Hungry and unknown thing eating 45% iPhone space - not Apps

[precision01]

Hi, I'm one of those people who regret having bought the 16GB version of iPhone 6. The real 11,6GB is not enough for me. I try to follow all the experts tips to keep the device optimized, but ultimately I'm always running out of space.

Right now I'm facing awkward situation:

At Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage, it says that there is no space available. I'm always reaching zero. All 11,6gb are used.
I took the trouble to add up the size of all the apps listed there and they total only 6,34GB.
I always thought that the total size of apps should be something close to the used space information above the apps list.

Before someone blame whatsapp or photos, they are using 446mb and 350mb respectively.

Who or what can be using the 5,26GB that do not appear in the application list?

Whatever it eating the space, it seems to me that something started eating space gradually and only now I realized this.

Does anyone have any idea about what is happening? Thanks

 

[adamhenry]

Connect it to a computer w/USB cable and use iTunes to get more info. It will probably be a case of "Other" using the space though.

 

[Boneheadxan]

It could be the App Store download cache (partially downloaded updates). I just cleared about 7GB off mine.

Used PhoneView on the Mac to go to disks>Downloads and deleted all its content.

 

[precision01]

Sorry for taking so long to give a feedback about this.
First, thank you all for help.

After doing a few iphone resets and backup restorations, I always came across the following situation: After restoration, my 5Gb were back! But a few minutes (sometimes seconds) after that, the 5GB transformed into the amazing... Other !
And I was back with zero space again.

The only solution was to reset iPhone and configure it as a "new iPhone", don't restore the backup, and install everything again from scratch. It looks like my iCloud backup is corrupted and I can't restore it because the "Monster Other" will show up again.

Well, I can live with that, but I had to give up all my history of messages and some other important stuff.

 

[bark007]

The apps that come with the phone usually take up a few GBs so, a 16GB phone, will start with approximately 12-14GB. Nowadays, the workaround is to avoid 16gb phones. Start with 32GB and add cloud storage (BOX, Google Drive) - move pics to cloud and free up storage; also, videos, pics and Spotify are memory hogs. good luck!

 

[nightcap965]

Settings, General, Storage & iCloud Usage, Manage Storage

It sorts in inverse order of size.

 

[C DM]

The apps that come with the phone usually take up a few GBs so, a 16GB phone, will start with approximately 12-14GB. Nowadays, the workaround is to avoid 16gb phones. Start with 32GB and add cloud storage (BOX, Google Drive) - move pics to cloud and free up storage; also, videos, pics and Spotify are memory hogs. good luck!

It's not so much the apps as the OS itself. 16 GB has just 14.9 GB of space to begin with, then the OS itself takes up some space, brining things down to a little under 12 GB of available space. That amount can certainly be plenty for many that don't use many apps and/or don't take a huge amount of photos or videos and don't really store music or other media on the phone. All depends on personal usage basically.

 

[chscag]

It's not so much the apps as the OS itself. 16 GB has just 14.9 GB of space to begin with, then the OS itself takes up some space, brining things down to a little under 12 GB of available space. That amount can certainly be plenty for many that don't use many apps and/or don't take a huge amount of photos or videos and don't really store music or other media on the phone. All depends on personal usage basically.

I was surprised the first time I connected my wife's 16 GB iPhone 5c to my Mac and iTunes showed it only had around 12 or so GB of space. It's OK for her because she doesn't download music or videos or have many apps. That's why when I got my 6+ I made sure I asked for the 64 GB version. Lots of unused space, but I'd rather have it that way.

 

[dennysanders]

Settings, General, Storage & iCloud Usage, Manage Storage

It sorts in inverse order of size.

did you even read his post?

 

[abrahamw88]

Have you tried this trick to free up storage space?
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/mo...-deleting-files-and-apps-20160406-gnzi24.html
It works well for situations like yours.