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iPhone 4 32GB Stores 20%+ Less Audio Than 3GS 32GB?

tangfred said:
Do you see a large difference in the Other file size from your 3GS to 4? I'd be willing to bet that iTunes knows that the i4 has a much higher res screen and is syncing a bigger album art file for each track. This could have a huge cumulative effect when you're talking about 5,000 songs.
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Nope - I quoting the "audio" file size total as shown on the summary screen, and the number of songs that shows up on the device. The "Other" shows as a seperate amount on the summary screen and I'm not including that. BTW - the "other" in both are similarly sized.

I have no way of comparing the size of individual audio files to see if one is bigger on the iPhone 4 than on the 3GS. The 128 kbps conversion is done on the fly so it doesn't show up in iTuns, and the file size is not listed on the phone itself.

Does anyone else here use the 128 kbps conversion that can test for the same results? I guess I could try to reload everything into my 3GS first using iTunes 9.2 to see if that's the culprit, then convert it to 4.0 to see if it's that, but that would take me 2-3 days to do because the conversion process is so slow.

Tony
 
tangfred said:
Any individual track that has the album field filled in will try to download album art. It doesn't matter whether he has the full album or not (and I'm guessing with 5,000 songs he's going to have ~2,000 different albums represented).
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Sorry, I guess I was unclear. What I meant is that the iPhone does not store album art on a per-song basis. So, for a 15 track album it does not store 15 copies of the album art - just one copy that each of the tracks references for display. So 5000 songs does not equal 5000 cover art images, though depending on whether or not he's a completest it could still add up.
 
Tones2 said:
Nope - I quoting the "audio" file size total as shown on the summary screen, and the number of songs that shows up on the device. The "Other" shows as a seperate amount on the summary screen and I'm not including that. BTW - the "other" in both are similarly sized.

I have no way of comparing the size of individual audio files to see if one is bigger on the iPhone 4 than on the 3GS. The 128 kbps conversion is done on the fly so it doesn't show up in iTuns, and the file size is not listed on the phone itself.

Does anyone else here use the 128 kbps conversion that can test for the same results? I guess I could try to reload everything into my 3GS first using iTunes 9.2 to see if that's the culprit, then convert it to 4.0 to see if it's that, but that would take me 2-3 days to do because the conversion process is so slow.

Tony
Click to expand...

my 3GS on 9.2 fit my entire music library, with 5+ apps. not so with the 4...nixed apps and had to nix an entire genre of music to sync.

-both had the 128 kbps conversion
 
This isn't something we can routinely speculate on here as to what is going on.

The data on what is going on is on the OPs computer. The fastest way to see what is going on with the space is to plug in both devices and see how the space is being used.

Is the new one syncing podcasts, videos, or photos he wasn't on the other one? Did itunes start syncing a bunch of random apps? Until you compare how the two are using their space, anything we say is mere speculation and you might as well roll the dice. They are both going to right about as often.

As for the less efficient idea, that's BS. 128kbps is 128kbps. If it was less efficient, it'd sound worse, not take up more space. Bitrates cap the file size.
 
For what it's worth, I don't recompress my audio and it's taking up the same amount of space that it did on my 3GS. So this is probably something specific to the 128kbps recompression process.
 
Does EVERYONES iphone 4 have this issue?
If so, maybe the iphone 4 requires a certain amount of free space for hd video recording, etc.


I have no clue and do not yet have my iphone4 :(
 
Aphex3D said:
Does EVERYONES iphone 4 have this issue?
If so, maybe the iphone 4 requires a certain amount of free space for hd video recording, etc.


I have no clue and do not yet have my iphone4 :(
Click to expand...

I recompress my audio, and have not seen this when I resynced. I did notice that it tried to reset a bunch of sync settings, even though I restored from a backup. It tried to dump every app I've ever purchased to the phone.
 
It may be that iOS4 has reserved 3GB for multi tasking. I know that when you close programs they write their save state information to the phone, this might be one reason iOS4 devices have less space.
 
jalpert said:
It may be that iOS4 has reserved 3GB for multi tasking. I know that when you close programs they write their save state information to the phone, this might be one reason iOS4 devices have less space.
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The issue appears to have to do with the iPhone 4 vs. the iPhone 3GS, though, doesn't it?

FWIW, without using the 128kb recompress feature, my iPhone 3GS was almost full on 3.1.2, and when I upgraded to 4.0, everything still fit on it.
 
Saw the same thing happen with mine and posted a thread here on it on the 23rd. My post contains greater details on what/how the space is being used between the 3GS and the 4 with all of the exact same content being synced.
 
I noticed this as well, the same music on my iphone 4 takes up more space than it does on my iphone 3g and my ipod 5.5g

Whist I know Apple changed 1gb to equal 1000kb rather than 1024kb I still don't get the difference between the 5.5 and the 3g.

Yes, all devices have the 128kb downsize thing on

Screenie attached
 

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I wonder if this could be attributable to block sizes on the storage? Larger block sizes would explain wasting more free space and possibly flagging it as used.

Totally speculating of course.
 
