Apple Watch Storage Filling with Other Within Minutes of Restore

[Traverse]

I currently have an Apple Watch Series 4 running watchOS 8.6. I received an odd alert on my watch that I was out of storage and my watch had over 9GB of "Other." In addition to alerting me constantly, the watch was buggy and not recording workouts - there have been no changes in usage.

I unpaired my Watch and restored from backup and the issue reappeared within 30 minutes. I just completely wiped and restored the device as new and within 10 minutes it's full again. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm kind of at a loss for what to do next.

 

[Howard2k]

Don’t restore from backup - do a clean setup.

 

[Traverse]

Don’t restore from backup - do a clean setup.

I did a clean restore about 45 minutes ago. As of now it's at 11GB used out of 16GB with large amount of other. If it stays that way then fine - but I'm not sure what to do short of restoring my iPhone and I don't know what that would help.

 

[Howard2k]

I’m suggesting that you don’t restore your watch. At all.

 

[NoBoMac]

Not running into this problem, but in addition to what @Howard2k said, look at the individual apps on the Watch and their memory usage. I see some oddballs in my list.

For example, Music is showing 85MB, but no music on the Watch (even says zero songs). Email is eating about 5MB with only two small emails (no attachments, graphics). Messages and similar might be chewing up space when restored and or re-syncing.

Basically, the info bar for storage across all Apple products gives an ok overall view, just that it's too wonky, from what I've seen, to trust the individual type numbers, need to deep dive.

 

[Traverse]

I’m suggesting that you don’t restore your watch. At all.

I apologize, but I may not be following. On the second attempt I used the "Erase All Content and Settings" option and set the Apple Watch up as new as if I purchased a new phone.

Not running into this problem, but in addition to what @Howard2k said, look at the individual apps on the Watch and their memory usage. I see some oddballs in my list.

For example, Music is showing 85MB, but no music on the Watch (even says zero songs). Email is eating about 5MB with only two small emails (no attachments, graphics). Messages and similar might be chewing up space when restored and or re-syncing.

Basically, the info bar for storage across all Apple products gives an ok overall view, just that it's too wonky, from what I've seen, to trust the individual type numbers, need to deep dive.

I'm seeing it too. I'm not syncing music, but I can see it. The issue is that watch keeps rapidly filling up, notifying me that it's full, and then gets buggy (such as Workouts not recording). I just wish I knew what was happening. I'd rather not set both my iPhone and watch up as new devices as I've never heard of that as a fix. Maybe it's an issue with watchOS 8.6, but it's basically unusable.

 

[NoBoMac]

In the case of Music, when setup as new, the "add automatically" option is on. Watch starts filling up, not GBs quick, but does cause issues on the AW3 and its small storage. Need to turn that off as soon as the Watch is running.

(just an FYI for others if they stumble upon this thread)

 

[Traverse]

I’m getting constant jetsam analytics- does this seem unusual?

 

[NoBoMac]

For me it's unusual: I only have one log for my Watch.

Take a look at those Jetsam files to see what might be eating RAM. Look for "largestprocess" near the start of the file. Might have a buggy app causing problems.

 

[Traverse]

For me it's unusual: I only have one log for my Watch.

Take a look at those Jetsam files to see what might be eating RAM. Look for "largestprocess" near the start of the file. Might have a buggy app causing problems.

Interesting - I'll keep a watch on it (no pun intended) - I appreciate the insight.

Right now it's "backboardd" which appears to be the Springboard. I really feel like I must have something funky with watchOS 8.6, but I'm not sure how to truly "clean install" watchOS.

 

[Traverse]

I now have several more crash logs due to Carousel - which seems to be another system process. *sigh*

 

[Traverse]

Just an update that my watch just filled up with storage again - even after updating to watchOS 8.6. Multiple crashes related to "Carousel" again.