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iPhone 14 Pro Max System Data - Storage Full - iPhone 14 Pro Max

C

Conyfers

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 29, 2006
25
25
Hey, looking for some support.

Received my iPhone 14 Pro Max 256gb yesterday and after 24 hours I’m getting the “iPhone storage full” notification which can’t be true as I’m using 80gb tops.

When I checked the storage in settings, looks like system data is maxing out.

I turned the phone on and off again and it dropped to around 4gb, but it’s growing consistently. After an hour it’s at 65gb, and it’s going to max out again for sure.

Anyone got the same issue? Annoyingly I can’t see what’s driving the usage, or what’s being cached. I have turned off sharing analytics etc, but it’s still building.

Is this a known bug with iOS 16?!
 
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I've had this with my old XR.

I resolved it by 'upgrading' the OS to the same version. Download the IPSW for the version you have, use the finder and option click the updates button. You can then 'upgrade' your phone from 16.0.1 to.. 16.0.1.

For me that sorted whatever bug caused it.

EDIT I had this same thing with iOS 15.
 
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There’s a glitch as of late

I’ve recently had this happen with my 13 PM. my iPhone said storage full, settings refused to open, and then it randomly started bootlooping. Thankfully I was able to resolve it without restoring but it took a good hour.

I use iCloud for everything, but ios does a really poor job at keeping a healthy buffer of space available.
 
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Thanks for the tip. It’s seriously driving me to distraction!

Clearly something wrong with the software. I’ll look at installing iOS16.0.1 again, see if that resolved it.
 
I am having the exact same issue, iPhone 14 pro, I have 210gb of system data built up in 48 hours! I can’t use mail, settings is crashing.. I’ve upgraded to 16.0.1, hasn’t helped.
 
im having the same issue, 142gb of system storage, its a joke. the only temp fix ive found is turning the phone off and off again clears the System data. Even tried reinstalled iOS, didn't help
 
dannyshep said:
im having the same issue, 142gb of system storage, its a joke. the only temp fix ive found is turning the phone off and off again clears the System data. Even tried reinstalled iOS, didn't help
Click to expand...
Yeh, likewise. I reinstalled iOS as per the advice above and it hasn't helped - system data averaged around 17gb for a few hours (which seems high anyway) then it's suddenly jumped to 63gb this morning.

Spoke to apple support and they've asked I restore and set up from new, to see if that highlights if it's a software fault or a hardware fault...
 
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Same is happening with my iPhone 14 Pro Max. Woke up this morning with alert saying storage is nearly full and system data has used up 1TB! Soft reboot and it's removed the system data but after a few hours it's creeping up again (to 400GB).
 
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r-winger20 said:
Same is happening with my iPhone 14 Pro Max. Woke up this morning with alert saying storage is nearly full and system data has used up 1TB! Soft reboot and it's removed the system data but after a few hours it's creeping up again (to 400GB).
Click to expand...
Wowza! 400gb!? That's crazy.

Apple support haven't been incredibly helpful to be honest...

Clearly a bug they need to address, and address quickly!
 
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Been told by apple support that…
likely this is due to syncing with iCloud. After a new device is added and linked to an iCloud account, the device will start downloading iCloud-synced files to the device. During the initial sync period, these files will be locked down for up to 48 hours to prevent thrashing with the server — this could vary depending on amount of data needed to sync, power, network connection, etc. Until the sync is complete, they may not be classified by category, and will temporarily appear in "System Data". After 48 hours or so, these will become purgeable and then will no longer appear in the interface, as they can be released if needed. This is assuming the device is connected to Wi-Fi and charging overnight in most common cases.
 
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PK_72 said:
Been told by apple support that…
likely this is due to syncing with iCloud. After a new device is added and linked to an iCloud account, the device will start downloading iCloud-synced files to the device. During the initial sync period, these files will be locked down for up to 48 hours to prevent thrashing with the server — this could vary depending on amount of data needed to sync, power, network connection, etc. Until the sync is complete, they may not be classified by category, and will temporarily appear in "System Data". After 48 hours or so, these will become purgeable and then will no longer appear in the interface, as they can be released if needed. This is assuming the device is connected to Wi-Fi and charging overnight in most common cases.
Click to expand...
Cheers.

I've just been effectively told the same thing, but find it hard to believe as the system data is literally x2 more than what's in my total iCloud storage. The senior advisor guy literally said "I've had loads of calls about this issue this morning, and it's normal"... given that they've had apparently loads of calls I'd argue it's not normal, nor should it be.

I'll give it 48 hours and see what happens, listen to the experts... might as well after waiting 30 minutes on a call with lots of back and forth but I reckon I'll have breached my limit again by late afternoon.
 
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I had the same problem on my 13 Pro on iOS15. I had the 256GB phone and was only using about 40GB. System data varied from 5-45GB.

It fixed itself when I upgraded to the 14 Pro on IOS16.0.1. There doesn’t seem to be good public information about this problem no. And the user has zero visibility into the system data numbers. This needs to change at some point!

Good luck!!
 
Having the same problem. 256GB 14 Pro and getting 150 GM of system data essentially making the phone unusable.

It has dropped down into the 80 Gb range so maybe there is something to the iCloud piece. I restored from cloud rather than transfer from my previous phone or set up as new.

Hopefully it subsides or there is a fix because it’s pretty bad.

