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As mentioned yesterday, I’m personally intending to return 14pro max. However, turning off Wi-Fi and disabling back ups over cellular (as suggested on this thread) does seem to have “fixed” the issue. But of course it’s not the long term solution.. 24 hours since I did this and system data no longer filling up. I am on unlimited data plan so that’s not so much of an issue, but I’m just concerned that we’ll be stuck if Apple doesn’t fix this for months.. I’m still within the 14 day return window here in uk and much as I want to keep the phone, I just think on balance it might be worth sending it back until they come up with a fix..:/
 
I have the same issue you are all having and I’m following this thread to check on what anyone is suggesting, I want to contribute an additional detail that I think hasn’t been mentioned before though.

As many of you already said, system storage starts to inflate when connected to a Wi-Fi: in my case I can tell you that EVERY time I connect to my Wi-Fi after a reboot (so from a “fresh“ system data of about 5-6gb) it always goes up by exactly 18gb. Then it stays like that for quite a long time (many hours) after which it bumps of an additional 18.

My iPhone is a 14 Pro Max 256gb, btw.

I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but I verified this multiple times, it goes up in increments of 18gb for me.

It‘s quite annoying to reboot every given amount of time but it looks clearly as a software issue IMHO, hopefully a few update will solve it. In the meantime it’s not like the phone is unusable, I can deal with rebooting 1-2 times a day.

I’m also tempted to just jump to iOS 16.1 beta hoping the issue isn’t present there.
 
Good evening. Everything is fine with me. After updating to 16.0.2 the phone rebooted itself after about 20 minutes and seemed fine. Then the data grew again. I found that I don't have all the movies in my library downloaded. They didn't download. I had to log out and log in again. It took a very long time to download them. However, everything is perfectly fine now.
 
I have the same issue you are all having and I’m following this thread to check on what anyone is suggesting, I want to contribute an additional detail that I think hasn’t been mentioned before though.

As many of you already said, system storage starts to inflate when connected to a Wi-Fi: in my case I can tell you that EVERY time I connect to my Wi-Fi after a reboot (so from a “fresh“ system data of about 5-6gb) it always goes up by exactly 18gb. Then it stays like that for quite a long time (many hours) after which it bumps of an additional 18.

My iPhone is a 14 Pro Max 256gb, btw.

I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but I verified this multiple times, it goes up in increments of 18gb for me.

It‘s quite annoying to reboot every given amount of time but it looks clearly as a software issue IMHO, hopefully a few update will solve it. In the meantime it’s not like the phone is unusable, I can deal with rebooting 1-2 times a day.

I’m also tempted to just jump to iOS 16.1 beta hoping the issue isn’t present there.
How can you get on Beta 16.1?
 
How can you get on Beta 16.1?
I checked mentioned suggestions and they didn’t seem to work. I did notice in cellular data for my current period which is five days it’s it’s transferred over 790 GB or data. Does that seem correct?
 

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I have the same issue you are all having and I’m following this thread to check on what anyone is suggesting, I want to contribute an additional detail that I think hasn’t been mentioned before though.

As many of you already said, system storage starts to inflate when connected to a Wi-Fi: in my case I can tell you that EVERY time I connect to my Wi-Fi after a reboot (so from a “fresh“ system data of about 5-6gb) it always goes up by exactly 18gb. Then it stays like that for quite a long time (many hours) after which it bumps of an additional 18.

My iPhone is a 14 Pro Max 256gb, btw.

I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but I verified this multiple times, it goes up in increments of 18gb for me.

It‘s quite annoying to reboot every given amount of time but it looks clearly as a software issue IMHO, hopefully a few update will solve it. In the meantime it’s not like the phone is unusable, I can deal with rebooting 1-2 times a day.

I’m also tempted to just jump to iOS 16.1 beta hoping the issue isn’t present there.
I’m on 16.1 beta 2 and it’s still happening to me.
 
I’ve given up attempting to fix it.

Whatever I do, doesn’t work, and not connecting to Wi-Fi doesn’t work - mine is still growing when only operating through data.

I shouldn’t have to change my usage behaviours, or try to workaround the problem.

It just needs to be fixed - it’s clearly an issue.

(As you can tell, I’m getting a bit pissed off now - I had another enjoyable conversation with Apple support who were next to useless. I must have done 10+ restarts, resets, setting changed etc. It’s ridiculous. The hey tried to say it was normal behaviour again! What buying a 256gb device, and for 170gb to be consumed by system data? Utter, clueless BS)
 
Hello everyone,
Same issue here with my iPhone 14 Pro Max 256 Gb.
The gauge regularly indicates that it is full to more than 255 Gb: about 50 Gb of personal data, the rest is occupied by system data.
Restarting the iPhone brings it back down to about 70 Gb, but the storage quickly saturates beyond 255 Gb, making it impossible to take any photo or download any attachment. A hard reset and reinstall didn't fix anything.
In these conditions, it is clearly unusable.
Has anyone managed to get around this problem? Is Apple planning a fix soon?
 
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I’m on 16.1 beta 2 and it’s still happening to me.
Same, also on the beta.
Hello everyone,
Same issue here with my iPhone 14 Pro Max 256 Gb.
The gauge regularly indicates that it is full to more than 255 Gb: about 50 Gb of personal data, the rest is occupied by system data.
Restarting the iPhone brings it back down to about 70 Gb, but the storage quickly saturates beyond 255 Gb, making it impossible to take any photo or download any attachment. A hard reset and reinstall didn't fix anything.
In these conditions, it is clearly unusable.
Has anyone managed to get around this problem? Is Apple planning a fix soon?
Does it happen on Wi-Fi? Turning off Wi-Fi is the only workaround that makes this phone usable for me.
 
