iphone 6s+ memory... what's using it?

jeffysno · Mar 3, 2016

I'm new to the iPhone world, so let me apologize up front for what I am sure will be a dumb question.

I have the 16gb 6s+ and understand that after accounting for the operating system files, I have approx 11gb left to use. My phone says that I've used 10.5gb and have about 600mb available. When I go into the storage &iCloud usage screen I see the used/available totals at the top and then a list of apps/programs that are using memory, but those totals (2.8gb) are nowhere near the 10.5gb the phone is saying I've used. I'm confused as to where the missing 7.7gb went. Is there a different menu screen that will show me what is using the entire 10.5gb?

Appreciate the help!

Sbeezynukka · Mar 3, 2016

Take a screenshot of your about section in settings under the general tab showing total space and remaining space but blur out your serial and Mac address

Sbeezynukka · Mar 3, 2016

Like So

J. A. · Mar 3, 2016

Welcome to iPhone Forums, jeffysno!

Connect your iPhone to a computer, then take a look at it's storage in the Summary tab. If you see something that's called "Other" (orange colour), in addition to Audio, ..., and this Other storage needs more than ~2 GB, then restore your iPhone using iTunes. This will help getting rid of the main part of the Other storage.
Before restoring, make sure there's a most recent backup (iCloud or iTunes, whichever you prefer).

It doesn't matter whether or not you synced the device to iTunes before, and you don't have to do it, if you don't want to. Syncing with iTunes doesn't result in a large amount of the storage called Other. With time, this storage builds up, and needs to be removed. Restoring is the only option that helps significantly.

Hope that helps.

Sbeezynukka · Mar 3, 2016

also if you don't know how to screenshot press the power and home button simultaneously the screen should blink/flash if done right.

Sbeezynukka · Mar 3, 2016

jeff have you synced your phone with itunes possibly?

jeffysno · Mar 4, 2016

I've never used/synced with iTunes. Can't take a screenshot because the memory is all used up. Here are my #'s from the "about" screen:

Network: ATT
Songs: 0
Video: 78
Photos: 2287
Apps: 26
Capacity: 11.5 gb
Avail: 12 mb
Version: 9.2.1

I thought it might be the videos/photos, but when I go into the manage storage screen it only shows 401mb being used by "photos & camera". Is there another folder/app that the videos might be stored in and that I need to clear out?

When I got the phone I also purchased 50gb worth of space on the cloud in hopes that would give me extra storage for photos/videos. currently I'm only using about 11gb of that and it consists of 2.5gb photo library, 8gb back-ups of phone and ipad, and .5 backup of a messaging app. If the videos are the reason, shouldn't they be going to the cloud like my pics?

scifan57 · Mar 4, 2016

You could go through every app to see how much storage each one is using.

Sbeezynukka · Mar 4, 2016

I would probably just wipe the device if I were in your situation and start over. Make a backup of your most important things in iCloud and then see what happens after the wipe.

Sent from my iPhone(Maci) using Tapatalk

J. A. · Mar 4, 2016

@jeffysno
You can't use iCloud to store videos and photos. It's purpose is to sync them between devices. If these images/videos are on your iPhone, they are also in iCloud. If you remove them from your device, they will disappear from iCloud as well.