watchOS 8 Throttles Media to 8GB

[Phuz01]

Despite the fact that Series 5, 6, and 7 watches have 32GB of storage, watchOS 8 only allows 8GB to be used for media storage: music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. If you try to add more than that, you will receive an error message, "The storage space dedicated to media on your Apple Watch is full."

I have verified with Apple Support that this throttling is by design, but it was put in place to limit media to 2GB when Apple Watch had an 8GB hard drive, and it was bumped up to 8GB when the Series 4 introduced a 16GB hard drive.

It's unclear what else you could possibly fill the remaining 24GB on a 32GB Apple Watch with, if not media. If you think this content throttle is as ridiculous as I do, please consider letting Apple know.

 

[macphoto861]

Yeah, perhaps it made sense when they came with only 8gb, as you need to leave some elbow room for other stuff... but this limitation is just silly now.

 

[bricktop_at]

I have verified with Apple Support that this throttling is by design, but it was put in place to limit media to 2GB when Apple Watch had an 8GB hard drive, and it was bumped up to 8GB when the Series 4 introduced a 16GB hard drive.

Almost correct ;-)
Media storage is and was always a quarter of the overall storage. So S4 had 4GB media storage and the 32GB models now have 8GB.
Nevertheless, I have submitted feedback, the limit is too low for the current models

 

[deeddawg]

This is nothing new with WatchOS 8 -- Onboard media storage has been consistently limited to 1/4 of the total watch storage on prior WatchOS versions as well. Certainly give Apple your feedback if you wish it to be changed, though I wouldn't hold your breath as Apple seems to want people to use streaming services rather than onboard storage.

Also - "throttling" is not the correct term - that relates to a throughput restriction and may confuse people by being used for a capacity limitation. The term you're looking for would be "limit" or "cap".