Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What do people do with more than 16 GB of storage space?

*~Kim~* said:
If you want to store over 5GB in the cloud, don't you also have to pay extra on an annual basis? I'd rather pay for more phone storage so that it's all paid for in one go and I know exactly what the cost of that additional storage is. Apple will probably up the cloud prices in future, as they have done with AppleCare.
Click to expand...

^this,


unlike gazzren, i dont want to do all this storage managing on my free time. its a waste, i rather be out and about or doing things i like rather then constantly deleting and downloading.

and like i said for itunes match you need internet and it also isnt friendly if your going over seas.

what about when your on a plane? train? subway? ship? on a car ride and suddenly there isnt any reception?
 
The iOS 8 OTA required ~5.7 GB to update, the OS eats arround 2GB. Which leaves you with only 8GB usable space, unless you want to jump trough hoops updating.
 
Even my apps take up more than 16gb.

You manage with 16, thats great. How about I don't tell you you need at least 32 and you can not tell me that I don't need more than 16?
 
I switched my wife away from 16 GB a couple years back just for photo storage. I prefer uncompressed music, so streaming doesn't work. I can get by on 64, but I can afford 128. So I have a 128 6+ and a 128 rMini.
 
I got 14GB of photos, then some apps and such, using about 1/2 of my 64gb phone (technically ~57gb usable)
 
GrimmsGirl said:
I keep it all on my phone because I want to, not need to. Does that bother you in some way?
Click to expand...

Serelus said:
Needing the storage is different from, WANTING storage. You don't need that much storage on your device, like I mentioned their are alternatives. Everything is in the cloud these days, you might have legitimate reasons for WANTING more storage, but you don't need it. This is not trolling, this is simply people making up excuses to waste money on storage. I don't actually care. I would just like to point out that you're in fact paying way too much for it. Why can I not argue that point?
Click to expand...

I had already stated in this thread that keeping everything on my phone was a want, and not necessarily a need. I'm not making any excuses for my choices. I never do.
 
When the overhead of iOS leaves under 14Gb free, basic apps for shopping etc... remove another 1Gb or so, "other" data consumes up to 2Gb and you have more varied music taste than a bunch of 10 track top 40 albums of 3 minute 30 tributes to every gential attention fixation clique the so called "lyrics" of that tripe is always about, you tend to be juggling space about a lot to listen to new music or albums/live sets you feel like listening to at the time.

More storage means less syncing and less reliance on limited 3G/4G data or being around a WiFi connection if you store some of your music in iCloud for instant access when you're away from your whole iTunes library.
 
I buy the larger than 16gb model essentially for two reasons these days:

1. I don't have to constantly think about memory(running out) when I download apps and media files. I think with 16GB I would be constantly wondering whether the game or other app I want to download is worthy of using my limited memory and I would always be checking how much free space I have left. With 64GB or higher, this goes away for me the most part.

2. OTA. Software updates can take up a lot of room during install. I don't want to have to delete a lot of stuff (like my pictures) to make room for a software update.
 
skanska said:
I couldn't get my head around why they droped the 32gb and kept the 16 to me they should have started at 32 at £699
Click to expand...

I think they did this to cause a divide. The people that buy the 16gb may believe that they will stream and do various things over the cloud so that will in turn sell more icloud drive for apple. Apple as with many many other businesses WANT customers to rely on their subscription type services so that can continue to get revenue every month (for infinity).

These companies don't really make decisions for you. They make decisions for their bottom line/profit/growth and convince the masses that they cannot possible do it any other way.

Ironic apple introduces larger phones that many people don't want to pull out due to their size or the potential fact that you can't use it with one hand and they introduce an apple watch at the same time that negates some of the fears people have. Some people see this and rejoice. Apple sees it as we can now sell 2 devices to the same person that would have bought one and convince them there is no better solution available.

Welcome to the Matrix. Lol
 
My camera roll alone is 12 gigs. I also have it backed up but why delete off my phone when I dont need too?

And for the price having 8x more space then a 16gb phone is totally worth it for me.

And lastly, resale value for an iphone with more capacity is higher so you're likely to see a lot of that $200 difference if you ever decide to sell your phone in a year or two.
 
