IPhone 4

[curlcoat]

So I have had my first ever smart phone for about a year now and it says I’m out of storage. I have tried everything I can find on the internet, and it just doesn’t work. On top of that, it lies and tells me I have available storage. I’ve tried turning on the Cloud and buying extra storage, I’ve removed apps, I’ve turned it on and off and it seems like there is something else that I’m not remembering right now.

I seem to only get the “out of room” edit on games (I have three) and the camera. Anyone have any idea what the problem here is?

[ZipperJJ]

Are you using iTunes to manage your phone at all?

I had a problem with my iPod Touch 5, and my friend has had a problem with her iPhone 5, where storage was not matching up with what was being reported. I know that when I finally convinced my friend to connect to iTunes and sync, and when I did it myself, things straightened out.

For me at least I did have to use iTunes and maybe upgrade my OS and/or reboot…not merely plug in and sync. It took some fiddling. but all of a sudden my iPod went from near full to like 20% free. While it was connected to iTunes.

[curlcoat]

@ZipperJJ

Are you using iTunes to manage your phone at all?

I had a problem with my iPod Touch 5, and my friend has had a problem with her iPhone 5, where storage was not matching up with what was being reported. I know that when I finally convinced my friend to connect to iTunes and sync, and when I did it myself, things straightened out.

For me at least I did have to use iTunes and maybe upgrade my OS and/or reboot…not merely plug in and sync. It took some fiddling. but all of a sudden my iPod went from near full to like 20% free. While it was connected to iTunes.

This is over my head I think the only thing I use iTunes for is “in app purchases” - how does one connect to iTunes and sync?

[beowulff]

See where your storage has gone:
Settings->General->Storage & iCloud usage->Storage->Manage Storage.

[curlcoat]

@beowulff

See where your storage has gone:
Settings->General->Storage & iCloud usage->Storage->Manage Storage.

Mail is taking the most at 399 MB, then photos at 287 MB. It also says I have 275 MB available.

[chrisk]

@curlcoat

Mail is taking the most at 399 MB, then photos at 287 MB. It also says I have 275 MB available.

That’s kind of weird, that you’re down that low and don’t have any one thing using more than 400MB. Does it tell you how much you’re using, in total?

I also have an iPhone 4… 275 MB available is not much, and I’m not surprised if something is complaining when it gets that low.

[ZipperJJ]

@curlcoat

This is over my head I think the only thing I use iTunes for is “in app purchases” - how does one connect to iTunes and sync?

Download iTunes to your computer and install it. Run iTunes. Plug your phone in to your computer and wait a bit. Your phone will “pop up” in iTunes, and you will see many options for backing up and synching content.

iTunes

[curlcoat]

@chrisk

That’s kind of weird, that you’re down that low and don’t have any one thing using more than 400MB. Does it tell you how much you’re using, in total?

5.7 GB used. I suppose because I have three games on it?

@ZipperJJ

Download iTunes to your computer and install it. Run iTunes. Plug your phone in to your computer and wait a bit. Your phone will “pop up” in iTunes, and you will see many options for backing up and synching content.

iTunes - Apple

I managed to figure it out and it is downloading every time I plug the phone into the computer. Doesn’t seem to have changed anything.

[jimbuff314]

That’s a little odd. What’s your capacity? Settings->General->About. Partway down the page.

[dracoi]

Is the out of storage warning related to a software update for iOS? Or any other app? Some of those updates require, temporarily, as much as 1 GB of storage space if you install it directly on the phone. After the installation, all those temporary files are cleared out and there might not be much long-term change in total memory usage.

So it would be correct to tell you that you have 275 MB of space available and yet be out of memory for an update requiring 1000 MB.

iTunes (the desktop computer application) can be used to install updates when the phone is too low on memory to do it by itself.

[Hail_Ants]

@curlcoat

So I have had my first ever smart phone for about a year now and it says I’m out of storage. I have tried everything I can find on the internet, and it just doesn’t work. On top of that, it lies and tells me I have available storage. I’ve tried turning on the Cloud and buying extra storage, I’ve removed apps, I’ve turned it on and off and it seems like there is something else that I’m not remembering right now.

I seem to only get the “out of room” edit on games (I have three) and the camera. Anyone have any idea what the problem here is?

Forgive me if this is obvious, but there are two kinds of ‘storage’: Cloud storage (which is stuff kept online and only downloaded to your phone as needed) and actual physical memory built into the iPhone itself. If your iPhone 4 is only an 8GB model you can fill the internal storage pretty quick these days (most current, new smartphones have 32 or 64GB of internal storage). iTunes will display a multi-color bar graph at the bottom when your phone is connected showing total memory use (apps, music, photos etc. will each be a different color).

If your physical, in-phone memory is low you’ll need to either delete stuff (photos, apps) or, preferably, move anything you can to Cloud storage (unfortunately iPhones do not support removable storage cards of any kind). Moving stuff to cloud storage is a little involved, not sure if I could explain how clearly enough. If you can, take it to your provider’s store (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint etc.) and ask them for help…

[curlcoat]

@Hail_Ants

Forgive me if this is obvious, but there are two kinds of ‘storage’: Cloud storage (which is stuff kept online and only downloaded to your phone as needed) and actual physical memory built into the iPhone itself. If your iPhone 4 is only an 8GB model you can fill the internal storage pretty quick these days (most current, new smartphones have 32 or 64GB of internal storage). iTunes will display a multi-color bar graph at the bottom when your phone is connected showing total memory use (apps, music, photos etc. will each be a different color).

If your physical, in-phone memory is low you’ll need to either delete stuff (photos, apps) or, preferably, move anything you can to Cloud storage (unfortunately iPhones do not support removable storage cards of any kind). Moving stuff to cloud storage is a little involved, not sure if I could explain how clearly enough. If you can, take it to your provider’s store (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint etc.) and ask them for help…

I have moved a lot of stuff to the Cloud (and every time I hook my phone up to my computer to charge it, it tries to do it again, and again, and…) I guess the issue is that I don’t know how much memory the game takes to run, but I have contacted their support to see if they have any ideas.

[Doughbag]

@curlcoat

I have moved a lot of stuff to the Cloud (and every time I hook my phone up to my computer to charge it, it tries to do it again, and again, and…) I guess the issue is that I don’t know how much memory the game takes to run, but I have contacted their support to see if they have any ideas.

Do you have pictures and/or music on the phone?
If so, move them out of your phone to the PC.

Just because you back up your phone to the iCloud, doesn’t mean its gone from your phone.