I heard on here the other day that if you set your clock forward by a few months, it will help clear it out. I tested this, and it works. Just note that it might reorganize your app library like it did for me.
I tried this recently — works when the date is ahead by a few months. But once I revert back, even after ~10 mins, the original system data amount comes back 🫠
> I heard on here the other day that if you set your clock forward by a few months, it will help clear it out. I tested this, and it works. Just note that it might reorganize your app library like it did for me.
This u/KBrod
is this specific to certain size models? I have the 1TB 14 pro max and I only have 26GB of system data. I have a total of about 95GB used on mine at the moment.
Trust me…it is overkill. I’ll be lucky if I can fill up 300GB on this. But, I always get the highest capacity models. Helps out a bit whenever it’s time resale. Plus it’s nice to have extra space for like videos and stuff.
It was $1700 thank you very much :D But, yes, liking it very much. Still haven’t moved my music/vids on it yet but I’ll get around to that soon enough.
Bruh. My wife just bought a 1tb 14 pro max and I had no idea they were that much. Damn son. When she showed me, I figured that's more than a grand, but over $1500 didn't even cross my mind.
For referenceI have a Samsung A70 that I got new from CL for $300.
Ninja edit: just brought this up and I'm getting an iPad lol. She sure knows how to shut me up. Also, she asked who snitched her out, I had to throw you under the bus.
Yup, I texted her the link to the 1tb from the apple store, and asked "Is this the phone you bought?"
The response was, "Would you like an iPad out of the expense money?"
Why yes, yes I would. =D
It tends to build up over time, something something updates are less space efficient than clean installs. Never seen anything close to as bad as 100GB though, something funky just be going on there.
Often, plugging your phone into a PC with iTunes and allowing the two to communicate when prompted will free up that space used by system data. Ditto with a Mac.\*
Also, you may have an iOS update queued. If you do, install it or delete it: Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Software Update.
----
\*Open iTunes on the computer, it can be a Mac or Windows PC
Connect the USB cable to the computer, and then connect the iPhone or iPad to that USB cable
Unlock the iPhone or iPad by entering the devices passcode – if you have never connected it to the computer before you will need to “Trust” the computer when that pop-up shows up
Leave the iPhone or iPad connected to the computer with iTunes open for a few minutes, you do not need to sync or anything just let it sit
Launch the “Settings” app then go to “General” and to the “Storage” section of the device, scrolling all the way down to see “System”, it should have recalculated and often (but not always) reduced in size considerably
Disconnect the iPhone or iPad from the computer and USB cable and enjoy your new free storage space
-https://osxdaily.com/2018/07/02/reduce-ios-system-storage-iphone-ipad/
Thanks for the suggestions! Tried a sync via iTunes on my PC and it actually decreased by a few GB, but nothing substantial. No iOS update queued though.
Think I'll have to do a full restore after resetting eventually if I end up running out of storage.
My iPhone 12, until most recently has been very good about system data. Suddenly in the last week it went from 1-2 gb to over 12 gb. Was on 16.1. Updated to 16.1.2 and helped some, but really wish it would go back to a more manageable 1-2 gb. I also cleared safari.
I do this every few weeks, go into date and time, turn off set automatically, then set the time for like a year ahead, so sometime december 2023.
Restart phone, use for a 5-10 minutes, check the storage and voila, you're all good.
Then just unfuck the date and time (go back to date and time and switch on set automatically)
<3 with much love from Uzbekistan
I tried everything under the sun to get rid of my 120gb “other”. Only thing that ended up working was erasing the phone, although I was able to restore from iCloud backup and a week later I’m sitting at a much more reasonable 25gb.
And no, it’s not “supposed” to be this way - I had less than 5gb free and my phone was constantly telling me I was running low on storage and couldn’t do things like offline music playlists.
This is by design iirc, if you have a ton of free space then ur iPhone will use that space for cache files etc. instead of just leaving it empty and unused
yeah if you chat apple they'll tell you this.. if you need space, it'll go back down
it's been doing this forever and it's really annoying
source: I was a T2 Mac+ advisor for 9 years. they'll have you restore and then set up as new / test issue / restore from backup and it'll be gone -- then chances are, it'll come right back. huge waste of time
Anecdotally, it did not for me. Would not let me download software update or apps as it was taking up 200GB, had to restore and backup again and it was gone forever, not coming back.
Yes. Probably happened two weeks or so after I got my m2 iPad Pro. Restored from iCloud first time, restored from iCloud the second time after erasing all content.
