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User profile for user: racerat59
racerat59 Author
User level: Level 1
13 points

Deleting Podcasts Documents and Data

My Podcast App v 2.2.1 on iPhone 6, iOS 8.4 is retaining 1.3GB worth of data that I cannot delete.


When you go to Settings/Usage/Manage Storage/Podcasts: it reads Documents & Data 1.3GB. I have deleted all podcasts subscriptions and all podcasts from the phone but there is no way to delete the "documents and data".


There is another thread on Apple support with no solution:


How do I delete "Documents and Data" in podcast on my Iphone 5? I know how to delete individual podcast and podcast epi…


I have backed up and synced multiple times after deleting all the Podcasts from the phone. Rebooting the phone - no luck. You are unable to delete the Podcast app itself so there is no way to un-install and re-install it - apart from doing a complete "re-store from backup" - which as listed in the thread above, doesn't work.


Does anyone have a fix for this???

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 31, 2015 7:05 PM

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13 replies
User profile for user: RJG1999
RJG1999
User level: Level 4
2,945 points

Apr 27, 2017 11:02 AM in response to racerat59

Hey - for what it's worth, I'm running the latest version of iOS on an iPhone 7 Plus and what I did was to unsubscribe from my podcasts to remove them from the app. I then deleted the app from my phone. Restarted my iPhone and reinstalled the Podcasts app from the App Store. I then resubscribed to my podcasts and all is good. I freed up close to 2GB of space.


So no need to reset your iPhone or anything like that. 🙂

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User profile for user: Tarik2nu
Tarik2nu
User level: Level 1
6 points

Aug 13, 2015 9:46 AM in response to Tarik2nu

APPLE, you are being a total shithead. And I don't even swear that often.


I will not let this drop.


I'm pretty much fed up with with Apple. I went from loving this company to getting ready to move back to Windows...and that is a very bad sign. I really disliked Windows.


Well, here is another post. PLEASE TELL YOUR USERS HOW TO DO THIS OR POINT US INTO A RIGHT DIRECTION.


VERY DISSATISFIED.

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User profile for user: racerat59
racerat59 Author
User level: Level 1
13 points

Aug 15, 2015 3:19 PM in response to racerat59

rodrigorozellioffered this fix:


This worked for me. The Documents and Data for Podcast App has returned to normal. Not the easiest or least time consuming way to do it, but it works. Apple still needs to fix this bug, it's a bad one.


  1. Delete all podcasts and Podcast subscriptions in the Podcast App on the phone. (Write them down so you can resubscribe to the ones you want again later). If you have downloaded copies of Podcasts you will lose them. But you can re-download them later if you like.
  2. Backup your phone in iTunes. (be sure to backup ALL apps, etc)
  3. Reset your iPhone (deleting ALL settings and apps)
  4. Restore your phone from the backup in iTunes.
  5. Don't freak out when you restart your phone and it looks like all your apps are gone. They will sync back up the first time you connect your phone after the backup Restore.


PLEASE NOTE: After I did the Reset, and restarted my phone - going into the "welcome" screen and starting to "setup": my iPhone 5s would not accept my wifi password - it kept saying "incorrect password" - even though I entered it correctly. This is a known issue and has not been solved. However after I restored from the backup it restored all my settings and I was connecting to wifi again.


Good luck folks.

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User profile for user: Tarik2nu
Tarik2nu
User level: Level 1
6 points

Aug 15, 2015 6:58 PM in response to racerat59

racerat59,


While I am very thankful for your help in this matter, I was disappointed to see it in a "solved" status.


I did get a response from Apple Support and they are aware of this bug as you said. In addition, you are correct, this is a bad one. However, until Apple fixes it, in my opinion, not one of us with this problem should be marked as "solved".


Something that's been around for this long should be corrected by now.


I really used to love Apple.

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User profile for user: racerat59
racerat59 Author
User level: Level 1
13 points

Aug 16, 2015 7:04 AM in response to Tarik2nu

I understand your frustration. Although it isn't "solved" it is a successful work-around- which, sadly many "solutions" seem to be. I wanted to highlight the answer and steps so people could fix their phones even though - long-term - it is not an Apple patch - that is really fixing the underlying problem.


If I could un-mark it solved - I would.


Feel free to start another thread to continue to "bump" the problem up in the forum.

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User profile for user: Mathlad
Mathlad
User level: Level 1
4 points

Feb 10, 2016 7:48 AM in response to racerat59

iPhone4s 16GB, ios9.2.1. Before backup-reset-restore, podcast app documents&data: 2.0GB, after : 4.0MB.

Total time for the process: about 1.5 hours (reinstalling all of my old apps took a long time)

I am now using the overcast app for podcasts, it doesn't seem to get bloated and I can delete it and reinstall if it did.

I will never use the Apple podcast app again. I wish I could delete it. If I could jailbreak ios9.2, I would, just so I could ditch the podcast app.

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Deleting Podcasts Documents and Data

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