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System looks massive, is this right?
- Thread starter FyerFyer
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I just got my X 2 days ago. My system size is a whopping 47GB. Apple so far has no explanation but admits it should be 6-8. I do have 39,000 photos optimized in the cloud. I also noticed the System size consistently expanding while photos were syncing. I will try your suggestion.
"System" is mostly deleted data that hasn't been overwritten. "Other" is a catch all word used for data that doesn't fall into the categories listed such as Apps, Media, Photos, etc etc. The deleted data from "system" on the NAND falls into the "other' category.
With flash storage the data is stored as pages and the pages are stored within blocks. The problem is the actual delete function operates on a block level. So if you delete data (pages) but the block contains other data (pages) the data you don't want needs to be moved. This not only requires time and a place to put the data that isn't going to be deleted (the reason a full SSD becomes slow) but wears the finite number of write cycles the NAND has.
Knowing this you can literally (albeit very carefully and intentionally) add and remove "system" and "other" (at the expense of actually using the space) on iOS. I did this by removing the two movies from the TV app I had and than adding two movies that are slightly larger to completely fill the space plus a little more with similar data.
So the more you delete the more "system" and thus "other" space is consumed. This includes taking a pic with your iPhone and it being removed from the iPhone after it syncs to iCloud. Installing things doesn't always overwrite things either since it would depend on the pages marked for delete and the new data being stored. Regardless once the storage is getting too full with "other" caused by "system" it should force its use with new data. If not I would see if the "other" is actually something other than "system".
I can't find any data on how the kernel for iOS handles garbage collection, wear leveling and TRIM however it is going on in some way or another. Google announced and implemented TRIM into Android 4.3 I believe, so I would imagine Apple has it implemented too in some form as well. I'm going to run a little experiment though, I just deleted those movies back off my iPad so I currently have 8.09gb of storage being used by "system". I rarely use the iPad so I should be able to tell if a TRIM command is ran.
I'm not exactly sure why Apple shows this data in iOS to the user. If I were to guess it would have something to do with encryption (since its still there it needs to be encrypted its still shown) but thats just a WAG.
HTH a little.
I have a 16gb iPhone 6s, 10gb is taken up with system, what a joke.
Apple rant: How on earth does this company keep going? They just keep underperforming and overpricing. The thing that made Apple decent was its operating systems. IOS 11 is complete dog s..t and MACOS for the last two versions has been terrible.
I red this forum a lot and the mood has defo changed. Apple just cannot justify their pricing model anymore. Even their ads are pretty crap now too. Think it’s time to invest in Google products, just really can’t be bothered anymore.
Apple rant: How on earth does this company keep going? They just keep underperforming and overpricing. The thing that made Apple decent was its operating systems. IOS 11 is complete dog s..t and MACOS for the last two versions has been terrible.
I red this forum a lot and the mood has defo changed. Apple just cannot justify their pricing model anymore. Even their ads are pretty crap now too. Think it’s time to invest in Google products, just really can’t be bothered anymore.
Well, FF, good luck. Grass isn't greener over there. And I have to say you are wrong about Apple. They are still a fine company and do very well with their products. Even with the keyboard issues, the MacBook Pro surpasses what the rest of them make. I still have my 2008 MBP and can still use it. Can't say that about ANY of the "professional" windows based LTs. As for Droid - there's a reason why their devices tend to run older OS's.
So don’t agree at all.
MBP’s are knowhere near as good as any laptop if you chose to spend the same amount of money maxing out an MBP, and I mean knowhere near!
I loved my 4s and my iPad Air but now after the disappointment and snail like pace of their development in every single aspect of their product I’m pretty sure I’m out.
Even with this system nonsense I could still give IPhone a consideration but as for MBP’s not on your nelly, complete and utter rip off.
When this happens to my apple products I just hold down the power button until the shut down screen pops up then hold down the home button until the screen blinks. I think the issues has to do with the ram or something.
BUMP
So the mystery of this storage nonsense (at least for my phone) comes down to two Apps:Apple Podcasts and Apple Music.
After deleting every app one by one at different times since August and noting which apps effect the system storage it is unequivocally these two.
Each app, in my case held about 1GB within them. After removing each one individually, the same amount is deleted from the system storage too eg Apple Music app deleted = 1GB of Music + 1GB from storage.
I’m not a techie in any way so I’m not even gonna try and explain why this is but, on my phone at least it’s Apples apps that has caused this storage overload. Deezer doesn’t do this, neither does Spotify.
So the mystery of this storage nonsense (at least for my phone) comes down to two Apps:Apple Podcasts and Apple Music.
After deleting every app one by one at different times since August and noting which apps effect the system storage it is unequivocally these two.
Each app, in my case held about 1GB within them. After removing each one individually, the same amount is deleted from the system storage too eg Apple Music app deleted = 1GB of Music + 1GB from storage.
I’m not a techie in any way so I’m not even gonna try and explain why this is but, on my phone at least it’s Apples apps that has caused this storage overload. Deezer doesn’t do this, neither does Spotify.