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

[JoHugh]

Does make me wonder if this bug is also linked with the battery issue as the phone is now obviously managing storage constantly in the background when it shouldn’t need to

 

[whatawally]

Did you try the iCloud back up over 4G/5G with Wi-Fi off fix?

I tried this and it hasn’t worked :/

 

[whatawally]

I got my iPhone 14 Pro last week and have needed to reboot it many times because of the "growing System Data storage" issue/bug. It was growing at a rate that filled my 256GB in about 12 hours (with about 1/3 of the data , my actualy data usage). Rebooted does clear it, but it just re-grows back to 255GB and then a lost of warning etc.

The solution that has worked for me was the removal of the Apple TV App - it appears that is was downloading or trying the sync some very old TV series that I purchased years ago.

I hope this helps others as this was very annoying on a new iPhone! (So much for Beta testing)

 

[whatawally]

I’m seeing so many different ideas and what has worked for one isn’t working for another that I really can’t bring myself to go through trying anything else… Apple are calling me Friday with an update of the diagnostics they took from my phone… I’m not tech savvy so it’s so stressful for me to try anything else, the factory reset never worked, the backing up on data never worked. Surely apple should have a universal answer for this as different things are working for different people?! Does anyone know if this could just be a phone issue and not an ios issue, could we just have damaged phones from the 1st batch?

 

[couldvebeenyou]

I’m seeing so many different ideas and what has worked for one isn’t working for another that I really can’t bring myself to go through trying anything else… Apple are calling me Friday with an update of the diagnostics they took from my phone… I’m not tech savvy so it’s so stressful for me to try anything else, the factory reset never worked, the backing up on data never worked. Surely apple should have a universal answer for this as different things are working for different people?! Does anyone know if this could just be a phone issue and not an ios issue, could we just have damaged phones from the 1st batch?

I don't believe this is an hardware issue. I believe this is an iCloud-background-task-syncing-issue. I had this issue on my iPhone 13 Pro. I buy a new iPhone a couple of months after release (because I don't want one af the first batches and I want the most known software issues to be solved). It all started after an update OR when I bought a new MacBook and added it to my Apple ID OR when I added a few iTunes movies I bought manually through finder through my new MacBook Pro. I'll never know when it started because I didn't check system memory on a daily base

After deletion of downloaded/synced movies in the TV app and then deleting the app, my system memory is steady around a few GB's, pending how many apps are open.

I reinstalled the TV app after a few days. Still steady at same GB's. Did not sync any movies manually yet.

In my case it also could have been caused by a variety of OS versions on a variety of devices which might cause a conflict in iCloud syncing? I have two iPhones that are on iOS 16 (one on the latest version, one on the previous), an iPad that's still on iOS 15 (latest) that can't be updated yet, two MacBooks (new Pro on latest Monterey and old one also on latest Monterey). I even have an iPod touch (7th generation) which is also still running iOS 15 because it can't be updated to iOS 16.

For anyone who's wondering why have two iPhones? It's de SE 2nd gen which I bought because old phone died and didn't want to buy an iPhone 11 just a few weeks before the release of 12. So I waited until the iPhone 13 was in the stores a few months. It's now my Back-Up-phone. And why an iPod? Well, I used to buy phones with 64GBs and had an iPod for my full music library for usage in my car (iPod Ready, didn't have CarPlay), streaming music on the highway didn't really work those days. I always left it in my car as at was in front of the house and could sync music through WiFi. Since I got a new car with CarPlay I bought the 13 Pro with 512GBs and the iPod is now in my collection along with the iPod Classic 80GB, iPod Classic 160GB and maybe I will just hang on to my old MacBook Pro 2015, just for fun.

 

[jerque]

The upgrade to 16.0.3 changed anything for you?

 

[couldvebeenyou]

It is not the TV app for me. I am struggling to understand. When I disconnect from iCloud my system data are going down dramatically. My iMessages and photos going up dramatically.

So your issue could be Photo and/or iMessage related then.