I see why people want more 64GB, 128GB or even more if it was available

I always think I need more and that I will watch movies and listen to music but after a while I end up not watching full movies or tv shows and rarely listen to music so 16GB ends up being plenty for me

my 16gb phone now has 9GB free and I have been using it for 2 years, so I will save use the money for the capacity upgrade on applecare
 
Because I wanted to? I don't understand why people are demanding an answer like those of us who have additional storage are insane.

- I don't like having files etc. stored on line and I have to have large confidential docs on me at all times in my line of work;
- I travel a lot. Wifi is often sketchy or paid. Westin hotels charge $14.95 for the lowest speed. Doesn't take long to get to $100 for the extra storage;
- I'd rather pay for storage (that increases the value of the phone for resale) rather than web based storage or fees
- I don't have the energy to constantly being uploading or downloading and I don't want to think about what 50 (or 500) songs I am going to want to listen to;
- in countries outside the U.S., systems like Hulu, Pandora and even the range of Netflix are a pipe dream;
- I also want to be able to update the latest iOS without issue
- I want my nakked pics to be safe and secure. All ten thousand of them.
 
motulist said:
---EDIT--------------
I'm very well aware of how much space you CAN fill up by loading your phone with 50,000 songs, or 10,000 high res photos, or several seasons worth of tv episodes, etc. The question is why do you store all that stuff locally on your device instead of just having a few of those items stored locally for the rare occasions when you don't have net access to stream them? Even out in the country where I am, pretty much everyone has DSL with wifi, and in town you even get some cell data. So for the vast majority of the population you're going to have net connectivity that's at least as good as that, and usually much better.

-------- original comment below -------------



I've had a 16 GB iPad for 3 years and a 16 GB iPhone for a year, and I've almost never had a problem of too little available space. I have many many apps installed, including a couple of big games, I keep about 10 music albums and a few podcasts stored for those rare occasion when I don't have cell or wifi net access available, each week I take about 30 pictures and a couple of short videos, I'm running iOS 8 which supposedly eats up over 1 GB more than 7, I only sync with my computer to offload the pics and videos every couple of months, and even with all of that I still have like 4 GB of space free. What are other people storing that eats up so much more space that it requires 32 or 64 GB of space?
Click to expand...

We flaunt it. :)
 
loon3y said:
So you delete and download everytime? seems like a bother and something i nor most wouldnt want to deal with. I definitely wouldnt want to do this on my freetime and is essentially a waste of work hours if you do it on the clock.

i dont know how big your files are but my file range from 50MB-2GB. So it isnt even reasonable for me to use on big files. and im sure for those who arent on unlimited plans doesnt want to waste their data usage.

iTunes Match isnt international friendly, also what are you going to do when you have no internet access?

also what AVERAGE person has a camera these days? unless its for work or its a hobby of yours most people dont have it.

I hardly use my camera, and i have 1.4 GB on it. Imagine girls (or dudes) that have tons.

so essentially your just taking all these extra steps, when having enough storage space eliminates these.
Click to expand...

Well to start with, my phone is a phone. For work, I have a 13" MBA.. so the rare occasion I use / need files on my phone for work, they're downloaded to it from my free 15GB of DropBox or my free 40GB of OneDrive... I can't see ANYONE just using a phone for work with no other device of any kind.

...and yes, I have unlimited data on a 4G plan.

iTunes match is plenty international friendly.. for me..

I always ensure I have some good playlists and a few live sets etc downloaded to the phone before I travel, I always get WiFi wherever I go (where possible obviously) but my mobile provider also allows me to use my bundled data/minutes/texts while abroad (http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home) ...and more importantly my vacation time is not spent worrying about how much music is on my phone (don't forget, my iPad and MBA are also with me... having watched a movie or two on the plane on the MBA)

...and again the camera point.. I agree, not everyone has one (or two like me)

......None of the use cases mentioned are a problem for me, nor do I feel in any way that I'm 'compromising'....again, the things you see as problems you solve with phone storage, are simply not problems for me. I don't spend my life organizing storage on the phone as you suggest...

I simply don't need the storage on my phone. You do, and that's OK.

