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Deleted all photos from phone, still taking up 6gigs

qpid360

qpid360

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 23, 2009
568
131
Pasadena, CA
So after deleting everything from iCloud Photos, all the photos and videos on my iPhone/iPad are gone, but when I check on iTunes, photos still take up over 6gb of space on each device...

Sure enough, checking on usage via each device confirms that something is still taking up the space. Any fix for this other than restoring?
 
Have you tried restarting the device. I've noticed that in the past when I've deleted large amounts of pictures or videos the storage free will not change until i restarted the device or gave it some time. Its almost like the device is moving the items into a "trashcan" until a later time or a restart is done.
 
Tried all of that, but still a no go. My iPad was experiencing the same issue, but seems to have resolved itself. The phone, however...
 
There's a bug in iTunes that shows the wrong amount of space used for photos. I have only 2 GB of photos on iCloud, but iTunes tells me I have 4 GB.
 
Similar Issue Resolved

I was able to free up space after having the same issue. The Photo list on the iPhone 6+ showed 0 photos and videos in all albums. First I deleted several photography apps including: instagram, photosynth, instaflash, snapseed, touchretouch, time lapse camera, snap chat, luminance, and manual photo camera. This did NOT resolve the issue. Then I went into Photos > albums and deleted the empty albums that were created by these apps. Viola, 3.2GB of storage became free.

Also, I noted that before I did this iTunes showed no pictures when I went to photo, but the usage bar at the bottom show 3.2GB used for photos and videos and if I hovered over this it said 3.2GB and 526 photos.

Perhaps deleting the empty albums without deleting the apps first would have worked, but no telling now.

Anyway, hope that helps.
 
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your photo stream takes up space on your iPhone as OTHER. delete them there too.
 
There are a lot of hidden files inside iOS & the apps. I mess around with iFunbox once in a while and delete a bunch of stuff. It's time consuming going through all those folders and sub folders. Easiest way to clear up storage sometimes is to just delete an app then download it again. I usually do this with apps like Facebook, Instagram & Twitter whenever they have an update (which is weekly lol!).

----------

Also, sync your iPhone with iTunes. All updated apps on your iPhone will have the previous versions in there too. Once synced, iTunes will remove the previous version apps from your phone and send them to the trash on your mac (or recycle bin on your PC).
 
Had a similar problem recently. Ironically, 6gb of space was the amount as well.

I had removed all photos and videos from my iPad, yet the 6gb of use still showed.

I simply turned off "iCloud Photo Library (Beta)" and the space magically was released.
 
eric51893 said:
Similar Issue Resolved

I was able to free up space after having the same issue. The Photo list on the iPhone 6+ showed 0 photos and videos in all albums. First I deleted several photography apps including: instagram, photosynth, instaflash, snapseed, touchretouch, time lapse camera, snap chat, luminance, and manual photo camera. This did NOT resolve the issue. Then I went into Photos > albums and deleted the empty albums that were created by these apps. Viola, 3.2GB of storage became free.

Also, I noted that before I did this iTunes showed no pictures when I went to photo, but the usage bar at the bottom show 3.2GB used for photos and videos and if I hovered over this it said 3.2GB and 526 photos.

Perhaps deleting the empty albums without deleting the apps first would have worked, but no telling now.

Anyway, hope that helps.
Click to expand...


NICE! This worked after nothing else did. I had the same amount of room taken up, 3.2 GB. I deleted an empty album called skins, not sure what app put it there, and voila no more storage issues!
 
Kareninysimba said:
This made it work for me. Days deleting and deleting photos and space didn't change... What a bunch of IDIOTS in Apple!!!
Click to expand...
Not exactly sure what's idiotic about having a trash option to allow someone to recover something if needed.
 
C DM said:
Not exactly sure what's idiotic about having a trash option to allow someone to recover something if needed.
Click to expand...
What about calling the album "Recycle bin" or something more obvious of what's happening?? What I hate is the lack of information or at least, using intuitive names and organization
 
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