I always had the optimize iPhone storage settings. I am at 26GB storage data now. Oscillating b/w 25/27GB. No idea why.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.
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iPhone 14 Pro Max System Data - Storage Full - iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Thread starter Conyfers
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Maybe you could try download originals if you have enough storage. It could clear a iCloud download queue.
Simple reason: bandwidth. The phone is downloading all kinds of data, including but not limited to: contacts, calendar, app settings, and more.
Hi All,
I have been a long-time lurker and finally signed up
I was having the same issue with my Iphone 14 pro max with 256gb with the system data memory being filled to the point I could not do anything.
A re-boot would work for a day or two but went back to square one - I also did resets ect.
But! What seems to work was deleting the Apple Tv App, Rebooted the phone and the storage went to 6gb from usually 20gb, left it a few hrs re-installed the TV App and all so far all seems to be good and has been at 6gb for a few days and my battery seems to be better as well.
I have been a long-time lurker and finally signed up
I was having the same issue with my Iphone 14 pro max with 256gb with the system data memory being filled to the point I could not do anything.
A re-boot would work for a day or two but went back to square one - I also did resets ect.
But! What seems to work was deleting the Apple Tv App, Rebooted the phone and the storage went to 6gb from usually 20gb, left it a few hrs re-installed the TV App and all so far all seems to be good and has been at 6gb for a few days and my battery seems to be better as well.
I had a similar issue after upgrading from iPhone Xs Max 512gb to 14 Pro Max 512gb using the Bluetooth transfer from the old phon to the new one (il the new phone did crash during the upgrade) I only notice this issue after upgrading to 16.02 and then 16.03 within a week. I have less than half of the storage used but system data would creep up during the day which I had to use a hard reset to clear the system data.
Rang Apple support which was not much help telling me it’s photo sync issue and reinstall using iCloud. The thing is I don’t use iCloud photo back up at all ( got a NAS for that). I was going to sign up to a larger plane until I found this thread.
Tried initially deleting WhatsApp and reinstalling it. This worked for half a day than the data creeped back again.
I did a hard reset until the picture to connect to computer than rest again but this action did not resolve the issue either. Saw that TV app could be the cause, went ahead downloaded all the possible movies I had in my old phone and more and saw the system data hovering between 25.5 to less than 30gb. After 10+ moves later I did a hard reset, the system data went to “ZERO BYTE”
It stayed at zero for the whole time since! I did check some other people’s iPhone, one had zero byte also and other’s had up to approx 18gb. One person’s iPhone was particularly interesting to me that only Facebook and one or two other app’s used (total storage usage of 30gb) and system data took up about 8.5gb which seems a lot to me.
Hopefully this may help someone and it stays like this for my phone from now on.
Cheers
Rang Apple support which was not much help telling me it’s photo sync issue and reinstall using iCloud. The thing is I don’t use iCloud photo back up at all ( got a NAS for that). I was going to sign up to a larger plane until I found this thread.
Tried initially deleting WhatsApp and reinstalling it. This worked for half a day than the data creeped back again.
I did a hard reset until the picture to connect to computer than rest again but this action did not resolve the issue either. Saw that TV app could be the cause, went ahead downloaded all the possible movies I had in my old phone and more and saw the system data hovering between 25.5 to less than 30gb. After 10+ moves later I did a hard reset, the system data went to “ZERO BYTE”
It stayed at zero for the whole time since! I did check some other people’s iPhone, one had zero byte also and other’s had up to approx 18gb. One person’s iPhone was particularly interesting to me that only Facebook and one or two other app’s used (total storage usage of 30gb) and system data took up about 8.5gb which seems a lot to me.
Hopefully this may help someone and it stays like this for my phone from now on.
Cheers
Attachments
Sorry not sure I understood what solved your issue? A hard reset…? Is that it?
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Pending on your settings in the Photo app, the device could either be trying to download originals or just thumbnails. You mentioned:
"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."
That's not how iCloud works. iCloud is designed to be synced all the time. To me it looks like that there are photo's to be synced, should've been synced or would've been synced if. When you delete photo's offline, it takes time to delete these from the cloud, interrupting this proces could be your issue. Just a thought.
