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

[Square-Eyes]

For what it’s worth, this is my experience with an iPhone 14 Pro 256GB:

After 9 days it reported that the storage was full. My own usage was about 32GB.
I set it to uninstall unused apps, which gave me 5GB breathing space.
Overnight I left it plugged in and the next morning it was reporting just 27GB of system files. Thankfully much easier than others’ experience on this thread…

 

[MacGiver]

For what it’s worth, this is my experience with an iPhone 14 Pro 256GB:

After 9 days it reported that the storage was full. My own usage was about 32GB.
I set it to uninstall unused apps, which gave me 5GB breathing space.
Overnight I left it plugged in and the next morning it was reporting just 27GB of system files. Thankfully much easier than others’ experience on this thread…

So weird. No clue what was causing your issue though.

 

[Jevons]

So weird. No clue what was causing your issue though.

Same problem with new iPhone 14 Pro. 253.6Gb of 258Gb full - mostly "system data". I deleted the AppleTV app, then reinstalled it. Problem fixed. Amazing.

 

[Avatar007]

Just an update, with my previous attempt, files became corrupted and app would crash for no reason and forced to reinstall. My own music library would have mixed up album artworks between different artists. During all this time the system data stayed at zero byte. I did try and reinstall tv app and it showed ghost images of all the home videos that was installed at some stage even though they were not present on my previous phone.

I deleted tv app and music app. Backed up through iTunes on my Mac ( did iCloud also). Reset the phone. Restored from my Mac and synced my music library only first at the same time. Waited for a few days than sync my Apple TV plus home videos.

The system data grew from approx 4 gigabytes to over 8. Once I synced the tv app with one of my home video, the system data dipped below 8 gigabyte.

 

[metsjetsfan]

anyone on 16.1? did it fix it?

 

[MacGiver]

anyone on 16.1? did it fix it?

Nope. My storage data actually went up by 5GB. Need to wait. I guess there is some work being done in the background.

 

[Jack8510]

I received My iPhone 14 pro max 258gb today, same issues as everyone else 255gb of storage full, 175gb was “system data” after iCloud restore - I had to restart my phone several times to lower the system data back to around 70gb but within a few hours it was back up to full - I think the issue is now fixed i deleted the Apple TV app and then updated my iOS to 16.1 my phone installed the update and restarted and system data has stayed at 5.98gb for the last 3 hours, so fingers crossed it’s resolved - I haven’t reinstalled the Apple TV app yet, I have no idea if it is the TV app or the update that seems to have fixed the issue - Thanks for the advice all

 

[Paul#6]

Anyone had the problems come back after installing iOS16.1 ??

 

[korben34]

IOS 16.0.3 installed and same issue still remaining even after tens of restarts. Finally I've deleted the Apple TV app and reinstalled it.
System works fine, issue seams fixed. No more system data over sized.
Hope it helps

 

[Casparidsinga]

Had the same issue but it’s all solved now, this is what i did with help from Apple support:

My IPhone 14 Pro Max 256GB was filled with 154GB of system data in 8 hours,

- first i made a iCloud backup, then erased complete iPhone and recovered the backup, this didn’t work. Also reset, forced reset, forced recovery all didn’t work.

- got a completely new iPhone from T-mobile

- then i gave the Apple engineer acces to my phone, he checked if i used VPN apps of some sort or virus security apps,..6 out of 10 times that was the issue, but I don’t use VPN, also no result.

-in the end I connected my iPhone to my Mac, made a complete backup on my Mac, so no icloud backup!
Reset the iPhone to facrtory settings, and then restored the backup i had stored on my Mac, after that the problem was solved, now it uses approximately 3-4GB of storage for system data,..

The source of this issue is that due to IOS16 there are some changes to the security and that blocks some security features in apps that aren’t updated by the developer, so files are blocked by some kind of firewall, and ios16 stores those files like cache data as system data,… if you restore the phone manually using a computer or a mac , those issues are resolved, there’s a bug in icloud restore that causes fhe problem,..

So old school install with a mac or computer is the answer

 

[MacGiver]

Had the same issue but it’s all solved now, this is what i did with help from Apple support:

My IPhone 14 Pro Max 256GB was filled with 154GB of system data in 8 hours,

- first i made a iCloud backup, then erased complete iPhone and recovered the backup, this didn’t work. Also reset, forced reset, forced recovery all didn’t work.

