Don't know what's taking 2.8gig of space

[fitgirl]

my Apple Watch is saying that 2.8 gig has been used but yet when I go check how much space my apps are using the math doesn't add up,

 

[waw74]

most of that is the OS and system files

 

[Howard2k]

Mine is the same - 2.8GB. It's normal.

 

[fitgirl]

Mine is the same - 2.8GB. It's normal.

So it’s normal for the numbers not to add up?

 

[Howard2k]

So it’s normal for the numbers not to add up?

Yep. The OS data you can't do anything about, it's required for the watch to work.

It's really telling you "This is how much space is being used on the watch, and this is YOUR data [in the list] that you can do something about if you want to".

 

[fitgirl]

Yep. The OS data you can't do anything about, it's required for the watch to work.

It's really telling you "This is how much space is being used on the watch, and this is YOUR data [in the list] that you can do something about if you want to".

But if you look at the list and add it up it doesn’t equal to 2.8 gigs used, and I have tried deleting some apps but it doesn’t really seem to change the number.

 

[Howard2k]

But if you look at the list and add it up it doesn’t equal to 2.8 gigs used, and I have tried deleting some apps but it doesn’t really seem to change the number.

Correct, it won't add up because the 2.8GB is not specific enough (you're looking below at data measured in MB). As you move more data over you'll see it change. Add 400MB of music and you'll see 3.2 to 3.3GB of space used.

There is the base storage used by the OS (around 2.8GB, but it will change over time) and then there is your specific data, listed below (of which you have almost nil).

 

[fitgirl]

Correct, it won't add up because the 2.8GB is not specific enough (you're looking below at data measured in MB). As you move more data over you'll see it change. Add 400MB of music and you'll see 3.2 to 3.3GB of space used.

There is the base storage used by the OS (around 2.8GB, but it will change over time) and then there is your specific data, listed below (of which you have almost nil).

2.8 is not the the base storage being used by the OS, 26.4 is what the capacity is and the available gig left is 25 which means only 1.4 gigs is used for base storage.

 

[Howard2k]

You may be right, my recollection is that my watch was using 2.8GB, or thereabout, or space, and currently it’s using 3.2GB or thereabouts, and I have around 400MB - 500MB of data on the watch. So it seems to add up. And to be honest I’m not going to reset it to verify 😀

You won’t be able to account for all of the storage usage because not all of the storage is under your control. When the watch chooses to cache content locally that will result in the OS using a variable amount of storage space (depending how much data is cached). There will always be that variable component that you will not be able to easily validate.

If you’re concerned about the storage capacity of the watch for whatever reason then you might be best to have Apple run a remote diagnostic, and/or do a reset of storage to confirm your freshly reset watch against another watch of the same model and same WatchOS.

It is good to keep and eye on it but the variability is not something worth stressing about. I do wish it was clearer all the same. Unfortunately Apple isn’t about “details” it’s about “experience”. They’re obviously doing pretty well as a company 😃 so I guess my frustration with their lack of attention to detail is largely irrelevant.