:)
 
Lots of high quality music. I tried streaming at high quality and ran through gigabytes of data pretty quickly. Plus, I'm on planes every week so even if I didn't care about my data cap, I need everything available offline at least 10-20 hours a week.
 
motulist said:
---EDIT--------------
I'm very well aware of how much space you CAN fill up by loading your phone with 50,000 songs, or 10,000 high res photos, or several seasons worth of tv episodes, etc. The question is why do you store all that stuff locally on your device instead of just having a few of those items stored locally for the rare occasions when you don't have net access to stream them? Even out in the country where I am, pretty much everyone has DSL with wifi, and in town you even get some cell data. So for the vast majority of the population you're going to have net connectivity that's at least as good as that, and usually much better.

-------- original comment below -------------



I've had a 16 GB iPad for 3 years and a 16 GB iPhone for a year, and I've almost never had a problem of too little available space. I have many many apps installed, including a couple of big games, I keep about 10 music albums and a few podcasts stored for those rare occasion when I don't have cell or wifi net access available, each week I take about 30 pictures and a couple of short videos, I'm running iOS 8 which supposedly eats up over 1 GB more than 7, I only sync with my computer to offload the pics and videos every couple of months, and even with all of that I still have like 4 GB of space free. What are other people storing that eats up so much more space that it requires 32 or 64 GB of space?
Click to expand...

Never had an issue until recently. a 16gb phone formatted and with the OS leaves about 11-12GB of space available. I then have a bunch of apps and about 700 songs on my phone. still left me with about 2-3GB storage free.

But when iOS 8 was released it would not let me update over the air unless I had 5.8GB of free space. Thats a lot when you only have 11GB usable to begin with. Thats over half your storage. I dont see it getting any better either. Every update will require a larger buffer in my opinion. So for the first time in 7 years I bought an iphone with more that 16GB.

Also, since the storage is not upgradable, I think you should get the most you can afford and think you will need. It is better to not need it and have it than to need it and not have it.
 
loon3y said:
LOL,

16 GB is enough for more users?

i needed around 7 GB of free space to update my iPad with the built in software update feature.

ridiculous.

i have what 3 games? GTA:SA, Walking Dead: 1&2 and my space is all gone.

16GB should be non existent.

if anything 16GB should just be the "free phones".


the OS takes much more space now, its ridiculous. its like when Windows Vista first came out and retail stores were selling computers with inefficient ram to even run Windows Vista. (i.e.: desktop has only 1.3 GB of ram when Vista needed 1.1 GB of ram to run it (without lag and we're talking about BRAND new computers)



i get the marketing for the 16GB and 64GB phones (because if 32 GB was there, everyone would just get that one[ i wouldn't 64 is perfect for me])



my case is the exact opposite, i find it EXTREMELY rare that anyone can live with 8GB and 16GB

i mean whats the age group of people that are ok with that 50+?


i can hardly imagine someone in the 12-45 age group thats OK with 8 or 16GB.

You have service programs like hot-wire, kayak, groupon

shopping apps like new egg, amazon, ebay

utlity programs like evernote, skitch splashtop,

entertainment like netflix, sling player, cable TV apps, HBOGO

games from high end to low end, GTA, infinity blade, angry birds, etc etc.


i see these posts time and time again. Usually people that use smart phones just as 'phones'.

and they argue that its because "we're power users". lol downloading apps, and putting music on our phones is considered a power user? its standard stuff.


lol and we all can speculate how much it costs apple to put in a bigger flash drive on a phone. (very cheap compared to the $100 dollar hike that we have to pay)

----------



i have absolutely no music or videos on my phone

i have 3 games as i have posted previously and couple utility apps i need for travel on my 16 GB

i have to delete about 10 apps to update my iPad and redownload them again. (i wasn't at home so i couldn't back up nor update to my computer)


so yeah there goes your 'Want/Need' Argument, you do know that the OS does get bigger every time it goes up in number (i.e.: iOS5, iOS6, iOS7)


people do need it. what the hell do you have on your device? just the bare apps? no music?

when i first got my iPhone 3GS years ago, the biggest appeal for me at that time was having an iPod and Phone in one device (not to mention all the apps which was damn revolutionary at the time)

16 GB? is really 12 GB, couple apps and less than 200 songs thats pretty much it.
Click to expand...

People still have local music? Um ok.

