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Facebook and it's Documents & Data Usage

TL24

TL24

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
1,402
1,262
So I took a look at what Facebook is currently using on my iPhone 4S and it shows 414MB! WTF?!

What the hell is Facebook doing using 414MB of my 32GB? Is there anyway to delete this data? Back in my Android days we could clear it's cache & data but I can't seem to find anything that relates to this on my iPhone 4S.

Any suggestions?
 
Menel

Menel

Suspended
Aug 4, 2011
6,351
1,356
Most likely caching photos.

Weird, my FB only using 49MB, and I browse photos alot *shrug*.
 
U

Untaken

macrumors member
Mar 19, 2009
89
1
What's stupid is this data isn't temporary storage like most apps use and instead gets backed up with everything else. For a while my Facebook data was half of what was being backed up on iCloud, and I have to periodically delete the app and backup in order to get things in check again.
 
TL24

TL24

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
1,402
1,262
Small White Car said:
Where, exactly, are you seeing this?
Click to expand...

Go into Settings -> General -> Usage -> Facebook : and you'll see the amount of crap Facebook has been gathering :mad:

There has to be a workaround besides removing and re-installing the app? :confused:
 
E

edk99

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2009
859
1,409
FL
Why even back it up to begin with? If it is 1mb or 400+mb

If you have to restore your phone, redownload the app and log in and you lost nothing.

It has to be all cache. Do you upload or look at a lot of photos?
 
TL24

TL24

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
1,402
1,262
edk99 said:
Why even back it up to begin with? If it is 1mb or 400+mb

If you have to restore your phone, redownload the app and log in and you lost nothing.

It has to be all cache. Do you upload or look at a lot of photos?
Click to expand...

Not at all, I don't sit there browsing everyone's albums. I'd look at some pictures here and there, leave comments, look at the news feed but that's about it.

Strange really, I just uninstalled and reinstalled the app to get rid of the 400+ MB
 
M

MAGNUStm

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2011
63
0
I just saw this my 4S. Facebook has 553MB. WTH? My first guess was Cached photos but like a previous poster mentioned, I dont sit there and browse every photo/album.

Anyone else have another theory?
 
B

bripab007

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2009
529
26
I don't have anything constructive to add to this post other than a point of clarification that will help anyone who wanders in here:

You're referring to the Facebook app's local storage usage on the phone, not Documents & Data usage, which is unique to iCloud, and of which, the Facebook app appears to use none.

Again, he's referring to local storage, not Documents & Data usage.
 
A

AlanShutko

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2008
804
214
I don't use the Facebook app much, but I took a look and it was using 11MB. I looked at it with PhoneView, and it looks like it has several HTML5 local storage databases being used by WebView within the app. My phone had two for the m.facebook.com domain, one for http and one for https. It looks like it caches all the posts you look at in the app.

These files are stored in Library/Webview, so they'd be backed up all the time. I'd count that as a bug, but I'm not sure offhand how to fix it.

For example, here's one of the rows I have in my database.


Code: 
{"time":1321899262490,"value":"<a class=\"miniUfiWrap touchable\" id=\"mini_ufi_10150973155485497\" href=\"fb://faceweb/f?href=%2Fstory.php%3Fstory_fbid%3D10150973155485497%26id%3D734005496%26post_id%3D734005496_10150973155485497%26fwcl%3D1%26fwcc%3D1%26fwl%26refid%3D17\" data-meta=\"2_33\" data-sigil=\"touchable ufi-toggle\"><div class=\"miniUfiNub\"><i class=\"img\" style=\"background-image: url("https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/yz/r/ShK50HIalWH.png");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:100% 100%;width:11px;height:14px;\"></i></div><span class=\"miniUfi mfss fcl\"><span class=\"like_def\"><i class=\"img\" style=\"background-image: url("https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/ys/r/anRaP7l7g6d.png");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:100% 100%;width:13px;height:15px;\"></i>6 people</span><span class=\"like_opt\"><i class=\"img\" style=\"background-image: url("https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/ys/r/anRaP7l7g6d.png");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:100% 100%;width:13px;height:15px;\"></i>7 people</span><span class=\"cmt_def\"><i class=\"img\" style=\"background-image: url("https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/y-/r/m0rbkoSTgw-.png");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:100% 100%;width:12px;height:16px;\"></i>2 comments</span><span class=\"cmt_opt\"><i class=\"img\" style=\"background-image: url("https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/y-/r/m0rbkoSTgw-.png");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:100% 100%;width:12px;height:16px;\"></i>3 comments</span></span></a>"}
 