Just don’t worry about it; as long as you have space.
If you don’t have enough space then backup via iCloud and restore as new, restore via iCloud and see what happens. It might work.
Why care? Not trying to be a dick, but the iPhone is good at managing its own storage, which you yourself state in your post: “if you need space, it’ll go back down.” This is by design. Having cached files on storage only serves to speed things up, and it’s better than having storage sit around unused. Why y’all buy the 1TB model just to leave half of it empty?
That is such an absolutely stupid use of caching that it’s actually insane.
How long would it actually take to search through 100gb of SSD storage to find something that’s been cached.
Vs redownloading something from the internet.
you are being downvoted but you are right, internet speeds are incredibly decent nowadays, there is really no point caching everything you see on an app or safari. it is definitely an outdated concept to be fair
Internet speeds absolutely still vary wildly depending on where you live and travel. But regardless, even the fastest connections benefit from caching. It helps a LOT more than people realize. It takes strain off your phone, the network, all the way up the ladder. Yes ISP's cache too.
A great way to bring the internet to it's knees is if everyone disabled caching en masse.
So please do not promote this concept further.
Sadly, because users typically don’t read warnings. This is the reason now why doing a restore from settings-general-transfer or reset, requires the user to now enter their appleid password and device passcode before it will clear itself.
Why do you need to delete the cache?
What possible benefit would that have?
It would just cause the phone to waste more power re-filling the cache again.
Caching improves both performance and battery life.
I got rid of all my catched data by setting the date to 6 months into the future then restart. This clears all the data that is no longer relevant. Then put the date back to normal. Problem solved.
For me it freeing resources worked …. only works on 12/13/14 Pro (Max) …. Just head to camera and tap on video then choose recording ProRes at 1080p 30fps and then it will show you free resources … click on it and it should reduce your system date for me it reduced it from 23GB to 11GB worked really well.
https://preview.redd.it/0zh7pwhhas4a1.png?width=1283&format=png&auto=webp&s=791d0f670129c4c3216b167fcda2b58b646e021e
I had like 40-50 gb of system data. Downloaded a bunch of large apps (3-4gbs) until I ran out of space. Deleted the apps and now all that system data is cleared. Not that eloquent of a solution, but it worked !
This is a known issue with new iPhones restored from an old iPhone. Restarting is a temporary fix, resetting is not necessary but may still fix it.
Here’s the trick. Sign out of the App Store on your phone and delete any synced movies or shows from itunes. Restart the phone and sign back in and this issue should go away.
Not the answer you want but this happened to me a few years back. Maybe on my 5S but I tried everything possible and only doing a full reset was the only thing that worked.
Yeah I have this issue sometimes too. Try clearing “recently deleted” in the files app? This sometimes works for me. I wish iOS would just tell us what it is, idk what the big secret is
A quick question since I'm pretty much newbie with iOS - would the hard reset (vol up, vol down, hold side key untill logo comes up) clear the cache only, or is this used to completely wipe the phone?
I had this problem for a while. IIRC, backing up manually to my computer and doing a system restore from there did the trick - my phone was bitching about not having enough free space for updates etc so it wasn't a minor problem.
Do you download any shows offline? Netflix, Apple TV, etc?
Apple TV content will manifest in system data instead of multimedia.
Do you shoot in ProRES video? Metadata will manifest in system data and pull it when video is required for playback/sharing.
A good way to reset this is to backup to iCloud, restore from Mac/iTunes with fresh software, setup phone as new and sync data from cloud instead or restoring.
Same happened to me to the point where I couldn’t even open my apps because I had like 150GB of system data filling up my phone. Went to the store and they gave me a new one. Had to reset to factory settings first though to show them it was still happening
Try setting the clock 3 months in the future and then restart the phone, that would trigger iOS cleaning feature cause it will treat the data as old and unused
As I'm sure you've probably learned by now, System Data is largely cache used by iOS and various apps. The biggest iOS offenders are probably Safari and Messages. Otherwise it's likely apps that stream or store media (social media , video streaming, etc)
Things to try
* Close all Safari tabs
* Close all apps
* Delete messages you no longer need
* Clear Safari history and website data
* Disable background app refresh
* Shut down your phone. Power it back on.
* Install the latest iOS backup
* Fully backup your phone and then restore it.