I actually think you have that backwards. The only people I know who have local music are 50+. Everyone else I know has Pandora, Spotfiy Premium, Rdio, or Beats. I'm 34 btw. Why would I carry music around? If I need music for a flight I download and go.

Why would I watch ANY content besides Youtube videos on my tiny phone screen? I have an iPad right with me at all times unless I'm out and about. And if I'm out I wouldn't be watching content anyway. I'd be living my life.

I have plenty of apps and I use my phone exhaustively. I usually wear my phone flat out and usually upgrade annually.

I take quite a bit of pictures and video of kids or vacations or whatever and I edit all that and make movies on the iPad. I have a 32 gig iPad. When that gets full which doesn't happen really I offload to the iMac for permanent storage.

I guess I could carry thousands of pictures around on my phone but why? How many people making your argument already have an iPad AND computer? It's utterly redundant.

But again that's just me and I'm comfortable with my decision. I don't understand why you storage gurus are not. If it's ok for you to be you why is it not ok for me to be me? Everything is in the cloud now. We're not going towards more storage. We're going towards fancy terminals with permanent access to the cloud.

Just be you. It's ok. But I don't need more than 16 gigs. So I appreciate the option to buy that size. I can afford any iPhone I want but only need 16 gigs. I'm being financially responsible. Shouldn't that be applauded? Why does everyone on Mac rumors think they're the only person In the world?
 
adammull said:
People still have local music? Um ok.

I actually think you have that backwards. The only people I know who have local music are 50+. Everyone else I know has Pandora, Spotfiy Premium, Rdio, or Beats. I'm 34 btw. Why would I carry music around? If I need music for a flight I download and go.

Why would I watch ANY content besides Youtube videos on my tiny phone screen? I have an iPad right with me at all times unless I'm out and about. And if I'm out I wouldn't be watching content anyway. I'd be living my life.

I have plenty of apps and I use my phone exhaustively. I usually wear my phone flat out and usually upgrade annually.

I take quite a bit of pictures and video of kids or vacations or whatever and I edit all that and make movies on the iPad. I have a 32 gig iPad. When that gets full which doesn't happen really I offload to the iMac for permanent storage.

I guess I could carry thousands of pictures around on my phone but why? How many people making your argument already have an iPad AND computer? It's utterly redundant.

But again that's just me and I'm comfortable with my decision. I don't understand why you storage gurus are not. If it's ok for you to be you why is it not ok for me to be me? Everything is in the cloud now. We're not going towards more storage. We're going towards fancy terminals with permanent access to the cloud.

Just be you. It's ok. But I don't need more than 16 gigs. So I appreciate the option to buy that size. I can afford any iPhone I want but only need 16 gigs. I'm being financially responsible. Shouldn't that be applauded? Why does everyone on Mac rumors think they're the only person In the world?
Click to expand...

^ This
 
adammull said:
People still have local music? Um ok.

I actually think you have that backwards. The only people I know who have local music are 50+. Everyone else I know has Pandora, Spotfiy Premium, Rdio, or Beats. I'm 34 btw. Why would I carry music around? If I need music for a flight I download and go.

Why would I watch ANY content besides Youtube videos on my tiny phone screen? I have an iPad right with me at all times unless I'm out and about. And if I'm out I wouldn't be watching content anyway. I'd be living my life.

I have plenty of apps and I use my phone exhaustively. I usually wear my phone flat out and usually upgrade annually.

I take quite a bit of pictures and video of kids or vacations or whatever and I edit all that and make movies on the iPad. I have a 32 gig iPad. When that gets full which doesn't happen really I offload to the iMac for permanent storage.

I guess I could carry thousands of pictures around on my phone but why? How many people making your argument already have an iPad AND computer? It's utterly redundant.

But again that's just me and I'm comfortable with my decision. I don't understand why you storage gurus are not. If it's ok for you to be you why is it not ok for me to be me? Everything is in the cloud now. We're not going towards more storage. We're going towards fancy terminals with permanent access to the cloud.

Just be you. It's ok. But I don't need more than 16 gigs. So I appreciate the option to buy that size. I can afford any iPhone I want but only need 16 gigs. I'm being financially responsible. Shouldn't that be applauded? Why does everyone on Mac rumors think they're the only person In the world?
Click to expand...



First and foremost you nor grazzen had addressed the internet issue that was brought up in the argument.

