General iTunes sync strangely freed up space!

[scouser75]

Guys,

I just synced my phone and backed it up and strangely I all of a sudden have 10gb more space available!!! And I haven't taken anything off the phone - music, apps, pictures... nothing! What could have happened???

I've checked my pictures and music, and all seems to still be there, but it is hard to check all of them as I have loads of both.

I've been struggling for ages with free space so this comes as a positive - so long as some how iTunes hasn't deleted anything from the phone!

 

[cynics]

Just cleaned out some junk which could literally be anything. From iCloud photos you haven't looked out in a while, message photos, or even deleting blocks marked for deletion than marking them as free (I have no idea how iOS TRIMs).

 

[scouser75]

I doubt it'll be an icloud cleat out as this is memory on my iPhone. Note so I think it's cleared anything up as done customers may not appreciate apple denting stuff without their knowing.

It is baffling. I'm just concerned about what might have deleted.

 

[cynics]

I doubt it'll be an icloud cleat out as this is memory on my iPhone. Note so I think it's cleared anything up as done customers may not appreciate apple denting stuff without their knowing.

It is baffling. I'm just concerned about what might have deleted.

I was speaking somewhat generically because I don't know you phone settings but if you are using iCloud Photo Library photos get downloaded to the phone if you look at them. If that were the case an iTunes sync could have sped up the process of it purging the full resolution image for the normal space saving low res image on the phone.

Most of that data removed from an iTunes sync is 'cached' data. This would be data that is generated and downloaded by the app. Results will vary per user due to different apps used. Ex. if you use some sort of social media app that feeds you articles with tons of pics and requires you flipping around it. That might be an example of an app that uses a lot of storage space to handle its operation. Thanks.

 

[scouser75]

Thanks mate. I checked my settings and icloud photo library and photo stream are off. But icloud photo sharing is on.

I'm going to hazard a guess and hope it's what you said about the cache being cleared. I thought Apple only allowed this being done manually by the user, but if it is auto cleared that's brilliant.

 

[cynics]

Apple isn’t too specific about it but it’s common and I haven’t heard of data loss from it.

You can find a bit here on the topic. But they tell devs that you need to be prepare for a sync to wipe the cache if space is required (not all the time) basically.

https://developer.apple.com/library...ingGuide/PerformanceTips/PerformanceTips.html

 

[scouser75]

Thanks @cynics

 

[papbot]

If you haven’t synced to iTunes in a while diagnostic reports can pile up. If you’re on or have been on any of the betas and used Feed Back Assistant to run a sysdiagnose report, those files are huge and would be cleared by your sync. That may not be the cause of what you saw but when I was running those reports I regularly regained 10 gigs or more after I synced my phone.

 

[scouser75]

If you haven’t synced to iTunes in a while diagnostic reports can pile up. If you’re on or have been on any of the betas and used Feed Back Assistant to run a sysdiagnose report, those files are huge and would be cleared by your sync. That may not be the cause of what you saw but when I was running those reports I regularly regained 10 gigs or more after I synced my phone.

Thanks mate. My gosh did I need that extra space.

The odd thing is that in all the years that I have been syncing, this is the first time the sync has free up memory.

 

[papbot]

I don’t often sync to iTunes anymore. I do a weekly or so backup over WiFi, if that’s working. I rely mostly on iCloud backups. But when you sync, app crash reports, diagnostic reports, and various system reports are cleared from the phone and stored on your computer. Depending on the number of apps and length of time between syncs the data amounts can be quite large. And, again, if you do install betas there can be huge amounts that get transferred. I usually hunt those down on my laptop and clear the older ones and regain a fair amount of computer storage as well.