- got a completely new iPhone from T-mobile

- then i gave the Apple engineer acces to my phone, he checked if i used VPN apps of some sort or virus security apps,..6 out of 10 times that was the issue, but I don’t use VPN, also no result.

-in the end I connected my iPhone to my Mac, made a complete backup on my Mac, so no icloud backup!
Reset the iPhone to facrtory settings, and then restored the backup i had stored on my Mac, after that the problem was solved, now it uses approximately 3-4GB of storage for system data,..

The source of this issue is that due to IOS16 there are some changes to the security and that blocks some security features in apps that aren’t updated by the developer, so files are blocked by some kind of firewall, and ios16 stores those files like cache data as system data,… if you restore the phone manually using a computer or a mac , those issues are resolved, there’s a bug in icloud restore that causes fhe problem,..

So old school install with a mac or computer is the answer

Thanks for sharing. A can we reasonably think Apple will or can resolve that bug via a SW fix in the future. I know no one knows but could this be done technically speaking?

 

[Casparidsinga]

Thanks for sharing. A can we reasonably think Apple will or can resolve that bug via a SW fix in the future. I know no one knows but could this be done technically speaking?

Probably that won’t be possible,.. I’m not a expert on software, but what I understood was that if you recover with a computer or a mac, the computer or mac is allowed to make changes in the data structure that solves this problem,.. due to security iCloud backup can’t make changes to the iPhone wirelessly

 

[metsjetsfan]

Probably that won’t be possible,.. I’m not a expert on software, but what I understood was that if you recover with a computer or a mac, the computer or mac is allowed to make changes in the data structure that solves this problem,.. due to security iCloud backup can’t make changes to the iPhone wirelessly

How about just doing an ios update from the mac? I wonder if that works. others have said yes but not sure if its this specific issue

 

[upandown]

How about just doing an ios update from the mac? I wonder if that works. others have said yes but not sure if its this specific issue

An update alone from a Mac does not work.

 

[Casparidsinga]

An update alone from a Mac does not work.

How about just doing an ios update from the mac? I wonder if that works. others have said yes but not sure if its this specific issue

Ios16 or ios 16.1 isn’t the problem, so a update isn’t gonna help, the source of the problem is, the apps that you intall from old to new iPhone with iCloud,

 

[MacGiver]

Ios16 or ios 16.1 isn’t the problem, so a update isn’t gonna help, the source of the problem is, the apps that you intall from old to new iPhone with iCloud,

What if you delete that app (If you ever find which one is guilty). Will that remove the stored data in question?

 

[metsjetsfan]

Had the same issue but it’s all solved now, this is what i did with help from Apple support:

My IPhone 14 Pro Max 256GB was filled with 154GB of system data in 8 hours,

- first i made a iCloud backup, then erased complete iPhone and recovered the backup, this didn’t work. Also reset, forced reset, forced recovery all didn’t work.

- got a completely new iPhone from T-mobile

- then i gave the Apple engineer acces to my phone, he checked if i used VPN apps of some sort or virus security apps,..6 out of 10 times that was the issue, but I don’t use VPN, also no result.

-in the end I connected my iPhone to my Mac, made a complete backup on my Mac, so no icloud backup!
Reset the iPhone to facrtory settings, and then restored the backup i had stored on my Mac, after that the problem was solved, now it uses approximately 3-4GB of storage for system data,..

The source of this issue is that due to IOS16 there are some changes to the security and that blocks some security features in apps that aren’t updated by the developer, so files are blocked by some kind of firewall, and ios16 stores those files like cache data as system data,… if you restore the phone manually using a computer or a mac , those issues are resolved, there’s a bug in icloud restore that causes fhe problem,..

So old school install with a mac or computer is the answer

Whats the best way to do this, is it finder now? havent done since the itunes days. And what happens with the phone number when u wipe due to the esim? Thanks

 

[couldvebeenyou]

Anyone had the problems come back after installing iOS16.1 ??

Nope. Eventhough I'm now at 9GBs after the update. It's 4 or 5 GBs more than before updating.

 

[Casparidsinga]

What if you delete that app (If you ever find which one is guilty). Will that remove the stored data in question?

