Capacity: 14GB. Media: 13.62GB. Free Space (iTunes): 2.3GB. Free Space (iP4): 479MB.

[jamied95]

Hi,

I'm facing a bit of a conundrum, with my iPhone 4 and iTunes - iTunes says that my phone capacity 14GB (I don't understand the maths, but I understand why), so that's perfectly reasonable, not what I paid for, but oh well, anyway, the dynamic bar at the bottom keeps flickering between 0.4GB of Free Space to (which it's shown once or twice) 2.3GB of Free Space (which it now seems to have decided one), using 0.4GB adds up to 14GB, and the 2.3GB equals 16GB. But neither of these numbers are the same as the phone, which yesterday was 1.4GB, and today is 479MB.

I'm a bit confused about what's happening, everything's been restarted, and even though I'm not trying to sync any phones, whenever I sync my phone, it says there is not enough room to sync any more photos.

Anyway, confusing stuff, which do I trust?

 

[Lukeyy19]

first of all i will see if i can help you with the 16GB iphone only showing as 14GB,

1GB is, as far as a computer is concerned, 1,073,741,824 bytes.

but your iphone has (approximately) 16,000,000,000 bytes, and when advertising, they like to use this number, because for one, it's higher.

so you did actually pay for 16,000,000,000 bytes.

Its just when the computer (or iPhone) formats this space, it assigns each GB, 1,073,741,824 of those 16,000,000,000 bytes, meaning it works it out to be about 14.9GB, then when you factor in the space iOS uses etc, you're left with about 14GB.


secondly, on my iPhone it states my capacity is 29.1GB and i have 20.6GB Free, but iTunes says my capacity is 29.06GB and i have 20.7GB Free (my iPad also slightly differs on iTunes),

My assumption is that when the device counts the space, there may be something running, or something, and when iTunes does it, something different or nothing is running etc, and the values differ slightly, this difference is then amplified when the number is rounded.

with yours, having so much data on it, it can be hard for the device to get an accurate read on the data, so it may sometimes calculate slightly differently, and then like before, the rounding of the numbers can amplify this slight difference.

this is just me giving ideas, there may be another reason for it showing different values though... but i hope i gave you an insight as to what it could be.

 

[jamied95]

Thanks for that

So, how much space do I have left on my phone? I don't want to buy an app and realise I don't have enough room to download it...

 

[Lukeyy19]

personally i would always assume it's the lowest number, that way if it is the higher one i'm not going to get stuck, if i take the higher one, and it's wrong, I will end up with no space.

surely, you cant need to carry all 13GB+ of stuff with you everywhere you go, is there no way you could store some things on itunes on your computer, if you want to record a video on the spot, you are going to be buggered, or take some pictures at a party etc...

 

[jamied95]

I have 7GB of Apps, 3GB of photos (which I got down from 7GB when I had my last crisis), 2.5GB of music and a GB of 'other' - it's my apps that use most of it, and I use them loads, news, games, I wouldn't know which to delete, seen as you lose all your data for them as well

 

[Lukeyy19]

Apps are getting bigger i think, this is why i decided to spring for the 32GB, perhaps you could try streaming music with like Spotify or something instead of storing it on your device... or maybe store some of your pictures online, for example on dropbox, rather than on your device, you would still have access to them from your device as long as you had a connection, dropbox provide 2GB for free

 

[jamied95]

I don't think storing pictures online would work, O2 is terrible, on the rare occasion I have signal, it wouldn't be strong enough to download an album of photos.

I was thinking about getting a 32GB, and regretted the day after I got a 16GB, but hopefully I can upgrade next year, although O2 seemed to have screwed my contract up, so maybe not... we'll see :/ 6 months of a phone that can't have anything new on it! How fun :|

 

[Infraggable Kru]

3GB of photos

WHY ?????

just upload them online, even facebook allows high quality uploading, you can even make them private if you just need them for personal use

Not sure why the 7gb of apps either , but at least that has a purpose vs carrying around 3gb of photos

Finally, if you are this kind of "pack rat" that needs to keep everything on your phone why did you not get the 32GB version for $100 more?

 

[jason221]

WHY ?????

just upload them online, even facebook allows high quality uploading, you can even make them private if you just need them for personal use

Not sure why the 7gb of apps either , but at least that has a purpose vs carrying around 3gb of photos

Finally, if you are this kind of "pack rat" that needs to keep everything on your phone why did you not get the 32GB version for $100 more?

I think the HD video that the iPhone records is included in the "Photos" category.

 

[jamied95]

I think the HD video that the iPhone records is included in the "Photos" category.

As well as the fact that I have photo's that aren't really appropriate for FB, or wide public consumption, more, to look back on, or show to people, or as a back up. And as Jason said, I think that includes video, so it ain't that bad...

7GB of apps, I have no idea how I have that many, just do, I spend a lot of time on my phone, so it's important not to be caught short, car journeys (passenger, obviously), etc.

I wish I'd got the 32GB, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?