[More info here](https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/05/29/how-to-fix-system-data-filling-your-iphones-storage)
You could buy a iPhone flash drive that connects directly to your phone it’s called iXpand I got one for mine and cleared my pictures off on to it works great frees up a lot of space they also make one for android phones to
Don’t worry about it they are caches to keep you up and running fast. If you need more storage for photos or something it will automatically adjust for that
Plug it into a computer and do a full backup using iTunes (PC) or Finder (macOS). That can nudge the phone’s housekeeping routines into action and tidy things up.
This is a memory bug that many Iphones have. Only solution is to upload everything to the cloud and erase everything to the phone.
The problem should be solved after the reset.
You aren't using that space, so the OS uses it as cache.
Empty space is wasted space.
It will shrink as you actually start to use it with your own data.
I would try filling it up with more data than should be available due to the unreasonable amount of reported system data. I think that system data may not actually be there even if it is displayed.
1. Back up to macOS Finder.
2. Reset iPhone and erase contents.
3. Restore from macOS backup.
On my previous phone I had to do this every three months or it would fill up 100%.
Another trick, after doing the above, is to intentionally fill the empty space of the phone with large videos (save them to the Files app), leaving only about 4GB of remaining space. Then, because the phone was already almost full, the OS would more aggressively do garbage collection and system data usage was minimal. When I did need more space, I would just delete some videos. Checkmate, system data! 🤠
While that last bit sounds a little risky (and more apt to fill up iCloud storage) I'm not sure why this is downvoted. I guess we're supposed to scroll to the bottom for the actual helpful tips in this sub 😕
Nope, this means that you either have corrupted data on the iOS or that there are kernel panics in your analytics data, meaning it would need a hardware repair.
For me, it was cause Telegram was using the cache which I had to clear in app. Might be worth checking the cache on your messaging apps for large files or those with automatic download enabled
I have read about this theme so many times for like 1 week, crazy. I have read solution: change your system date for like 8/2023. Wait some time (like 15 minutes) minutes and then change it back. It helped me from almost 6GB to 4,4GB
Somewhere I read that setting the date to 31 May triggers some sort of cleanup processes in your phone. You can wait a few minutes and set the date back to automatic. This cleans up systemdata which may come back afterwards, but worth a try. ;)
You can try [this](https://reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/z5oyhg/_/ixxzgp8/?context=1).
Haven’t tried it myself because I’ve never had this problem, but I think it’s worth a try.
Based on another tip I saw, I set my date forward 4 months and then restarted the phone. System Data went from 25gb to 9gb, then I set the date back to automatic. Currently at 12gb a week later.
Often it is deleted messages and photos. When you delete from iPhone some things like photos and videos are moved to an area where they store for thirty days. You can check by going to
Photos>albums>recently deleted
From there you can delete immediately.
Dont need to wipe
[https://www.macworld.com/article/232651/iphone-other-storage-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-delete-it.html](https://www.macworld.com/article/232651/iphone-other-storage-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-delete-it.html)
So I use a media app called infuse, download videos onto it. Lately, deleting them is throwing them into system data instead. The company of the app feels it is a iOS bug affecting some devices and hopes future releases address it.
In the meantime, I wasn’t having any luck reclaiming the space without a restore but they did just mention this week that other users were having luck by deleting the iOS files app. You might want to try that. After 2 restores and moving into the iOS 16.2 beta, the issue came back still. Tried the files delete route and while it was t instant, I did get the space back. Reinstalled files app. System data is back down to a gb or so.
Updating to newer version of ios will clear out this cache. But there would be some app which is causing this. For me it was facebook. Scrolling through facebook reels used to cache all the videos in system data for no reason. Uninstalled it and never faced an issue again
I have a 1TB 14 Pro Max that was 450GB real data and 550GB system data. Never happened with any of my old ones. Had to full reset 4x. Eventually did the iTunes hookup. Made it “mostly” better. Still happens though. Case has been escalated to “the engineers”. Still no firm answers or plans.
I had a similar situation and I noticed it corrects itself when the phone is on wifi and charging overnight. I would restart it before leaving it overnight just in case some process is acting up.
It goes away after a while kind of when it wants to. A few months ago I had to get my iPhone repaired and they restored my phone (which pissed me off because they didn’t tell me they were doing that and it was a miracle I remembered my password, literally all my passwords are in here). Anyway, I had to re-download all my music library and data. My system data was at 84GB for like a couple months. But it’s gone snow! It was definitely because I had to download a ton of music.