Thnx for sharing and confirming. Good to know my solution works for multiple users so Apple could take a look at this.Hi All,
I have been a long-time lurker and finally signed up
I was having the same issue with my Iphone 14 pro max with 256gb with the system data memory being filled to the point I could not do anything.
A re-boot would work for a day or two but went back to square one - I also did resets ect.
But! What seems to work was deleting the Apple Tv App, Rebooted the phone and the storage went to 6gb from usually 20gb, left it a few hrs re-installed the TV App and all so far all seems to be good and has been at 6gb for a few days and my battery seems to be better as well.
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My partner’s 14 Pro Max 1TB’s system data skyrocketed from day one, maxing out using the entire storage on about day3, phone locks up with the storage warnings etc but responds to a hard reset. Updated to 16.0.1 - no change, updated to 16.0.2, updated to 16.0.3 no change. Apple then advised a forced reload of 16.0.3 - still no change.
Based on this thread she turned WiFi off and voila so clearly it is a task limited to WiFi. She has a 26 movie collection so not enough to account for the storage growth. Offloading the TV app and going back onto WiFi and system storage is now holding in a normal range so tentatively it looks like multiple iterations of download attempts being triggered as part of the iCloud/sync/ maybe behind this.
Apple TV app is very non-critical so will leave the 14 in this state with the app offloaded (downloaded movies still on the phone), until 16.1 as based on comments from beta 2 users that seems to resolve it.
Based on this thread she turned WiFi off and voila so clearly it is a task limited to WiFi. She has a 26 movie collection so not enough to account for the storage growth. Offloading the TV app and going back onto WiFi and system storage is now holding in a normal range so tentatively it looks like multiple iterations of download attempts being triggered as part of the iCloud/sync/ maybe behind this.
Apple TV app is very non-critical so will leave the 14 in this state with the app offloaded (downloaded movies still on the phone), until 16.1 as based on comments from beta 2 users that seems to resolve it.
After downloading the movies as described without reinstalling Apple TV app than hard reset
I finally got rid of my system storage issue on an iPad Pro M1. I turned off library sync on the music App, deleted the music app, reinstalled the music app without syncing the library and now have 14GB extra free storage (system storage was 14GB - 20GB before, now less than 1GB). Don’t have a recent phone to test this on but figure may work for phones too.
Ok I can and the I could come back to “optimize” and check my storage data once optimization is complete. Maybe that process may clear up a possible queue stuck somewhere. That is the idea?
Tried to download the originals. It did and my iPhone storage was almost 100% filled with photos and system data! I chose back the optimize option but photos GB did not move. I chose to do a complete reset of my phone.
It was a bit painful but after reinstalling it with my latest iCloud back up it seems storage data are now stable around 5GB to 7GB. It’s been about 10hours now and it is stable.
I guess the only real option is to reinstall the phone (for those where uninstalling the TV app does not help).
It was a bit painful but after reinstalling it with my latest iCloud back up it seems storage data are now stable around 5GB to 7GB. It’s been about 10hours now and it is stable.
I guess the only real option is to reinstall the phone (for those where uninstalling the TV app does not help).
I don't understand your choices completely or I'm missing part of the experience.
Why reinstalling your iPhone? We all know that iCloud is not the fastest Cloud option there is. Of course, after optimizing photo's it doesn't action immediately on storage. Takes a few hours. Not sure how long you gave your iPhone to sync with iCloud.
Overall; by using the download originals versus optimize, you could have triggered clearing a photo's download queue. Hope your system memory will remain at the few GBs you reported. If that's the case, we isolated your issue to some kind of iCloud-photo-download-stuck-drain-issue.
Let's remember; iCloud is not designed not intended to be used as an storage unit. Basically it's designed to perform as a multiple device Cloud server for continuity. Sure, you can have thousands of photo's on iCloud but Apple doesn't take responsibility for data loss. Apple's advice is to make sure you have back-ups yourself.