I would check iCloud.com how many photo's are there and check if this matches the Photo's downloaded to your Phone. Maybe it's an issue related to the Optimize iPhone-Storage in Photo's if your Photo library extends the memory of your Phone. Do you have a Mac? Ever created a new Photo Library on it? Are all the photo's synced to your Mac or only using iCloud for storage?

For messages, I don't know. In Europe/Netherlands we hardly ever use iMessage, mainly because not all providers support iMessage or used to support it back in the days.

Just a thought; If anyone's contacting Apple Care the upcoming days, I would suggest asking if they could clear up the iCloud download queue or something like that. Don't remember the exact words. They did it once for me a few years ago when I contacted Apple Care because I couldn't download anything on a new device. No Photo's, no music. They told me the download queue was full and could contain multiple duplicates. I figured this must have been because I first tried to restore an iTunes back-up but it was taking to long, then after a reset, I tried to restore from iCloud, also taking too long. Then I did a reset and set up the iPhone as new. Fooled around with the new features I was so curious about and then restored from iTunes again and just waited an hour or so. Of course I did not told them I could have been the cause of this issue myself 😏. Never knew these multiple attempts could cause iCloud going out of space and creating a download queue that was getting stuck because of many many duplicates.

 

[couldvebeenyou]

It went up to about 750gb earlier; nuts!
It’s holding steady at the moment since the Apple TV deletion tip 🙏 we’ll see

Nope it’s now on the up again!

Please tell us, how big is your iCloud Storage plan and how many GB's are in use?
How many GB's per service?

 

[whatawally]

I don't believe this is an hardware issue. I believe this is an iCloud-background-task-syncing-issue. I had this issue on my iPhone 13 Pro. I buy a new iPhone a couple of months after release (because I don't want one af the first batches and I want the most known software issues to be solved). It all started after an update OR when I bought a new MacBook and added it to my Apple ID OR when I added a few iTunes movies I bought manually through finder through my new MacBook Pro. I'll never know when it started because I didn't check system memory on a daily base

After deletion of downloaded/synced movies in the TV app and then deleting the app, my system memory is steady around a few GB's, pending how many apps are open.

I reinstalled the TV app after a few days. Still steady at same GB's. Did not sync any movies manually yet.

In my case it also could have been caused by a variety of OS versions on a variety of devices which might cause a conflict in iCloud syncing? I have two iPhones that are on iOS 16 (one on the latest version, one on the previous), an iPad that's still on iOS 15 (latest) that can't be updated yet, two MacBooks (new Pro on latest Monterey and old one also on latest Monterey). I even have an iPod touch (7th generation) which is also still running iOS 15 because it can't be updated to iOS 16.

For anyone who's wondering why have two iPhones? It's de SE 2nd gen which I bought because old phone died and didn't want to buy an iPhone 11 just a few weeks before the release of 12. So I waited until the iPhone 13 was in the stores a few months. It's now my Back-Up-phone. And why an iPod? Well, I used to buy phones with 64GBs and had an iPod for my full music library for usage in my car (iPod Ready, didn't have CarPlay), streaming music on the highway didn't really work those days. I always left it in my car as at was in front of the house and could sync music through WiFi. Since I got a new car with CarPlay I bought the 13 Pro with 512GBs and the iPod is now in my collection along with the iPod Classic 80GB, iPod Classic 160GB and maybe I will just hang on to my old MacBook Pro 2015, just for fun.

Tbh I agree, I can’t see this being a hardware issues but as I’m not great with technology, I’m struggling to keep trying all these different things, I wish apple could just do it for me, I pay for their apple care+ theft loss and damage but they’re not being brilliant with it all, I don’t even know how to delete movies and shows from Apple TV lol

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Tbh I agree, I can’t see this being a hardware issues but as I’m not great with technology, I’m struggling to keep trying all these different things, I wish apple could just do it for me, I pay for their apple care+ theft loss and damage but they’re not being brilliant with it all, I don’t even know how to delete movies and shows from Apple TV lol

Open the app, press and hold on every movie that's in there and hit delete.
When everything's deleted, press and hold the TV app pictogram and hit delete.
Wait for a few days before reinstalling the TV app whenever you're planning on using that app again.

