be specific if you think it will help others (e.g. state who makes this app). These type of apps seem to be 'snake oil' to me. Selling promises that cannot be true or are dubious at best…

Based on my understanding of the app store rules third party iOS apps are not allowed to delete data inside other Apps or inside the entire OS. I can only guess that it managed to push the OS into a state that eventually forced it to clear the cache. It may have simply been a coincidence (Photos will delete trashed items after 30 days, the Podcasts app should do so after a day for played items…).

Personally I don't think this is the correct way to clear the cached data - it took 30 attempts!

When it takes 30 attempts to get desired results it is hard to consider it 'the solution'. Would you be willing to take the same gamble with medical treatments that may only work after 30 attempts? If it is not consistently reproducible it could be another process cleaning up the cache.

Simply backup, erase & restore from iTunes or iCloud - it reduces the cache every time in my experience. It is time consuming but it works, reliably and consistently.

You are certainly welcome to question the efficacy of the proposed fix, but from what I can tell, mine is the only solution on this thread that actually produces results without the hassle of erasing and restoring your phone. Which to be clear, I was trying to avoid since I don't have a personal computer and since the settings and apps are never quite the same post-recovery.

I'm neither a software engineer nor a computer scientist, so I can't elaborate on the mechanics of how the Battery Doctor app works, but I tried it and it worked. As for Drew's analogy about taking a gamble with medical treatments and calling my proposed fix a "snake oil" solution, that's the sort of terrible, negative message board response that dissuades me from every participating in online conversations. Drew clearly isn't cognizant of the issue at hand since he claims the Podcast app should be clearing the cache itself. The genesis of this thread over a year ago and the subsequent responses from other iPhone users are evidence that this is an actual issue with the Podcast app or the OS in general.

Consider this my final response to a negative comment. If you want to try it out and have questions shoot me a line, otherwise, I've done my good deed for the day.

sonny3301 wrote:

As for Drew's analogy about taking a gamble with medical treatments and calling my proposed fix a "snake oil" solution, that's the sort of terrible, negative message board response that dissuades me from every participating in online conversations. Drew clearly isn't cognizant of the issue at hand since he claims the Podcast app should be clearing the cache itself. The genesis of this thread over a year ago and the subsequent responses from other iPhone users are evidence that this is an actual issue with the Podcast app or the OS in general.

I'm fully aware of how iOS can fail to delete cached data, it has been documented many times on various blogs for many years…

http://hammonwry.com/mysterious-other/

I have witnessed it myself too, I'm not claiming the issue doesn't exist.

I'm happy you have a solution (even it it fails to work well the first 29 times), as you can see from the linked blog - there are other triggers for iOS to clear cached data. Finding one that works consistently is the problem.

Report you bug and fix to Apple, hopefully they will use the info to resolve it, it has been going on for many iOS versions.

http://feedback.apple.com/

I think the main issue here is Apple's pride. If we were able to reset/revert/reinstall (have more control over) native apps, that would be a simple and good solution.

This happened with me 3 times (always after I update the OS). I acknowledge that resetting and restoring a device works and it's almost seamless, but it's far from a good solution. Some people only have the device and no computer or simply don't want the work to do it.

You still need to log in again to your accounts, fill the cache of some apps (e.g. Amazon music), I think I even needed to recover my 2fa keys (I forget things easily)... People probably are afraid of losing some data or setting too.

While Battery Doctor doesn't solve the problem itself, it's much more convenient than resetting.

I hope Apple doesn't ban the app -- like they do with some good ones, just because they do "something they are not supposed to" (the api doesn't provide direct access to this). I saw it happening with apps that analyzed wi-fi signals searching for better channels (to configure your router, and could also be used for indoor location).

Tip: One of the strategies of the app is filling up the storage forcing some apps to clean the cache, so don't do this while you download or sync something (app, music, photos -- from the internet or the computer).

And after the first try, execute again and, in the middle, of the process switch app to Podcast. This way you probably don't need to try 30 times.

sonny3301's Battery Doctor fix worked for me too. Documents and Data in Podcast app down from 2,8GB to 178MB! Funny app, though - had to do it 20+ times, many of the tries had no result. But suddenly around 15th-20th time, it cleared 500+MB a pop.

So 24 hours ago I did a complete erase of the phone and restored from iCloud. There was 2.6 GB of space left, 24 hours later I have 114MB left with space dropping hourly. I have barely used my phone in those 24 hours, I have added nothing, downloaded nothing, only sent a few texts. This is ridiculous.

My iCloud has only 1.6GB of data in it. i had tried restoring from iTunes and had the same results. I didn't however leave it as a blank phone and see what happens. So to clarify you suggest erase, set up as new phone and then log in to iCloud in the settings menu on the phone?

It's apparent that you backups contain the issue, wherever you restore from it is simply bringing the problem back. I don't honestly know if it is iCloud drive, I'm just suggesting that a clean device is less unlikely to bring the data back (unless you re-add the offending app). The next step is to enable iCloud drive to see if the device fills up - that will allow you to see if the data usage is coming from the way data is synced from iCloud. Obvioulsy other services like Apple Music or podcasts will also use storage, so enable them after iCloud has stopped adding data to the device.

Keep the backup in iTunes as an 'archive' incase you want to restore it at a later date…

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/archive-your-iphone-backups-to-save-snaps hots-in-time

Thanks for your persistence, for posting this and your follow up replies. I followed your advice and it worked for me... eventually it cleaned up over 2GB of the Podcasts "Documents and Data" after around 20 goes. I'm still going to see if I can clean up a little bit more.

This did not fully work for me. Of course it did free about 1/2 GB of space. After three tries: No Cache to Clear message started appearing. Still I had 30GB of Documents and data which refused to go away.

What actually worked for me is the age old trick.

1. Delete all Apps which take up lot of memory.

2. Make a Backup in iTunes.

3. Reset iPhone with Erase All Contents and Settings.

4. Restore from Backup in iTunes.

5. Regain all Documents and data memory.

I guess Sonny3301's Battery Doctor trick mainly works for "documents and data" from Podcasts. And even if you reclaime som space the first few tries, you still should do it like 30 times, as the bulk of data gets reclaimed between 15th and 20th time in my experience.

SarahMicheleF wrote:

The KS Mobile "Battery Doctor" app appears to be a thing of the past...

Thank goodness! It was an app that caused countless users grief in the poor quality of its reporting, finding non-existent apps, and incorrect battery information.

I tried restoring from icloud once already, but the problem returned as well. Anybody find a solution other than starting a brand new copy and not restoring? That seems to be the only solution for some people like me, but that seems ridiculous.