This even goes for iTunes purchases. Like Warner Bros did with Harry Potter. After Apple's announcement of 4K features, backwards compatibility and things like that, Warner removed the Harry Potter movies form the iTunes Store only to be re-releasing those in 4K. As a new purchase. Previous purchases weren't available for streaming, nor download. Back in the day, there we're a lot of complaints about that. Apple basically said you should've downloaded it on a device to make sure you can access your purchase and being able to stream. A purchase is not eternally available for streaming or downloading. I believe Warner's and Apple settled about this now and previous HD purchases are available again, not sure, I don't like Harry.
Further advice; through the years I came across multiple issues regarding iCloud services, especially after expanding iCloud storage. Now I only reset/restore through iCloud if I can have the device connected overnight and make sure iCloud can do it's job when I'm asleep. Never had a single issue again until this with the TV App which is or was clearly a bug.
Yes - I’m guessing that Apple apps that include media are getting files placed in system data perhaps in addition to their respective app. I’m on the 16.1 beta
Once you select to download the originals it will fill up your iPhone storage and there is no way back. If you choose the optimize option back again, iOS will decide when your iPhone is reaching a too high storage volume and optimize it. I don’t know the threshold/trigger. I did not want to see 80% of my iPhone filled up with photos. That is why I decided to restore it. So far so good. All photos seem to be synched… still holding at 5GB. But the next days will tell.
That makes sense. I would have opted to have iOS do it's job but that's a personal decision. An old trick back in the day was to create a huge ZIP file (containing multiple Blu-Ray ISOs for example) and download or share it (Airdrop) with the iPhone in order to trick Optimize Photo's in iOS. Not sure if that still works. Last time I used that trick when I had an iPad with 64GBs or so.
Please let us know about your whereabouts regarding the system memory of your iPhone. Hopefully you triggered clearing some kind of download queue.
Hi Data Storage Team,
“Couldvebeenyou” but no it happened to me… yes my storage issue is still there… like a beast striking every night, my storage has gone up by 3 to 5GB ever night since Monday morning. I hope it will at least stabilize…
I restored my iPhone on Sunday and I am back today to 23GB of storage data….I am clueless.
As a reminder I have :
-Logged off iCloud and on many times ❌
-Toggled off and on iMessages ❌
-Deleted the TV app cria ❌
-Cleared cache ❌
-Restarted of course ❌
-Restored the iPhone ❌
-Called Apple : they told me it is not abnormal and Apple will release a fix in the next SW update. Ok guys so it is normal but you will fix it 😅. These guys are clueless as I am…. ❌
Voilà… I think It comes from photos but can’t tell what/why.
Why don’t Apple gives us some visibility on what is behind those storage data!!!
Good luck to those in my case.
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TL DR- I deleted and reinstalled Apple Podcasts and changed setting to not auto download any episodes. Basically, check ANY media that could be trying to download and/or restore. Photos, music, videos, movies, podcasts, old messages, etc.
Thanks to everyone who posted! Helped me figure out my issue.
——
After not realizing that this has been going on in my phone since I got it, yesterday my WhatsApp told me my phone was full. Huh? I have 512 GB and I was nowhere near my limit of space. 300 GB of “system data”. What the hell is this?
My phone had been behaving oddly since I got it. It was slow, seemed to have performance issues and sometimes got hot. Seems to be related to this nonsense.
I cleared my cache, deleted apps I wasn’t really using anymore, hard reset so many times, all which did nothing. Even the hard resets. Still had almost 300 gb of “system data” that would not budge.
I really didn’t want to completely wipe my phone.
I luckily stumbled onto this thread. Realized it’s clearly an iCloud issue. Something has gone horribly wrong with something in the midst of downloading or it had downloaded but didn’t delete whatever it was saving until it finished. The “iCloud queue” as someone pointed out was not clearing on its own. Maybe it’s all the YouTube videos or Instagram reels I’ve been watching. Temp downloads so that it streams cleanly?
iOS is up to date. Can’t download anything new.
Deleted Apple TV app.
Deleted Prime Video
Cleared out books I wasn’t reading from the books app.
Made sure all my music I had purchased was completely downloaded
I did not touch my photos yet
Then realized I don’t download movies or videos as some had pointed out seemed to be the culprit. BUT podcasts….someone talked about podcasts and their Apple Watch earlier in this thread. I didn’t have any on my watch but, I did have a bunch on my phone.