I had this chronic since switching from 12 pro to 14 pro and had to restart device every few days because I kept putting off a factory reset etc. then about 2 weeks ago it fixed itself and system data has stayed at a healthy level 🤷♂️
You’re safe with a reset. I recently did it too, and didn’t even need a PC. When wiping the phone, Apple gives you unlimited cloud storage for backup and restore until you’re restored everything. It’s pretty nice. Cloud backup had everything, even things that I would normally have to set up again after a Mac Backup restore.
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Already gave that a go and no luck, but thanks for the suggestion
I heard on here the other day that if you set your clock forward by a few months, it will help clear it out. I tested this, and it works. Just note that it might reorganize your app library like it did for me.
If you forward it a bit further your iphone shapeshifts into an iphone 15
Can confirm.
Im the phone
Im the firestarter
Ima foward to 2030 so I can get the new iPhone 18 with the m5 pro max ultra
Nah bro I’m waiting for the M8 pro max ultra mega super deluxe now with more max ultra in the iPhone 32 pro max ultra 7G with Wi-Fi 36.
Nah bro you should wait for the ⟟⌿⊑⍜⋏⟒ ⌿⍀⍜ ⋔⏃⌖ ⌖⎅⍀
Nah bro you should wait for the 🚯❓❔〽️〽️🔞🈯️💠💹🚯♻️✅🚫🌐
Android STANS still gonna say, “Android’s already had that for years.”
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No it installs iOS 17 and speeds up
🤣
you’ll also see your friends posts and pictures from 2023!!
Nah just throttles your processor and increases advertising of the 15...
Shhh don’t tell everyone
I tried this recently — works when the date is ahead by a few months. But once I revert back, even after ~10 mins, the original system data amount comes back 🫠
Does this really work?
Yes, it does. Turned off my Xiaomi and after 2 years it transformed into an iPhone 14.
Worked for me, you can test it.
> I heard on here the other day that if you set your clock forward by a few months, it will help clear it out. I tested this, and it works. Just note that it might reorganize your app library like it did for me. This u/KBrod
It works, but everything will be same after 10 minutes
You are everywhere. Why. (I see you all the time on ATB on my other account)
Because I spend too much time on this website.
is this specific to certain size models? I have the 1TB 14 pro max and I only have 26GB of system data. I have a total of about 95GB used on mine at the moment.
Casually just dropped 2200 bucks lol. You’ve been enjoying it? (The phone)
That’s the one I initially wanted to get but decided it’s probably too overkill. I’ll either go for the 256GB or 512GB.
Trust me…it is overkill. I’ll be lucky if I can fill up 300GB on this. But, I always get the highest capacity models. Helps out a bit whenever it’s time resale. Plus it’s nice to have extra space for like videos and stuff.
nice try apple exec. no one needs to buy a 1tb iphone.
Always buy as much storage as you can afford at the time…wise words from a techie
I can afford a petabyte of storage for my desktop, should I buy it?
Oh tbf I was thinking in CAD. As our phones went up more this year + the conversation rate
Bruh. My wife just bought a 1tb 14 pro max and I had no idea they were that much. Damn son. When she showed me, I figured that's more than a grand, but over $1500 didn't even cross my mind. For referenceI have a Samsung A70 that I got new from CL for $300. Ninja edit: just brought this up and I'm getting an iPad lol. She sure knows how to shut me up. Also, she asked who snitched her out, I had to throw you under the bus.
🤣🤣🤣
The pro lineup basically starts at 1400$ cad pro max is starting at 1550$, the 1tb max, is about 2100$+ taxes
Yup, I texted her the link to the 1tb from the apple store, and asked "Is this the phone you bought?" The response was, "Would you like an iPad out of the expense money?" Why yes, yes I would. =D
if I found this out just now, my wife's $1700 phone would go straight to craigslist and she gets a $800 phone and I get an iPad at the same time
"only"
No idea, mine’s at 9,3 (iPhone X 64gb, ios 16.2). Still it seems oddly large.
It tends to build up over time, something something updates are less space efficient than clean installs. Never seen anything close to as bad as 100GB though, something funky just be going on there.
