iOS 9 Includes New Auto App Delete/Reinstall Feature for OS Updates on Devices With Insufficient Space

[MacRumors]

Developers who are installing the second beta of iOS 9 have discovered a highly useful iOS 9 space management feature, which will help users who have little space on their devices install major operating system updates.

When attempting to install iOS 9 on a device with insufficient space, there's a popup that offers to temporarily delete some apps in order to make room for the update. Apps that are deleted are then reinstalled and replaced after the operating system update is completed.

With iOS 8, many users with 16GB devices were disappointed with the large installation size of the operating system. As it was over 4GB, few users with 16GB devices had the space for the update, which may be one of the main reasons that iOS 8 installation rates were slow for several months following release. Given the disappointment that many customers expressed with the install size of iOS 8, Apple's made efforts to make iOS 9 much more space efficient.

Apple has significantly reduced the installation size of the operating system to just 1.3GB to make it easier for people to find the space for an update, and this new auto app deletion feature will ensure that almost all customers can upgrade their devices with little hassle. Other features, such as app thinning for developers, will also help free up space on devices by installing only the necessary app assets for each device.

Article Link: iOS 9 Includes New Auto App Delete/Reinstall Feature for OS Updates on Devices With Insufficient Space

 

[Twimfy]

Now that is quite a cool idea.

 

[AngerDanger]

Originally codenamed Flappy_Bird_Removal_Initiative, this feature will go public in iOS 9.

 

[BreuerEditor]

But the REAL question is does it put the data back for the app(s) or just reinstall the app?

 

[Prof.]

"iOS 8 installation rats were slow"

 

[dannys1]

Good move.

 

[KALLT]

But the REAL question is does it put the data back for the app(s) or just reinstall the app?

I assume that it will simply remove as many big apps as needed and keep the data in place. That's how I would make it at least.

 

[atari1356]

But the REAL question is does it put the data back for the app(s) or just reinstall the app?

I certainly hope so. If it doesn't save the app's data and have it available again after the app is reinstalled, that is going to be a very serious problem for a lot of developers.

 

[friedmud]

I assume they're only going to do this for Apps that either don't have any locally stored data... or apps that only store data in iCloud.

Seems like quite a tricky thing to get right... if it goes awry people could easily lose data.

Also: think about stuff like Spotify. It is the largest app I have on my phone (currently ~8GB). I have all of that music saved offline for listening on the subway. If Apple blows away Spotify and reinstalls it... I now have a chore ahead of me to re-download many hundreds of songs.

I don't see this being all that popular of an option...

 

[soupcan]

If they only did this for some of the stock iOS apps nobody ever uses, and then permanently. If I want to "Find my friends" I'll install the app when I need it, thank you.

 

[Tubamajuba]

"iOS 8 installation rats were slow"

I think Apple might need to borrow some of Nintendo's Pikmin that they use to transfer data between 3DS consoles.

 

[iapplelove]

This is not an issue for me but a nice enhancement none the less!

 

[greg8799]

I'm still waiting for Apple to increase the iPhone's storage. Why not drop the ancient 16GB and finally start at 32GB?! Now that would be a better solution.

 

[KALLT]

I assume they're only going to do this for Apps that either don't have any locally stored data... or apps that only store data in iCloud.

Seems like quite a tricky thing to get right... if it goes awry people could easily lose data.

Also: think about stuff like Spotify. It is the largest app I have on my phone (currently ~8GB). I have all of that music saved offline for listening on the subway. If Apple blows away Spotify and reinstalls it... I now have a chore ahead of me to re-download many hundreds of songs.

I don't see this being all that popular of an option...

Relax, they will probably think this through. ;p

 

[friedmud]

Relax, they will probably think this through. ;p

I agree - I think they will. Just saying that it's going to be tricky to get right. The obvious targets are the biggest apps... but presumably you have all of that data stored there for a reason...

 

[mdelvecchio]

I assume they're only going to do this for Apps that either don't have any locally stored data... or apps that only store data in iCloud.

Seems like quite a tricky thing to get right... if it goes awry people could easily lose data.

Also: think about stuff like Spotify. It is the largest app I have on my phone (currently ~8GB). I have all of that music saved offline for listening on the subway. If Apple blows away Spotify and reinstalls it... I now have a chore ahead of me to re-download many hundreds of songs.

I don't see this being all that popular of an option...

Gosh I wonder if they thought of this!

 

[jdillings]

Very cool. How long before Google copies it?

 

[viper2021]

This is good but I hope it doesn't mean that they will keep selling 16GB as their base models for iphones and ipads.

 

[sampaul]

Now thats Apple being Apple.

 

[RoboCop001]

Would be nice if you could also do this manually. Say, with an app you don't use much but want to uninstall without losing the data. So upon deletion it could backup the data to iCloud. And the next time you install it, it should ask if you want to restore the data as well from iCloud.

 

[KALLT]

I agree - I think they will. Just saying that it's going to be tricky to get right. The obvious targets are the biggest apps... but presumably you have all of that data stored there for a reason...

I don't know how iOS handles data storage. Maybe they created a new process for this that retains the data and makes sure that the redownloaded apps are assigned correctly again. I don't think that Apple will use the same deletion process that they use for manual app deletion.

Would be nice if you could also do this manually. Say, with an app you don't use much but want to uninstall without losing the data. So upon deletion it could backup the data to iCloud. And the next time you install it, it should ask if you want to restore the data as well from iCloud.

That would be really cool too.

 

[6836838]

Great idea. I guess they do a temporary iCloud backup/restore for the relevant Apps. Clever and a good way to increase iOS9 update.

 

[k1121j]

what happens to the app data is it lost ?

 

[Rogifan]

How about allowing us to manage cached data? Right now my Twitter client is showing 400MB and 363MB of that is "documents and data". The app itself is only 36MB.

 

[Hustler1337]

How much space does the update require? I had less than 1GB of free space left on my device and got the same prompt. But I decided to manually remove apps so I now have 2.2GB of free space. However, I still get 'Software Update Failed' for some reason for OTA update