Podcast Storage Mystery

I Did the "overload with music" approach and it worked. I had to start the sync many times. It told me many times it couldn't sync because there was no space left. Then I checked another album to sinc and suddenly it would have another few 100 my left. This went on for a few syncs and then the 2 gb from the podcast app were gone. I think I'm finished, but will continue to try and see if there are more apps that need some freedom from hidden cashes. I don't think the podcast app was the only one, because iTunes sometimes mentioned a free space of 5 gb instead of the 2 taken by the podcast app. If you want to try this approach remember to take a few hours to sync and sync and sync and don't give up when it tells you it's full.

I Had no podcasts on my 8gb iPhone 5c and the podcasts app was using 1gb. I upgraded to 9.3 last night and although the problem is only partially solved , it is now only usin 500gb I have a bit more headroom space on the phone.

Removed all podcasts from iPhone 6, made sure nothing syncs with my MBP, and rebooted the phone. the Podcasts app still takes 1.4 GB on my phone.

😠

I really would like someone give positive information on this issue. The Podcast storage on both my iPone and iPod2 is steadily creeping up; currently up to 1 G and 2.2 G. I now have less than 0.5 G left on my iPhone and have been forced to delete several apps that I valued far more than the irremovable Podcast.

At first, the remedies previously suggested didn't work for me. However, if you repeat the process of filling your storage, it will eventually free up tons of cached storage.

I was able to quickly repeat this process by using an app such as Battery Doctor by KS Mobile Inc. -- http://www.cmcm.com/en-us/battery-doctor/ (which doesn't seem to be available anymore in the US app store). These apps essentially allocate / write arbitrary file to disk forcing the OS to purge cached files. The movie download trick should work as well but downloading repeatedly would be time consuming...find an app that does this.

Note on these "Battery Doctor" apps, their EULAs are a bit suspect since they basically say that China's laws govern usage of the app. They also seem to use IP geo-location to enable the memory cleaner.

I'm going to pile on this one and make a recommendation. I want to be clear that I am in no way associated with Apple, or any app developer.

Memory and Disk Scanner Pro (LINK)

Pros: Fixes this problem right quick. Freed up almost 6GB on my iPod touch 16GB (v9.3.2)

Can be set to automatically scan your disk your memory or both.

Seems to make my iPod run a bit better. (Could be the placebo effect.)

Works with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Doesn't try to access any of your information or give you notifications.

Cheap! $0.99

Free to try.

Cons: Last updated in November of 2014.

This developer has a number of utilities in the app store that all seem to do the same basic things, with different front ends. Some of them have been updated more recently. But this one is 99 cents. Can't beat it.

Good news for everyone that has been dealing with this issue - iOS 10 has a new feature that help resolve the Podcasts storage problem.

One thing you can now do in iOS 10 is 'delete' stock apps from your device. It doesn't really delete the app, but it deletes the icon link from the apps and it also *removes associated data and configuration files!* This means that deleting the Podcasts app will also delete the huge data file.

Once removed, the Podcasts app can just be readded from the App Store, and the settings are instantly restored from your iCloud account.

I tested this out and regained over 1GB of lost space.

That is very good news! probably a lot less time consuming than syncing stuff and filling up the iOS device with data.

See this link too

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204221

Remove built-in Apple apps from the Home screen on your iOS device with iOS 10

I was able to remove it from my home screen today. I'm very happy ;=)))

Note: Battery Doctor no longer has a ‘junk’ option either.

That's unfortunate that the newer version of Battery Doctor removed the "Junk" feature. The older version of Battery Doctor (2.4.10) still has the "Junk" feature and it continues to work. This version isn't available for download via the AppStore anymore, so don't delete it if you have it!

Now that iOS 10 allows you to delete the Podcasts app, you can do that occasionally if junk continues to grow.