For me it ended up being Apple Podcasts app. I had to delete all pending downloads (so many pending downloads! Who knew?), actually downloaded podcasts, change the setting to stop all auto downloads and ultimately deleted the whole app and reinstalled and then also still had to go into settings and stop all auto downloads again. Default is last 5 of every podcast you subscribe to. Funny enough, my phone actually told me I might want to only keep the last 5 episodes of my podcasts to save space.
And that made it go away. And has stayed away….so far. 12 hours and counting.
It’s seems to be anything that could have, should have, might be downloading. If it was in the midst of downloading and regardless of if it did or didn’t finish it’s stuck in La La land.
If you haven’t already start checking anything that could be downloading from iCloud or anywhere else since you got your new phone or did a restore, check those items.
Thanks to everyone else who’s posted on this. It compelled me to create a user id and post what I found to work.
Hope this helps someone out there.
Thanks to everyone who posted! Helped me figure out my issue.
——
After not realizing that this has been going on in my phone since I got it, yesterday my WhatsApp told me my phone was full. Huh? I have 512 GB and I was nowhere near my limit of space. 300 GB of “system data”. What the hell is this?
My phone had been behaving oddly since I got it. It was slow, seemed to have performance issues and sometimes got hot. Seems to be related to this nonsense.
I cleared my cache, deleted apps I wasn’t really using anymore, hard reset so many times, all which did nothing. Even the hard resets. Still had almost 300 gb of “system data” that would not budge.
I really didn’t want to completely wipe my phone.
I luckily stumbled onto this thread. Realized it’s clearly an iCloud issue. Something has gone horribly wrong with something in the midst of downloading or it had downloaded but didn’t delete whatever it was saving until it finished. The “iCloud queue” as someone pointed out was not clearing on its own. Maybe it’s all the YouTube videos or Instagram reels I’ve been watching. Temp downloads so that it streams cleanly?
iOS is up to date. Can’t download anything new.
Deleted Apple TV app.
Deleted Prime Video
Cleared out books I wasn’t reading from the books app.
Made sure all my music I had purchased was completely downloaded
I did not touch my photos yet
Then realized I don’t download movies or videos as some had pointed out seemed to be the culprit. BUT podcasts….someone talked about podcasts and their Apple Watch earlier in this thread. I didn’t have any on my watch but, I did have a bunch on my phone.
For me it ended up being Apple Podcasts app. I had to delete all pending downloads (so many pending downloads! Who knew?), actually downloaded podcasts, change the setting to stop all auto downloads and ultimately deleted the whole app and reinstalled and then also still had to go into settings and stop all auto downloads again. Default is last 5 of every podcast you subscribe to. Funny enough, my phone actually told me I might want to only keep the last 5 episodes of my podcasts to save space.
And that made it go away. And has stayed away….so far. 12 hours and counting.
It’s seems to be anything that could have, should have, might be downloading. If it was in the midst of downloading and regardless of if it did or didn’t finish it’s stuck in La La land.
If you haven’t already start checking anything that could be downloading from iCloud or anywhere else since you got your new phone or did a restore, check those items.
Thanks to everyone else who’s posted on this. It compelled me to create a user id and post what I found to work.
Hope this helps someone out there.
Had same issue on 14 Pro Max.
Initially I restored from another iPhone and got the bug.
Apple support suggested 2 solutions:
1. Erase the phone directly from settings and recover from iCloud (did not work for me)
2. Backup to computer (connect via cable), erase via Finder/iTunes and then restore from the backup via Finder/iTunes. This one worked for me!
Links with detailed description:
Backup - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT203977
Erase - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252
Restore - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204184
Hope it will help anyone, good luck!
Initially I restored from another iPhone and got the bug.
Apple support suggested 2 solutions:
1. Erase the phone directly from settings and recover from iCloud (did not work for me)
2. Backup to computer (connect via cable), erase via Finder/iTunes and then restore from the backup via Finder/iTunes. This one worked for me!
Links with detailed description:
Backup - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT203977
Erase - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252
Restore - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204184
Hope it will help anyone, good luck!