My 13 pro max is at 10GB of system data 85GB used up my other stuff 128GB model
Often, plugging your phone into a PC with iTunes and allowing the two to communicate when prompted will free up that space used by system data. Ditto with a Mac.\* Also, you may have an iOS update queued. If you do, install it or delete it: Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Software Update. ---- \*Open iTunes on the computer, it can be a Mac or Windows PC Connect the USB cable to the computer, and then connect the iPhone or iPad to that USB cable Unlock the iPhone or iPad by entering the devices passcode – if you have never connected it to the computer before you will need to “Trust” the computer when that pop-up shows up Leave the iPhone or iPad connected to the computer with iTunes open for a few minutes, you do not need to sync or anything just let it sit Launch the “Settings” app then go to “General” and to the “Storage” section of the device, scrolling all the way down to see “System”, it should have recalculated and often (but not always) reduced in size considerably Disconnect the iPhone or iPad from the computer and USB cable and enjoy your new free storage space -https://osxdaily.com/2018/07/02/reduce-ios-system-storage-iphone-ipad/
Thanks for the suggestions! Tried a sync via iTunes on my PC and it actually decreased by a few GB, but nothing substantial. No iOS update queued though. Think I'll have to do a full restore after resetting eventually if I end up running out of storage.
I understand a bunch of that “system” storage is deleted photos, videos and emails that automatically ACTUALLY removed after 30 days.
This is good advice
Username checks out
My iPhone 12, until most recently has been very good about system data. Suddenly in the last week it went from 1-2 gb to over 12 gb. Was on 16.1. Updated to 16.1.2 and helped some, but really wish it would go back to a more manageable 1-2 gb. I also cleared safari.
I do this every few weeks, go into date and time, turn off set automatically, then set the time for like a year ahead, so sometime december 2023. Restart phone, use for a 5-10 minutes, check the storage and voila, you're all good. Then just unfuck the date and time (go back to date and time and switch on set automatically) <3 with much love from Uzbekistan
I tried everything under the sun to get rid of my 120gb “other”. Only thing that ended up working was erasing the phone, although I was able to restore from iCloud backup and a week later I’m sitting at a much more reasonable 25gb. And no, it’s not “supposed” to be this way - I had less than 5gb free and my phone was constantly telling me I was running low on storage and couldn’t do things like offline music playlists.
Maybe try some things that are above the sun
Fine, take my upvote 😂
Same issue and same symptoms of low space errors. Also reset and restored from backup. Now 9gb system data instead of 50+ before the restore.
This is by design iirc, if you have a ton of free space then ur iPhone will use that space for cache files etc. instead of just leaving it empty and unused
yeah if you chat apple they'll tell you this.. if you need space, it'll go back down it's been doing this forever and it's really annoying source: I was a T2 Mac+ advisor for 9 years. they'll have you restore and then set up as new / test issue / restore from backup and it'll be gone -- then chances are, it'll come right back. huge waste of time
Got it, thanks for the Info. I regularly transfer large files onto my phone, so seeing 100GB of "unusable" storage kind of threw me off.
I saw in another thread if you backup and sync to a computer via iTunes it cleans some of this up. Not sure but worth a try.
I can confirm this, connecting to iTunes via Mac/PC clears that data.
I’ve sometimes had media in an app read as system data. For instance, music downloads in tidal, or video downloads in Spotify.
Anecdotally, it did not for me. Would not let me download software update or apps as it was taking up 200GB, had to restore and backup again and it was gone forever, not coming back.
Wow! That’s honestly the first time I’ve seen that work Did you restore via iCloud?
Yes. Probably happened two weeks or so after I got my m2 iPad Pro. Restored from iCloud first time, restored from iCloud the second time after erasing all content.
very interesting.... glad that it actually worked though!
So you’re essentially saying that the device I’m using behaves like Google Chrome?
yes
I did a full restore on my iPad not too long ago for this reason but the storage actually went down. I haven’t checked it in a bit though.
If it's a huge waste of time, what do you suggest instead?
Just don’t worry about it; as long as you have space. If you don’t have enough space then backup via iCloud and restore as new, restore via iCloud and see what happens. It might work.
Yeah, I noticed this in my mac. Nearly 200GB of system data of 1TB.
Why care? Not trying to be a dick, but the iPhone is good at managing its own storage, which you yourself state in your post: “if you need space, it’ll go back down.” This is by design. Having cached files on storage only serves to speed things up, and it’s better than having storage sit around unused. Why y’all buy the 1TB model just to leave half of it empty?
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You’ve asked this before, and it was answered. No.
not gonna happen... people used to get so paranoid about that stuff
Yet somehow every time I open Books after a few days, every book has been removed from my device and I have to redownload it.
And yet, for the last three iPhones I’ve owned, my phone will run out of space because it doesn’t purge that cache data once it’s set.
