iTunes 10 showing incorrect free space on iPhone 4

[gowanis]

I only have 800 MB free (in Settings -> General -> About) but iTunes tells me I have 3.9 GB. If i remove the phone and then reconnect, iTunes will then show me 800 MB (0.8 GB)

Anyone else?

** I just reproduced the problem by simply going into the apps tab and moving an app to a different folder. My free space immediately changes from 0.8 GB to 3.9 GB. What's going on ?

 

[darkfiber]

I only have 800 MB free (in Settings -> General -> About) but iTunes tells me I have 3.9 GB. If i remove the phone and then reconnect, iTunes will then show me 800 MB (0.8 GB)

Anyone else?

** I just reproduced the problem by simply going into the apps tab and moving an app to a different folder. My free space immediately changes from 0.8 GB to 3.9 GB. What's going on ?

There must be some size bug. I connected my iPhone 4 running 4.0.2 with around 1GB free (out of 32GB) and iTunes 10 (Win 6 64-bit) to sync it and it said I was 23GB OVER the size of the iPhone. After the sync it was ok and seemed to report ok. But now I have another issue with iTunes as it thinks I have a new iPhone and wants me to restore from backup (sigh).

 

[MultiFinder17]

Having the same issue here - iTunes seems to jump between telling me that I have 2.5GB free (true), and telling me that I have 6-8GB free (LIES!). Not really a huge issue in itself, but annoying nonetheless.

 

[SheepNutz]

Yeah, I noticed this yesterday while my phone was syncing. After it was done, it showed the correct amount, so no worries.

 

[EmptyG]

Same here - my iPhone 4 has at least a few GB in space left, but iTunes 10 says it's 1.15 GB over capacity. I'm resyncing now, to see if that helps.

 

[Bandolier]

Because you're jailbroken.

 

[gowanis]

I'm not jailbroken. I am able to reproduce this problem consistently.

 

[EmptyG]

Mine's not jailbroken either. A few syncs seem to have fixed it, so far

 

[gowanis]

Sync doesn't fix it, the problem is inherent in iTunes 10.

 

[Frayzhe]

Do you happen to have the "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC" option turned on? I've seen the same bug in the latest iTunes, and I was assuming it was because I recently turned this option on to save space. But maybe it's just a bug in iTunes 10.

 

[cleggster83]

I'm having the same problem. Its bloody annoying. Keeps changing dramatically when i add or remove any apps.

 

[markycol]

I have just connected my new iPhone 4 to iTunes 10 for first time. iTunes says I have only 14GB of free space but the phone is the 16GB version. Where is the other 2 GB or is reserved for something? OS?

 

[OllyW]

I have just connected my new iPhone 4 to iTunes 10 for first time. iTunes says I have only 14GB of free space but the phone is the 16GB version. Where is the other 2 GB or is reserved for something? OS?

That's correct. If you check Settings/General/About on your iPhone it will tell you exactly the same.

 

[gowanis]

iTunes 10.0.1.22 released, and they didn't fix this problem. Disappointed.

 

[gowanis]

iTunes 10.1.2.17 released.

Still not fixed.

 

[jps1012]

iTunes 10.1.2.17 released.

Still not fixed.

I have the same issue. Wish I really had as much as itunes says i have free

 

[bruanne]

I have either the same problem or a similar one. I noticed it reporting different values between the two. What I have found is that if I check and/or un check the manage music manually button the amount of memory changes dramatically and the change seems to be in the video amount. I don't have any videos on my phone so no idea whats up with that.

 

[sanford]

Same issue with my iPhone 4, and then my 3GS I went back to using; shows almost a gig more available than the iPhone itself reports in settings/general/about. Notably, when connecting my original iPad, the same (current) version of iTunes reports the correct amount of free space.

I haven't had time to mess with it and try to figure it out, and I probably won't have time before they eventually fix it. I just check my iPhone for accurate free space reports.

It seems like they'd fix it, but if the risk of breaking the whole works is high digging down to it, with iOS 5, iCloud and iTunes match rolling out soon, they may consider it a low priority. For one, maybe it's NOT iTunes but iOS and the fix is in iOS 5. For two, maybe it IS iTunes and the fix is in the iOS 5-compatibility release of iTunes. For a pretty lame third guess, with iOS 5 comes the ability to delete and redownload media content on the iOS device itself, making for fewer wired syncs and diminished criticality of accurate free space reporting. However, I do think if you're going to report it, it should be accurate.

I have either the same problem or a similar one. I noticed it reporting different values between the two. What I have found is that if I check and/or un check the manage music manually button the amount of memory changes dramatically and the change seems to be in the video amount. I don't have any videos on my phone so no idea whats up with that.

 

[supcav]

Still not fixed in iOS5

I have an iPhone 4 running iOS5 and iTunes 10 and it still is happening.

 

[theBigD23]

My Photos go from 3 to 6 GB and then back again. I also get an iTunes Match syncing issue that says it cannot sync 24 items because I have iTunes Match on. I really don't know what's going on there since I'm not trying to sync anything, I juts get the error.

 

[zieglajc2]

My iphone 4 is saying I used 12.9 gb & have 603 mb free. This is incorrect. I only have 23 pictures & 2 videos. I also only have 4 apps & it says under usage that everything has only taken up mb but my music. My music has used 1.9gb ever since I plugged it into iTunes, it
Has been like this. What do I do to get it back to normal.

 

[macca2oo7]

Sorry to bump an old thread guys, but I'm still experiencing this problem on iTunes 11.1.0.126 with an iPhone 5 64gb running iOS 7.0.2

I am using the 'Convert higher bit rate songs to 128kbps AAC' option, and it's definitely showing the error in free space due to this as I have 8861 songs on my iPhone at time of writing, which iTunes tells me only takes up 31.27gb (note that this is only after a synchronisation). This leaves 4.73gb of free space after all my videos, photos, applications and documents.

However when I plug my iPhone in, it shows that the 8861 songs take up 34.24gb of space, which leaves 2.15gb of free space after all my videos, photos, applications and documents.

It's worth noting that the iPhone itself shows that there is 2.2gb of space available, so the 4.73gb statistic is incorrect.

It is impractical for me to not utilise this conversion feature unless I heavily condense the amount of music on my iPhone (which I'm not willing to do), as when I un-tick the conversion option it puts me over by 20.44gb, a huge difference.

Could it be that some of the songs are not converting properly to 128kbps AAC, and instead of giving an error message, iTunes just ignores this and shows the capacity statistics as if the conversion and synchronisation had gone though flawlessly?

Has anyone been able to get any further with this, or spoken to Apple regarding this? It seems to be an issue that's been ongoing for several years and through several versions of iTunes, without a fix coming to fruition.

Sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to give as much info as possible.

 

[gowanis]

Not sure if this will help you.

After I upgraded to ios7 on my iPhone 5, I started having weird free space issues in iTunes. Try this: Right click on the device, and choose "Reset Warnings". This fixed my problem. Not sure why.

 

[macca2oo7]

Thanks for the advice.

Was worth a try, but I'm still experiencing a gulf in difference between the free space statistics.
Anybody else got any ideas?