wordoflife

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
Yeah my Facebook size is 296MB.
No wonder that it's been running slow and simply, like crap. I wonder if reinstalling it will improve performance.
 
Frenchjay

Frenchjay

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2010
1,840
28
We'll mine is at 225mb showing in the usage section. Not only that but I had a wallpaper app from the app store to browse wallpapers and save to the camera role for the home screen. It had 989mb data, nearly a gb space taken up off the phone. I had 1.6gb free now I have 2.6 gb free :eek:

What is it storing on the phone to take up that much space?
 
M

MAGNUStm

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2011
63
0
After going thru each of my apps and comparing the total size of each app (App size + Docs/Data) it appears Facebook is definitely the biggest offender. I deleted/reinstalled and now I'm back down to 12mb.

Another thing I'm noticing is my Other (Yellow) data is 2.5 gbs. I'm not quite sure where this is coming from but after a few searches it's still not too clear to me. I cleared my Sarari history/cache but I'm still at 2.3gbs. Started deleting email inbox/sent/deleted items. Cleared a ton of old text messages.

Haven t had a chance to reconnect to iTunes so hopefully that helps.
 
T

tjb1

macrumors 68000
Aug 26, 2010
1,999
0
Pennsylvania, USA
If you go to

Usage > Manage Storage > Click on your backup

You will probably find out its not backing up all thats stored on the phone...my facebook shows 287mb on the phone, but only 21.4mb on the backup and from the backup page you can stop facebook or whatever app you want from being saved in the backup.
 
OafTobark

OafTobark

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2011
349
94
533MB here.

damn. wtf! With that much usage I'd like to actually have the app work!
 
M

MAGNUStm

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2011
63
0
tjb1 said:
If you go to

Usage > Manage Storage > Click on your backup

You will probably find out its not backing up all thats stored on the phone...my facebook shows 287mb on the phone, but only 21.4mb on the backup and from the backup page you can stop facebook or whatever app you want from being saved in the backup.
Click to expand...

I did notice that however I'm still curious to know why or what the 500mb+ consists of. Also, is the data included in my overal total of Apps or Other data usage. (I'm referring to the phone summary when connected to iTunes)
 
b3beater

b3beater

macrumors member
Feb 8, 2006
50
1
Seems a little much to have to keep deleting the app and re-installing it. I just checked... 4.5 gig being allocated there folks on my iPhone 5. That's nonsense.
 
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A

albertxp06

macrumors regular
Oct 11, 2011
157
0
California
And this is one place where Android is ahead of the iPhone. Apple needs to make a "Clear Cache" or similar button. I find myself periodically deleting Facebook, CNN, Twitter, and a few other apps to get some free space back
 
A

AlanShutko

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2008
804
214
Apple automatically clears caches if they are put in the right place. Facebook put it under library where it won't be touched. Facebook bug.
 
V

vistadude

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2010
1,423
1
If you delete the app and redownload it, you're going to end up downloading a lot of pictures multiple times, and it will eat into your data plan.

On my phone, Garage band takes a whopping 1.2 GB and i have yet to use it once.
 
H

hishaks

macrumors newbie
Jan 17, 2013
10
0
Pinterest and most other apps have an option to delete this data. FB has neither a cap on this nor an option to delete this wasteful cached data.
 
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