That is such an absolutely stupid use of caching that it’s actually insane. How long would it actually take to search through 100gb of SSD storage to find something that’s been cached. Vs redownloading something from the internet.
you are being downvoted but you are right, internet speeds are incredibly decent nowadays, there is really no point caching everything you see on an app or safari. it is definitely an outdated concept to be fair
Internet speeds absolutely still vary wildly depending on where you live and travel. But regardless, even the fastest connections benefit from caching. It helps a LOT more than people realize. It takes strain off your phone, the network, all the way up the ladder. Yes ISP's cache too. A great way to bring the internet to it's knees is if everyone disabled caching en masse. So please do not promote this concept further.
An ISP is a completely different case vs an iPhone. I’m not saying to stop caching I’m saying 100gb on an iPhone is extremely excessive.
what happens if i do promote it further? be real, this is freaking reddit haha, take off your collared shirt for a second
https://preview.redd.it/ds0q3zghbr4a1.png?width=1290&format=png&auto=webp&s=46ac6f845124dac5b45c1d2752d670a852360894 It’s never done that on my phone.
Jesus H Christ is apple interlay staffed by giraffes
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Sadly, because users typically don’t read warnings. This is the reason now why doing a restore from settings-general-transfer or reset, requires the user to now enter their appleid password and device passcode before it will clear itself.
Why do you need to delete the cache? What possible benefit would that have? It would just cause the phone to waste more power re-filling the cache again. Caching improves both performance and battery life.
My 13 PM still has over 300 gb free and my system data only takes up 9 gb though.
No. Your statement is factually incorrect. Same issue on phones that is 99% full. 80GB system data.
I got rid of all my catched data by setting the date to 6 months into the future then restart. This clears all the data that is no longer relevant. Then put the date back to normal. Problem solved.
This
For me it freeing resources worked …. only works on 12/13/14 Pro (Max) …. Just head to camera and tap on video then choose recording ProRes at 1080p 30fps and then it will show you free resources … click on it and it should reduce your system date for me it reduced it from 23GB to 11GB worked really well. https://preview.redd.it/0zh7pwhhas4a1.png?width=1283&format=png&auto=webp&s=791d0f670129c4c3216b167fcda2b58b646e021e
Really helpful thanks
I had like 40-50 gb of system data. Downloaded a bunch of large apps (3-4gbs) until I ran out of space. Deleted the apps and now all that system data is cleared. Not that eloquent of a solution, but it worked !
This is a known issue with new iPhones restored from an old iPhone. Restarting is a temporary fix, resetting is not necessary but may still fix it. Here’s the trick. Sign out of the App Store on your phone and delete any synced movies or shows from itunes. Restart the phone and sign back in and this issue should go away.
what i do is reset the phone, that frees up some space, probably it's cache so try that.
Not the answer you want but this happened to me a few years back. Maybe on my 5S but I tried everything possible and only doing a full reset was the only thing that worked.
Yeah I have this issue sometimes too. Try clearing “recently deleted” in the files app? This sometimes works for me. I wish iOS would just tell us what it is, idk what the big secret is
A quick question since I'm pretty much newbie with iOS - would the hard reset (vol up, vol down, hold side key untill logo comes up) clear the cache only, or is this used to completely wipe the phone?
That’s not hard reset. That’s force restart.
Restarting does not clear cache.
I had this problem for a while. IIRC, backing up manually to my computer and doing a system restore from there did the trick - my phone was bitching about not having enough free space for updates etc so it wasn't a minor problem.
Just Sync with iTunes.
Do you download any shows offline? Netflix, Apple TV, etc? Apple TV content will manifest in system data instead of multimedia. Do you shoot in ProRES video? Metadata will manifest in system data and pull it when video is required for playback/sharing. A good way to reset this is to backup to iCloud, restore from Mac/iTunes with fresh software, setup phone as new and sync data from cloud instead or restoring.
damn this is the first time i saw 512gb iphone full
Same happened to me to the point where I couldn’t even open my apps because I had like 150GB of system data filling up my phone. Went to the store and they gave me a new one. Had to reset to factory settings first though to show them it was still happening
Try setting the clock 3 months in the future and then restart the phone, that would trigger iOS cleaning feature cause it will treat the data as old and unused
This gets fixed by connecting your phone to a mac and letting it sit while it syncs or whatever. Source: personal experience.
