“iPhone Storage Full.”
It’s a scary notification that some iPhone users have heard. It happened to me at my recent holiday gathering while taking family photos. It wasn’t the first time, but it was the worst time ever.
Like most people who get the full storage information, I quickly went to Settings, followed by General, then the iPhone Storage option to see what was taking up 256GB of space. Sure, I take a lot of photos and there are tons of apps on my phone that I no longer use that could be taking up some much-needed storage space. I was hoping that if I found what was taking up so much space, I could remove it and free up some storage.
But, no. It wasn’t photos, or apps, or files, or documents that were filling up my iPhone this time. It was “System Data.” A total of eighty gigs of my iPhone, about a third of the entire 256GB storage, was taken up by “System Data.”
System Data on the author’s iPhone ballooned to 80GB on Thanksgiving.
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Looking online, I found posts and threads on social media where other iPhone users shared their System Data backup issues. One Reddit user had their System Data take up almost 128GB of their 256GB iPhone!
And worst of all, there was nothing we could do about it.
What is System Data?
When you click System Data, the last item on the iPhone Storage settings page where all your apps and their file sizes are listed, iOS gives a very general explanation of what System Data is.
“System Data includes caches, logs and other resources currently in use by the system,” it reads. “This amount will fluctuate based on system requirements.”
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Here’s how the iPhone defines “System Data.”
Credit: Mashable Screenshot
To be clear, this is not a drive space required by the operating system. That is listed completely independently under iPhone storage. The same is true for data linked to each application. That’s rolled into the size of each app. This is another vague thing. I reached out to Apple for more information.
“System Data includes caches, logs, and other resources currently in use by the system,” Apple said. “This includes temporary files that have a short life cycle and are actively used by iOS to keep the iPhone running smoothly.”
You will find that System Data is very variable. That 80GB of System Data on my iPhone I mentioned earlier? It was down to 50GB the next morning.
“System Data Size is managed by the system,” Apple says. “When temporary files are no longer needed, the system cleans them up automatically, so changes in the size of System Data are expected.”
How can users clear iPhone system data?
According to Apple, System Data is essentially what iOS decides it needs to keep about apps and other processes that are currently running or in use. But, what if the user wants to delete those temporary files immediately to free up space. Is there anything the user can do?
“iOS is designed to monitor and maximize storage usage, removing as many temporary files and caches as possible to free up space as needed without any action required from the user,” Apple said. “This automatic management takes into account the amount of storage available and helps ensure that the iPhone maintains optimal performance while saving storage space. There is no need for users to do this manually.”
So, in short, no. There is nothing iPhone users can do manually to clear unnecessary System Data when storage space is needed. iOS decides when and what to clean. One Redditor in the aforementioned Reddit thread even shared how their iPhone’s 167GB of System Data was down to 4GB alone.
However, based on what Apple says and my own experience, here is what I would recommend:
As soon as you notice that your System Data is getting out of control, close all your unused applications completely. To do this, just swipe from the bottom of the screen and up. All of your open application windows should appear stacked one after the other. Swipe those windows up to completely close the app. System Data will not clear immediately. Again, Apple says users have no control over this. However, closing those apps seemed to speed up the process as those temporary files are no longer needed once the apps are closed.
I hope that one day, Apple will allow users to force iOS to delete System data. But, until then, this is the best iPhone users can do.