 

[MacGiver]

So your issue could be Photo and/or iMessage related then.

I would check iCloud.com how many photo's are there and check if this matches the Photo's downloaded to your Phone. Maybe it's an issue related to the Optimize iPhone-Storage in Photo's if your Photo library extends the memory of your Phone. Do you have a Mac? Ever created a new Photo Library on it? Are all the photo's synced to your Mac or only using iCloud for storage?

For messages, I don't know. In Europe/Netherlands we hardly ever use iMessage, mainly because not all providers support iMessage or used to support it back in the days.

Just a thought; If anyone's contacting Apple Care the upcoming days, I would suggest asking if they could clear up the iCloud download queue or something like that. Don't remember the exact words. They did it once for me a few years ago when I contacted Apple Care because I couldn't download anything on a new device. No Photo's, no music. They told me the download queue was full and could contain multiple duplicates. I figured this must have been because I first tried to restore an iTunes back-up but it was taking to long, then after a reset, I tried to restore from iCloud, also taking too long. Then I did a reset and set up the iPhone as new. Fooled around with the new features I was so curious about and then restored from iTunes again and just waited an hour or so. Of course I did not told them I could have been the cause of this issue myself 😏. Never knew these multiple attempts could cause iCloud going out of space and creating a download queue that was getting stuck because of many many duplicates.

Thanks. I logged off iCloud a several times and back on. I have deleted photos when I was off meaning these were photos on my iPhone. Whenever I disconnect from iCloud my iMessage iPhone storage goes up from almost nothing to 20GB but my storage data are very low. Usually when I log back on to iCloud then my iMessage storage data are going down to almost nothing but my storage data are going up to 20GB. Expect this time my iMessage remained high and my system date about half of what it usually is when connected to iCloud so about 11GB. This is driving me nuts. Looks like there is a link b/w both.

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Two cents. Hence I hardly use iMessage I don't have a lot of experience but could it be your iMessage history contains links or whatever to photo's that used to be included in your Photo Library? Or even emoticons or whatever that aren't present anymore? Pitty you can't access iMessage through iCloud.com

Maybe there are multiple (movie) files shared through iMessage which are in an loop to be downloaded...

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Two cents. Hence I hardly use iMessage I don't have a lot of experience but could it be your iMessage history contains links or whatever to photo's that used to be included in your Photo Library? Or even emoticons or whatever that aren't present anymore? Pitty you can't access iMessage through iCloud.com

Maybe there are multiple (movie) files shared through iMessage which are in an loop to be downloaded...

But do you own any other Apple devices?

 

[MacGiver]

Here something else that does not make sense to me :
1- When I logged off iCloud I could see photos remaining on my iPhone. About 1500 among 15000 when I was logged on.
2- I first did a check with one photo from the 1500. I deleted it from my iPhone (also deleted it from deleted items)
3- I checked in iCloud.com the photo was there.
4- I logged on and the deleted photo came back as I guess brought from iCloud to my phone reconnected to ICloud.
5- So I logged off again and then deleted the 1500 photos/videos (but I kept them in the deleted items).
6- I logged on and when everything was synched I went back and checked a few photos deleted and most were back, a few were not.
7- I went to the deleted items, where the 1500 photos should have been BUT there were 66 photos and those were the missing photos.
8- At this moment not sure why my iMessage data storage was about 20GB and system data about 10GB.
9- I decided to recover those 66 photos from my deleted items back to photos.
10- Then suddenly my iMessage data storage went down to almost 0 (300MB) and my system data went up to 25GB.

I can’t explain it. Whether it has a correlation or not. The only thing I can say is 🤪🤪🤪 Apple engineers ALLO!!!

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Update. Just updated iPhone to 16.0.3 and manually synced iTunes movies after that. System Memory did rise a bit from 3GBs to 4 5GB afterwards. I'll keep monitoring the next few days.