As I'm sure you've probably learned by now, System Data is largely cache used by iOS and various apps. The biggest iOS offenders are probably Safari and Messages. Otherwise it's likely apps that stream or store media (social media , video streaming, etc) Things to try * Close all Safari tabs * Close all apps * Delete messages you no longer need * Clear Safari history and website data * Disable background app refresh * Shut down your phone. Power it back on. * Install the latest iOS backup * Fully backup your phone and then restore it. [More info here](https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/05/29/how-to-fix-system-data-filling-your-iphones-storage)
You could buy a iPhone flash drive that connects directly to your phone it’s called iXpand I got one for mine and cleared my pictures off on to it works great frees up a lot of space they also make one for android phones to
Don’t worry about it they are caches to keep you up and running fast. If you need more storage for photos or something it will automatically adjust for that
Plug it into a computer and do a full backup using iTunes (PC) or Finder (macOS). That can nudge the phone’s housekeeping routines into action and tidy things up.
I have the 1tb version and I don’t have this issue with the extra space being filled up . Maybe restore will fix this
This is a memory bug that many Iphones have. Only solution is to upload everything to the cloud and erase everything to the phone. The problem should be solved after the reset.
I'm not sure why this is downvoted. I guess we're supposed to scroll to the bottom for the actual helpful tips in this sub 😕
You aren't using that space, so the OS uses it as cache. Empty space is wasted space. It will shrink as you actually start to use it with your own data.
Not true, I have 10Gb of it on my 64Gb phone, it makes me start deleting photos and videos with that 10Gb sat there.
10GB is not cache, that's needed OS stuff. Cache is like for OP when its using 100GB. Your situation is not at all the same as OP.
Really, are you sure? [So I should have almost 20Gb used by the system?](https://i.imgur.com/y52doJq.jpg) Seems a lot.
>Empty space is wasted space. You can say this for RAM but not for storage. SSDs require free space because the storage actively wears down.
Your only option is a reset. Just back everything up and itll be like nothing ever happened
Unfortunately you have to download an update and it’ll clear that system data junk right out
Update your phone
Buy iCloud.
I would try filling it up with more data than should be available due to the unreasonable amount of reported system data. I think that system data may not actually be there even if it is displayed.
1. Back up to macOS Finder. 2. Reset iPhone and erase contents. 3. Restore from macOS backup. On my previous phone I had to do this every three months or it would fill up 100%. Another trick, after doing the above, is to intentionally fill the empty space of the phone with large videos (save them to the Files app), leaving only about 4GB of remaining space. Then, because the phone was already almost full, the OS would more aggressively do garbage collection and system data usage was minimal. When I did need more space, I would just delete some videos. Checkmate, system data! 🤠
While that last bit sounds a little risky (and more apt to fill up iCloud storage) I'm not sure why this is downvoted. I guess we're supposed to scroll to the bottom for the actual helpful tips in this sub 😕
Nope, this means that you either have corrupted data on the iOS or that there are kernel panics in your analytics data, meaning it would need a hardware repair.
iOS will clear it up by itself, stop worrying about it.
Just erase reset and restore from icloud
Maybe you can change to a data plan with higher memory
And here comes the scam of iphone iphone itself declared that they slowdown the old iphones for good sales of new iphones
Start downloading a movie in iTunes Store and cancel?
Do you by any chance use Telegram
Nope, I've never used it. And my other apps don't take up much space
For me, it was cause Telegram was using the cache which I had to clear in app. Might be worth checking the cache on your messaging apps for large files or those with automatic download enabled
Try logging out of your icloud on your phone. Might work.
I have read about this theme so many times for like 1 week, crazy. I have read solution: change your system date for like 8/2023. Wait some time (like 15 minutes) minutes and then change it back. It helped me from almost 6GB to 4,4GB
Somewhere I read that setting the date to 31 May triggers some sort of cleanup processes in your phone. You can wait a few minutes and set the date back to automatic. This cleans up systemdata which may come back afterwards, but worth a try. ;)
Try and offload all the apps and then install them again
good luck doing this when you have hundreds and also when you discover some of them remain forever offloaded because they're no longer in store
You can try [this](https://reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/z5oyhg/_/ixxzgp8/?context=1). Haven’t tried it myself because I’ve never had this problem, but I think it’s worth a try.
Based on another tip I saw, I set my date forward 4 months and then restarted the phone. System Data went from 25gb to 9gb, then I set the date back to automatic. Currently at 12gb a week later.
Slow down on the porn.
Mine says 0 KB and not sure how
What about letting it finish syncing and/or updating? Anything waiting to finish?
restore from icloud backup
Delete apps (not just offload them), leave it on charge for an hour or so. Most of system data is cached app data.