One other item I have had issues with since the 13 Pro - I can’t get the alarm to play songs - it only works with the alarm tones. Anyone else have that issue?
 
Conyfers said:
Hey, looking for some support.

Received my iPhone 14 Pro Max 256gb yesterday and after 24 hours I’m getting the “iPhone storage full” notification which can’t be true as I’m using 80gb tops.

When I checked the storage in settings, looks like system data is maxing out.

I turned the phone on and off again and it dropped to around 4gb, but it’s growing consistently. After an hour it’s at 65gb, and it’s going to max out again for sure.

Anyone got the same issue? Annoyingly I can’t see what’s driving the usage, or what’s being cached. I have turned off sharing analytics etc, but it’s still building.

Is this a known bug with iOS 16?!
Click to expand...
Hi!
Thank God for your message, it makes me feel like I am not alone.
What you mentioned is a very aggressive software bug or probably an hardware issue.
I have been spending hours and hours on the phone with the German Apple support and the US Apple support.
So many phone calls, trials, resets, iCloud backups and nothing... it gets even worse. All they tell me is to make a hard reset. I am so tired of this. I have the 512 GB version of the 14 Pro Max and the System Files reached 190 GB!! This is ridiculous from a company that sells phones for 1800 Euros.
I come from an iPhone 13 Pro Max and this was a total nightmare.
What I noticed is that the phone grows in system files when connected to WiFi so I start thinking that they have a problem with the new modems. It can't be software.
Again this is not a small issue. Apple should immediately do something about it because it runs the device hot, consumes more battery, it makes other apps not work correctly and these logs always run up without limits!
Lets not forget that even if we shut down the device, this will reset the System Data but it will restart from beginning and this action is having a huge impact of the life of the SSDs.
What should we do about it?
Again thank you for creating this blog
 

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PK_72 said:
Been told by apple support that…
likely this is due to syncing with iCloud. After a new device is added and linked to an iCloud account, the device will start downloading iCloud-synced files to the device. During the initial sync period, these files will be locked down for up to 48 hours to prevent thrashing with the server — this could vary depending on amount of data needed to sync, power, network connection, etc. Until the sync is complete, they may not be classified by category, and will temporarily appear in "System Data". After 48 hours or so, these will become purgeable and then will no longer appear in the interface, as they can be released if needed. This is assuming the device is connected to Wi-Fi and charging overnight in most common cases.
Click to expand...
They told me too that but still having this crazy issue.
 
Glad to have found this thread. I’m having this issue too on iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB UK (MQ9T3ZD/A) / iOS 16.0.1 (20A371). Apple just told me to restore from a backup, which I did, and the same issue happens. Same behaviour whereby restarting the phone temporarily removes the excess system data.

The only reassurance is hearing that Apple have had lots of calls today on this.

I don’t buy “temporary iCloud synced files”, as I only have 3GB in iCloud (and a maximum free plan of 5GB anyway!).
 
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C2fish said:
Glad to have found this thread. I’m having this issue too on iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB UK (MQ9T3ZD/A) / iOS 16.0.1 (20A371). Apple just told me to restore from a backup, which I did, and the same issue happens. Same behaviour whereby restarting the phone temporarily removes the excess system data.

The only reassurance is hearing that Apple have had lots of calls today on this.

I don’t buy “temporary iCloud synced files”, as I only have 3GB in iCloud (and a maximum free plan of 5GB anyway!).
Click to expand...
After having restored the phone with iCloud 5 times without resolving the issue I decided to go for a factory reset that I did not want to do at any cost but I could not take the stress anymore. So it worked. Just make the total reset and it will wipe out that system data. Apple should really fix this horror!
 
Is anyone still having issues with this. Had my phone for 4 days now and keep master resetting it but within 3 hours system data taking up 245gb. Doing my head in. Apple shop can’t help. Network provider can’t help. Have tried everything. Apple said no issue with the phone when they plugged it in and that’s all the info I can get.
 
Same issue here, hard reset, on Apple supports advice didn’t work, memory is just maxing out on 14 Pro 256MB. Have been told to leave it for 48hrs and it should resolve. What a shambles Apple are these days.
 
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I have this same issue. 14 pro max 256gb. Restarting the phone clears the System Data, leaving me with 140gb of free space. But System Data creeps up again over about 7h to the point of not being able to take photos or check emails, etc. - not reasonable for me to wait 48h like that on the hope the phone sorts itself out overnight. No change overnight last night. I’m confused as to the advice here around restoring/master resetting/ factory resetting. Is there actually a known solution? Don’t mind doing a full reset if that will likely sort it. 🥺
 
qozbug-qorqut-6nexgU said:
I have this same issue. 14 pro max 256gb. Restarting the phone clears the System Data, leaving me with 140gb of free space. But System Data creeps up again over about 7h to the point of not being able to take photos or check emails, etc. - not reasonable for me to wait 48h like that on the hope the phone sorts itself out overnight. No change overnight last night. I’m confused as to the advice here around restoring/master resetting/ factory resetting. Is there actually a known solution? Don’t mind doing a full reset if that will likely sort it. 🥺
Click to expand...
It doesn’t sort it. Well not for me anyway. No one can seem to help. My network provider has offered me a refurb phone but not a new one as there is
Nothing wrong with the phone apparently. Driving me mad. My phone opens my house. It’s the key to my car. Can’t do anything.
 
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