 

[couldvebeenyou]

1- When I logged off iCloud I could see photos remaining on my iPhone. About 1500 among 15000 when I was logged on.
2- I first did a check with one photo from the 1500. I deleted it from my iPhone (also deleted it from deleted items)
3- I checked in iCloud.com the photo was there.
4- I logged on and the deleted photo came back as I guess brought from iCloud to my phone reconnected to ICloud.
5- So I logged off again and then deleted the 1500 photos/videos (but I kept them in the deleted items).
6- I logged on and when everything was synched I went back and che6. cked a few photos deleted and most were back, a few were not.
7- I went to the deleted items, where the 1500 photos should have been BUT there were 66 photos and those were the missing photos.
8- At this moment not sure why my iMessage data storage was about 20GB and system d

ata about 10GB.
9- I decided to recover those 66 photos from my deleted items back to photos.
10- Then suddenly my iMessage data storage went down to almost 0 (300MB) and my system data went up to 25GB.

I can’t explain it. Whether it has a correlation or not. The only thing I can say is 🤪🤪🤪 Apple engineers ALLO!!!

1. So about 13000 had not been synced? That's a lot of photo's and a lot of memory. Might be too much to download from iCloud.
2. OK.
3. Yeah. There's an annoying Timelapse between local and iCloud.
4. 3.
5. Which is causing the iCloud queue to go even weirder, ok..
6/7. iCloud takes time to delete and sync. Apple isn't like using the most high speed servers for iCloud. Could take up a minute to sync a numbers file through iCloud, left alone multiple photo's
8 and further no clue either.

 

[MacGiver]

1. So about 13000 had not been synced? That's a lot of photo's and a lot of memory. Might be too much to download from iCloud.
2. OK.
3. Yeah. There's an annoying Timelapse between local and iCloud.
4. 3.
5. Which is causing the iCloud queue to go even weirder, ok..
6/7. iCloud takes time to delete and sync. Apple isn't like using the most high speed servers for iCloud. Could take up a minute to sync a numbers file through iCloud, left alone multiple photo's
8 and further no clue either.

Point 1: No. I had 15000 photos on the photo app when logged on. When logged off after 10min I had 1500 so 13500 unsynched from iclould. Meaning those 1500 were on my iPhone SSD and ICloud. I deleted them from my phone.

 

[MacGiver]

I think I will just stop looking at system data. I have 25GB of system data and 55GB being the rest…app etc… since I have a 256GB I will try to live with it, after all I still have plenty of space and it does not affect my iPhone functionality. But my OCD and tech evil side of me want abnormal behaviors to be resolved. I’ll try to get over it 🙈🙉🙊

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Point 1: No. I had 15000 photos on the photo app when logged on. When logged off after 10min I had 1500 so 13500 unsynched from iclould. Meaning those 1500 were on my iPhone SSD and ICloud. I deleted them from my phone.

Those 13500, had those been synced or just thumbnails?

 

[MacGiver]

Those 13500, had those been synced or just thumbnails?

Not sure what you mean? They have been synched for me.

 

[AndyD1]

My system data for 4 days has been somewhere between 10TB and 15GB Still think that’s high but I can live with it.

 

[metsjetsfan]

Not sure what you mean? They have been synched for me.

How do you know if all my photos are synced

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Not sure what you mean? They have been synched for me.

It depends on your Photo settings. Do you use Optimize iPhone Storage or Download and Keep Originals. First option only downloads thumbnails and the second downloads photo's in original full state.

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

Wondering if a setting like this could be your issue.

 

[couldvebeenyou]

How do you know if all my photos are synced

Check your settings: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

And check your local iPhone storage versus iCloud.com

Using the Photo app, scroll down. There's a message displaying sync status.

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Update. Just updated iPhone to 16.0.3 and manually synced iTunes movies after that. System Memory did rise a bit from 3GBs to 4 5GB afterwards. I'll keep monitoring the next few days.

My iPhone didn't increase that much 24 hours later. Eventhough 5-7 GB is a bit high compared to not having synced iTunes Movies when I was about 2 GBs, it doesn't increase to extreem GB's like 500.