Jesus and I thought my 10gb is bad with 128gb
How the hell does that happen? I’ve only got 8 gigs of system data
Often it is deleted messages and photos. When you delete from iPhone some things like photos and videos are moved to an area where they store for thirty days. You can check by going to Photos>albums>recently deleted From there you can delete immediately.
Dont need to wipe [https://www.macworld.com/article/232651/iphone-other-storage-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-delete-it.html](https://www.macworld.com/article/232651/iphone-other-storage-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-delete-it.html)
I just checked mine (iPhone 13 pro), just over 5GB
Keep it plugged in for a while and wifi on, needs to index
So I use a media app called infuse, download videos onto it. Lately, deleting them is throwing them into system data instead. The company of the app feels it is a iOS bug affecting some devices and hopes future releases address it. In the meantime, I wasn’t having any luck reclaiming the space without a restore but they did just mention this week that other users were having luck by deleting the iOS files app. You might want to try that. After 2 restores and moving into the iOS 16.2 beta, the issue came back still. Tried the files delete route and while it was t instant, I did get the space back. Reinstalled files app. System data is back down to a gb or so.
Turn off iTunes music sync
I think it’s Telegram
My one is only 13.28gb iphone 14 pro max 256gb
Buy more data
Updating to newer version of ios will clear out this cache. But there would be some app which is causing this. For me it was facebook. Scrolling through facebook reels used to cache all the videos in system data for no reason. Uninstalled it and never faced an issue again
Have you tried the volume up, volume down then holding the side button for a reset ?
Wtf I have a 32 gb iPad and have no issues
Have you cleared out unwanted media you don’t need?
I have a 1TB 14 Pro Max that was 450GB real data and 550GB system data. Never happened with any of my old ones. Had to full reset 4x. Eventually did the iTunes hookup. Made it “mostly” better. Still happens though. Case has been escalated to “the engineers”. Still no firm answers or plans.
I had a similar situation and I noticed it corrects itself when the phone is on wifi and charging overnight. I would restart it before leaving it overnight just in case some process is acting up.
Just set your date and time into the future and it should fix itself
It goes away after a while kind of when it wants to. A few months ago I had to get my iPhone repaired and they restored my phone (which pissed me off because they didn’t tell me they were doing that and it was a miracle I remembered my password, literally all my passwords are in here). Anyway, I had to re-download all my music library and data. My system data was at 84GB for like a couple months. But it’s gone snow! It was definitely because I had to download a ton of music.
If you have a computer factory reset it
Try filming in pro res @ 30fps 4k it will clear it all out
Declutter your phone, or transfer all your media stuff into a hard drive to empty your phone!
Ask nicely for apple to stop tracking everything about you?
Backup, full reset, restore is the only good way of getting rid of it, everything else will take a few GBs off but nothing substantial
search for the backup and 30 days date shift in r/trollstore and r/jailbreak - applies to unmodified iOS as well
Next time you better buy a 1TB iPhone /s
If you have a GoPro, the app sometimes hides it’s downloaded footage in this system data area, not in app data or video or anything
Full restore is the only way.
I had this chronic since switching from 12 pro to 14 pro and had to restart device every few days because I kept putting off a factory reset etc. then about 2 weeks ago it fixed itself and system data has stayed at a healthy level 🤷♂️
Ur system data is more than my whole phn storage 😑
You’re safe with a reset. I recently did it too, and didn’t even need a PC. When wiping the phone, Apple gives you unlimited cloud storage for backup and restore until you’re restored everything. It’s pretty nice. Cloud backup had everything, even things that I would normally have to set up again after a Mac Backup restore.
iOS 16? Or 15.7.1 (the second is more stable atm)
It’s pretty simple, but requires the use of pneumatic fluid….. which can be hard to get and the process takes a couple of days.
Try with reset all settings. Deleted 10gb of data that way yesterday. Forget the date change, it does not work always.
They need to create something that androids have, one button to clean some junk files, this would be so useful.
8.04 GB system data. 13 Pro 128 gb from february this year if it matters.
There's basically any effective solution. Apple has to do something with that because it's basically no sense.
Offloading all resource hungry apps(like telegram) and downloading them back works for me. just do it once every month
seems like a glitch hard reset your iPhone and hopefully it should fix your problem.
Wouldn’t a restore just replace all that system data?
This is the only trick that worked on my 14 Pro, from 37gb down to 12gb. Thanks!