When I upgraded from my 3GS to iPhone 4. I just did a restore from backup. My iPhone 4 is using 2GB more space than my 3GS. I looked at my videos on my phone and they are both identical like I had it set up, but it's taking up about an extra 1.5GB. Maybe for the screen resolution? I have no Idea all I know is that I have lost 1.5GB due to my movies.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
When I upgraded from my 3GS to iPhone 4. I just did a restore from backup. My iPhone 4 is using 2GB more space than my 3GS. I looked at my videos on my phone and they are both identical like I had it set up, but it's taking up about an extra 1.5GB. Maybe for the screen resolution? I have no Idea all I know is that I have lost 1.5GB due to my movies.
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Are you sure the VIDEO is taking up more space and not audio?
 
hzeat said:
my 3GS on 9.2 fit my entire music library, with 5+ apps. not so with the 4...nixed apps and had to nix an entire genre of music to sync.

-both had the 128 kbps conversion
Click to expand...


Did you convert ALL of your songs on your 3GS THE FIRST TIME using iTunes 9.2 or most using the 9.1 version of iTunes?

Tony
 
I have never used the 128 conversion box. Does it do this just for the copy. Does it store an extra copy of the 128 version in iTunes. Similar to the HD-SD copies from iTunes Movies/TV Shows, does it just show you 1 file but still add to your library size on your drive?

I never thought of toying with this as most of my library is my ripped CD collection at 160 or 192 AAC and an array of iTunes songs from 128 to the 256 they are now sold at, so I didn't expect I would gain as much as someone who ripped/bought everything at 256 or greater.
 
There's a lot of weirdness going on. The iPhone 4 and iTunes both need updates.

It keeps telling me that it can't put all my photos on my phone because I'm out of space. Thing is, I have 6 GB free.

Even if all the photos won't fit, my old 3G would have filled up the 6 GB and THEN told me it can't fit any more than that. My iPhone 4 is just giving up before it starts and leaving 6 GB empty. That's not right, I'm sure. (Not to mention that I'm nearly positive it should easily fit within that 6 GB. So it's even worse than I made it sound.)

roland.g said:
I have never used the 128 conversion box. Does it do this just for the copy. Does it store an extra copy of the 128 version in iTunes. Similar to the HD-SD copies from iTunes Movies/TV Shows, does it just show you 1 file but still add to your library size on your drive?
Click to expand...

Well, if it does keep that copy in the computer, you never see it. The ONLY change you see when checking that box is smaller file sizes on your iPhone. That's it. Whether the computer keeps a copy or not, I don't know. But if it does, it hides it from you.

I've never checked file sizes, but based on my experiences with syncing I sure get the impression that it shrinks it as it sends it to the phone and then that's it. I really don't think it's keeping a copy on the computer. (But I could be wrong, I've never investigated all that closely.)
 
Small White Car said:
Well, if it does keep that copy in the computer, you never see it. The ONLY change you see when checking that box is smaller file sizes on your iPhone. That's it. Whether the computer keeps a copy or not, I don't know. But if it does, it hides it from you.

I've never checked file sizes, but based on my experiences with syncing I sure get the impression that it shrinks it as it sends it to the phone and then that's it. I really don't think it's keeping a copy on the computer. (But I could be wrong, I've never investigated all that closely.)
Click to expand...


It doesn' keep a copy on your computer. It converts from whatever you bitrate is to 128 bits in real time the first time you transfer and whenever the audio file changes thereafter. That's why it takes so long. It does NOT do anything when syncing after the first transfer unless the file changed in some way (including the data like lyrics, genre, etc). That's why if you converted most of the songs under iTunes 9.1 for the 3GS, it stays put based on the original conversion even after a iTunes 9.2 update, but if you get a new phone it has to reconvert using 9.2.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that iTunes 9.2 is probably the culprit here, but the only way to test this theory is to wipe out all my songs on my 3GS (still under OS 3.1.3) and reload them using 9.2. I'm not sure that I want to do that because it takes too long plus then I might be left with less songs on that phone.

Tony
 
BTW - This is REALLY a big issue for me. I'd rather go back to my 3GS phone than lose 20% capacity for audio. The only thing I'd miss from the iPhone 4 is the camera flash.

Tony
 
Tones2 said:
BTW - This is REALLY a big issue for me. I'd rather go back to my 3GS phone than lose 20% capacity for audio. The only thing I'd miss from the iPhone 4 is the camera flash.

Tony
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i'm with you Tony... but to late for me now. i'm actually in the process of changing most my music to 128 in my iTunes and hopefully that helps for whatever reason. i'm also hoping for some sort of update whether it be iPhone or iTunes in the near future. i dig the new 4, but REALLY wish they would have came out with a 64GB!
 
hzeat said:
i'm with you Tony... but to late for me now. i'm actually in the process of changing most my music to 128 in my iTunes and hopefully that helps for whatever reason. i'm also hoping for some sort of update whether it be iPhone or iTunes in the near future. i dig the new 4, but REALLY wish they would have came out with a 64GB!
Click to expand...

Let me know if that works. If it does, I may do the same thing in a seperate playlist and sync that instead.

Tony
 
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