Yes, that could be a solution,.. when I shared my screen with the Apple engineer, he showed me a few Apps that could cause the problem, like some old free security apps from my telecom provider, they also work like VPN apps,
He said that in many cases the problem was solved after the app was deleted and you did a forced reset.
But as you already stated, which app causes the problem, also Apple can’t find that one, because due to privacy regulations, they aren’t allowed to check data to find the source of it,..

 

[Casparidsinga]

Nope. Eventhough I'm now at 9GBs after the update. It's 4 or 5 GBs more than before updating.

The system data always fluctuate, it stores data that can’t be send by mobile connection, only by WIFI and connected to a wall socket,

That’s why the system data is at its lowest after a long charge and connected to WIFI,..

Mine is 4,3gb now, yesterday afternoon it was around 11.2gb

 

[MacGiver]

Yes, that could be a solution,.. when I shared my screen with the Apple engineer, he showed me a few Apps that could cause the problem, like some old free security apps from my telecom provider, they also work like VPN apps,
He said that in many cases the problem was solved after the app was deleted and you did a forced reset.
But as you already stated, which app causes the problem, also Apple can’t find that one, because due to privacy regulations, they aren’t allowed to check data to find the source of it,..

I think iOS w/o breaking security/privacy rules could easily point out what app is generating the storage data… like a % per app.
Well maybe it is due to my VPN. Actually I have 2 sims. One physical and a eSim on my 14PM. The physical one is my company sim and it is under MDM (Mobile Device Management). I am stuck with around 25GB more or less… But as stated before It does not go beyond that so far, so my 256GB SSD is far from being full (~75GB now 25GB storage data included…).

 

[couldvebeenyou]

I think iOS w/o breaking security/privacy rules could easily point out what app is generating the storage data… like a % per app.
Well maybe it is due to my VPN. Actually I have 2 sims. One physical and a eSim on my 14PM. The physical one is my company sim and it is under MDM (Mobile Device Management). I am stuck with around 25GB more or less… But as stated before It does not go beyond that so far, so my 256GB SSD is far from being full (~75GB now 25GB storage data included…).

Oh. I did not know you have VPN on your iPhone. VPN causes a lot of issues on iPhones. Many threads on that subject through Apple Discussions. Just checked my Partner's work iPhone (13 mini). Also under MDM and uses VPN. With just a handful of photo's, no music, no app's that sync with iCloud (nope, not even Whatsapp, they use Teams ), no other apps installed besides native (yes, Garageband had been deleted), Office 365 and some apps for company usage, there's no way to explain the 35+ GBs of system storage other than VPN related.
That's why we've been requesting multiple users on iOS for years.

 

[mfrank29]

My 14 pro max experience has been slow but constantly growing System Storage. Started our with 4-5GB from iCloud restore. That kept up to 8GN, which is what I usually saw on my 13 pro max. I now hit 20Gb and can knock it down to 16/17 if I clear all safari cache. It hasn't gone to insane level some of you have seen, but it keeps steadily increasing.

 

[mfrank29]

My 14 pro max experience has been slow but constantly growing System Storage. Started our with 4-5GB from iCloud restore. That kept up to 8GN, which is what I usually saw on my 13 pro max. I now hit 20Gb and can knock it down to 16/17 if I clear all safari cache. It hasn't gone to insane level some of you have seen, but it keeps steadily increasing.

I had defender and global protect from palo alto installed so I dated those. Cleared safari cache and rebooted. Down to 15Gb....lol Apple needs to allow us to see what's in that storage for IOS and Mac OS

 

[MacGiver]

Oh. I did not know you have VPN on your iPhone. VPN causes a lot of issues on iPhones. Many threads on that subject through Apple Discussions. Just checked my Partner's work iPhone (13 mini). Also under MDM and uses VPN. With just a handful of photo's, no music, no app's that sync with iCloud (nope, not even Whatsapp, they use Teams ), no other apps installed besides native (yes, Garageband had been deleted), Office 365 and some apps for company usage, there's no way to explain the 35+ GBs of system storage other than VPN related.
That's why we've been requesting multiple users on iOS for years.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I think this is my issue. As it remains stable around 25GB storage data I guess it is fine. And there is no way for me to return to 2 phones… I really appreciate have both pro and perso lines on my 14 PM.
However not sure I got your point when you said « That's why we've been requesting multiple users on iOS for years. ».
What do you mean exactly?