What are you going to do if you have spotty internet? i travel quite a bit for business and internet is spotty, and no im not going to sit there and download music one by one in those few times i do have wi-fi access at the airport. and its just a bother to do. Also if im on road trip with friends internet access is also spotty.

and 50+ year olds store music locally? i beg to differ, its quite the opposite. What kind of 50+ year old knows what music blogs to go to, or to find the newest mixtapes of said independent artists on the web?

most older people i know use itunes, beats type app, pandora, etc etc. its much more simpler to use. Rather then looking and searching for said mixtape or song and finding it in CDQ, then storing it in a file in your computer, than uploading to itunes and syncing to your device.

yeah, i doubt most 50+ year olds do all that, they rather just use pandora or stream music from one of those apps, and theres basically no need for them to store music locally, because i highly doubt they would per say need to DL chuuwee's newest mixtape because it isn't going to found on itunes or some old 90s rare rap tracks.

Also you do know i was generally talking about the 16GB storage space, so not specifically iPhones. But i do know people that watch videos on their phones or ipads that are stored locally in either their ipad or on a seagate satellite type hard drive.

again, traveling or at a place without internet access, and when you do are you really gonna sit there and download a 2-5 GB HD movie? wasting precious battery when your traveling and have a 13-16 hour flight? and if you dont have wi-fi access you wouldnt even be able to download a movie.



i noticed you stated that you decide not to have thousands of photos or videos, well YOU CANT, you have 12GB of storage space (counting the amount of space iOS takes up)


i dont take pictures much, or at all and im already at 1.8 GB, if you have 16 GB you odnt have 16 GB the OS takes at least 4 GB so you really have 12GB round if off with a couple photos and videos, than its 10 GB

you have one high end game 3 GB, you have 7 GB, social mediapps, utility apps, shopping apps, service apps, plus ONE small end game thats already another 1-4 GB (documents and data, unless your gonna specifically manage that storage too and waste time) oh yeah not to mention ALL the data that your native iOS apps take. (roughly around 1 GB)

so you have roughly 4-5 (possibly even 3 or 2) GB now, with NO music. with 5GB you cant even update your phone without deleting certain stuff and redownloading them again.


and as people mentioned, the data it takes getting it from cloud and the time consumption, and the yearly subscription. seriously seems like a lot of trouble, when you can just buy more storage and sync all your stuff in one go.



lol, getting more storage only pertains to me? you guys that use the 16GB is the minority, and most that do get 16GB end up wanting more especially since the OS updates need 6-7 GB free to update.

its quite the opposite, everyone needs more storage space, but you 16GB lovers are saying that




you have plenty of apps? then id imagine your managing your storage daily,



lol, why do you need 512 of GB or 1-3 TB on a computer? your argument is redundant, 16GB models arent going to last long at all.


8GB iPhones lol which means you only have actually 4-5 GB of storage space. good luck with that.
 
I've always got by with 16GB in the past for both the iPhone and iPad.

I have a dozen or so apps, few games, about a ~hundred photos and only add TV shows and movies that I will watch on the day usually when commuting to work.

I have a 6 16GB and its still got 6GB free however I opted for a 6+ to replace my iPad mini and went for 64GB mainly for larger TV shows, so 1-2GB rather than ~300MB files. The difference is £80 and I very much doubt I'll get much back from future resale, folk opt for 16GB you don't really get much more for larger storage options.

Its a tough one as some would have you believe 16GB is miniscule but it may just work for you. Weight up the options, when I'm at home I stream music and tv shows+movies via Plex so never needed a lot of storage personally however a few shows in HD fills adds up very quickly.
 
Macshroomer said:
I'm a professional landscape and advertising photographer using mostly film so, I have:

Gigs of topographical maps, mapping apps, pro weather apps, travel, climate and ephemeris apps and some photos used for marketing and scouting purposes. 64 GB is decent, 128GB would be much better.
Click to expand...

Someone else here who has OS maps on their phone for walking. Was constantly having to switch out the maps I needed, as well as any videos. Also Evernote doesn't seem to be good at clearing it's cache out so that creeps up too - I have offline notebooks full of things when we're on holiday in France for example such as passport numbers, booking slips, etc etc. Wifi on French campsites is either nonexistent or extortionate!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back