Music takes up more storage on my iPhone than in my iTunes

Question

Enigmanotta Author

Level 1

8 points

Music takes up more storage on my iPhone than in my iTunes

Hello,

I recently found out that the music stored on my iPhone takes more place than what it takes in my iTunes.

In my iTunes, I have a total of 129.05GB

On my iPhone, I have a total of 138.56GB

I manually checked all the files to see if I didn't have any duplicated songs, songs that I had deleted from my iTunes but that were still on my iPhone, etc. Turns out that every files on my iPhone weights a little more than what they weight in my iTunes.

I don't know if it matters, but all the files are AAC. More than 80% of them are Apple Lossless files.

Does someone know why they take more place? Considering the memory on my iPhone, it's not a problem, but I'd like to understand why and see if I can do something about it.

Thanks!

iPhone X, iOS 12.0.1, 256GB

Posted on Oct 13, 2018 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 14, 2018 1:22 PM in response to Enigmanotta

OK, so what you see on the iTunes Status bar is pretty much not going to be the same as what you see on your iPhone's memory. For example, you can see on the iTunes Status bar that the Audio is separated from the Video. If you have any music videos, they would need to be included in the iTunes total that you are trying to compare to.

Also, if you go to Settings>General>iPhone Storage and tap on Music there, you will see that it shows the size of the App, and the music itself is listed under "Documents & Data". There is also a Documents & Data section in the Status bar of iTunes. So, which parts of the status bar are actually representing the music you have downloaded on your device?

It's best to just trust what the iOS device is telling you is being used on it under Settings>General>iPhone Storage. The iOS device is the source, that is the one that you need to pay attention to. The iTunes info is there to simply provide you with a general idea of what is taking up data on your device, probably based on what you have selected to sync, along with your Apps. But the comparison and categories are simply not a 1 for 1, so trying to compare them is going to be a study in frustration.

Best,

GB

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Answer 2

Oct 15, 2018 12:53 PM in response to Enigmanotta

If you add together your Audio and your Documents & Data on iTunes as shown on your screenshots, the total is almost exactly what you are seeing on your iOS device. 

But, as I indicated, you just are not going to get exactly the same reading via both methods.

Some posts suggest that you can try erasing your device and restoring it to a backup, but that's probably the closest you are going to get:

How to erase your iOS device - Apple Support

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

Best,

GB

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Answer 3

Oct 13, 2018 1:34 PM in response to Enigmanotta

No, I mean if you are comparing the iPhone Storage values between iTunes and your iPhone Storage, then you have these categories to choose from and they are not 1 for 1. Are you talking about the total storage as opposed to that which is taken up by your Music?

What, exactly, are the names/descriptions of the two pieces of information that you are comparing between iTunes & your iOS Device? What, exactly, are you looking at in each place?

Best,

GB

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Answer 4

Enigmanotta Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 15, 2018 1:39 AM in response to gail from maine

Thank you so much for your explanations.

All of my data are either synchronized with iTunes on my MacBook Pro (Music, Videos, Movies, TV Shows) or with iCloud (Pictures, Contacts, Calendars, etc.) so that all my libraries and informations can be the same on both my MacBook Pro and my iPhone. My Apple accounts (iCloud, iTunes Store, etc.) are all the same and they all have the same e-mail address and password.

I used to have multiple music videos stored in my iTunes library, but I deleted them, so now I only have audio files.

All of the iTunes Store purchased movies that I own are not downloaded on either my iPhone, my MacBook Pro or my iTunes library; they're only shown as iCloud Files and that's from where I watch them, so they normally don't take any data on my devices. I don't have any manually added other video files.

I took screenshots of every informations that I can find on my iPhone and in my iTunes so that it can be easier for you to understand, they can all be found there: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

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