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This doesn’t sound like the same issue. My System Storage is 150 GB.
Oh, so was mine. Was having to restart every day to clear it. I switched off AOD (as it’s the only difference between pro models and other iOS 16 devices) and it appears to have sorted it. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not. I’m still running 16.0.1
 
Oh, so was mine. Was having to restart every day to clear it. I switched off AOD (as it’s the only difference between pro models and other iOS 16 devices) and it appears to have sorted it. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not. I’m still running 16.0.1
Just tried turning it off on mine and restarted. System storage still fills up on Wi-Fi. 16.1b2.
 
Just tried turning it off on mine and restarted. System storage still fills up on Wi-Fi. 16.1b2.
Ah that’s rubbish! Whatever is causing it must’ve fixed itself on mine at the same time. I was getting to the point where sometimes twice a day I needed to hard reset. I’ll switch AOD back on and will keep an eye on the numbers.
 
Turning off wifi helped me, but after updating to 16.0.2 and verifying that I have all my data back on my phone (photos, movies, music...) the phone is fine. I had to log out and back in for movies.
 
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Turning off wifi helped me, but after updating to 16.0.2 and verifying that I have all my data back on my phone (photos, movies, music...) the phone is fine. I had to log out and back in for movies.
What just the iOS update solved yours? I’m running that and not solved the problem for me
 
Turning off wifi helped me, but after updating to 16.0.2 and verifying that I have all my data back on my phone (photos, movies, music...) the phone is fine. I had to log out and back in for movies.
Same. I’m down to just 1.17 GB right not but when it goes up it doesn’t go past 5 then shrinks down depending on activity. Update seems to have settled mine and also ensuring no stuck downloads. I had a Tv show episode that was still attempting to download in Apple TV app. Also checked watch download settings. Haven’t changed any other usage behaviour- AOD is on and Wi-Fi on too. Running great now. Check any deleted apps aren’t showing in your apps storage list and any downloads in music or tv aren’t waiting to download.
 
Same. I’m down to just 1.17 GB right not but when it goes up it doesn’t go past 5 then shrinks down depending on activity. Update seems to have settled mine and also ensuring no stuck downloads. I had a Tv show episode that was still attempting to download in Apple TV app. Also checked watch download settings. Haven’t changed any other usage behaviour- AOD is on and Wi-Fi on too. Running great now. Check any deleted apps aren’t showing in your apps storage list and any downloads in music or tv aren’t waiting to download.
Absolute truth
 
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Turning off wifi helped me, but after updating to 16.0.2 and verifying that I have all my data back on my phone (photos, movies, music...) the phone is fine. I had to log out and back in for movies.
May I ask what did you do exactly? Log out of iCloud entirely?

Where can I double check if the phone is “trying” to download something? (the movie thing could be true for me as well, I wanna try)

UPDATE: I think this did the trick!
I went back to my old iPhone (from which the original backup was taken) to check which movies were downloaded there. There were 3 for a total of exactly 18gb (the same amount I’ve seen taken by system data every time I connected to a Wi-Fi) and those weren’t downloaded to my new iPhone.
I downloaded them manually and now the iPhone is happy and is not inflating system data every time it connects to my Wi-Fi!

try it if you can!
 
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Ok, real spanner in the works now.. wiped 14pro max completely, restored from back up, no change. So, resisted previous phone (13 pro max) with view to returning 14pro max, and lo and behold, same problem now exists on 13 pro max as well!!! So both phones have same problem. Both now on 16.0.2. So now I really do give up!
 
Ok, real spanner in the works now.. wiped 14pro max completely, restored from back up, no change. So, resisted previous phone (13 pro max) with view to returning 14pro max, and lo and behold, same problem now exists on 13 pro max as well!!! So both phones have same problem. Both now on 16.0.2. So now I really do give up!
That’s a real nightmare!!!

Mine has been “fine”, but I’m not connected to Wi-Fi! It’s still sat at 19-20gb but it’s not growing…

Fortunately I’m getting through as there’s good data coverage where I live and an unlimited plan, but it’s still a bit s**t….

I can’t be pestered trying another “reset” permutation. That’s problematic in itself as you end up having to re-set up all your apps, and there’s only so many times I can be bothered to set up my online banking etc!

Apple… just sort it. They must surely be aware by now!
 
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That’s a real nightmare!!!

Mine has been “fine”, but I’m not connected to Wi-Fi! It’s still sat at 19-20gb but it’s not growing…

Fortunately I’m getting through as there’s good data coverage where I live and an unlimited plan, but it’s still a bit s**t….

I can’t be pestered trying another “reset” permutation. That’s problematic in itself as you end up having to re-set up all your apps, and there’s only so many times I can be bothered to set up my online banking etc!

Apple… just sort it. They must surely be aware by now!
Yep I’m done now, I give up..! Got unlimited data as well so will have to stick to that for now, pretty good 5g in the areas I’m normally around so not the end of the world for now..
If everyone else on here does find a workable solution, it would be great for a single, simple step by step guide..I think I’ve tried most things that have been suggested, I’m a bit confused on the signing out of movies and back in thing so havn’t done that.. let’s see how things pan out..
I’m getting too old to keep up with all this..!!😆😆😆
 
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Same issues as above… running latest updates on 256Gb 14 Pro Max. Have found I had three bought movies in iTunes not downloaded and with the cloud symbol. Manually downloaded them and rebooted. So far system storage has been stable. For now…
 
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?
Same here, i already downloaded the songs again, i can’t seem to play them as an alarm, nor deleting them, i hate the standard ones
 
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