iPad Storage – Understanding System Data Storage on iPadOS
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I've checked my iPad storage and I see the System Data storage is taking up too much space. I know it contains any needed system data and caches. How do I delete these caches in system data storage?
iPad Air 2
iPadOS 15.1
Best Answer
System storage contains core system files that are necessary for your iPhone to function and also some temporary cache files. There isn't any easy way to delete these cache files. You can try deleting your Safari history & website data and restarting your phone to clean some of the cache files. Occasionally (I do it once a year), I make a backup of iPhone data and reset it. This might take some time to do but certainly deletes a lot of the cache files and make your phone storage as it would be out of box.
Yes, to view the current storage being used, you can navigate to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage. From here, you can see which apps are taking up a lot of space, how much space your photos / music are taking up, etc.
Once you know what's taking up all your space, you can delete things as needed.
Also, note that in older versions of iOS (depending on which you are currently on), space taken up by Messages was not shown here.
I had essentially this situation 3 weeks ago, although my capacity was "consumed" by Other.
iPhone 5S 32GB
iOS 9.3.2 (later updated to 9.3.3)
synced with iTunes 12.4.1.6
on Mac mini OS X 10.11.5
The iPhone Settings > General > About > Available showed 0.25GB.
When syncing with iTunes, it showed unstable capacity numbers on each sync -- occasionally over-capacity with Other consuming 4.6GB, but settled down to 5.5GB available. The 5GB discrepancy was concerning.
I tried:
rebooting => nothing
hard reset (Lock + Home, past Apple logo, to plug-in-to-iTunes image) & update (re-install iOS) => freed 60MB
iOS update to 9.3.3 => nothing
The final option was what prior searching had said all along -- Restore to Factory Defaults.
I just followed Apple's procedure and it freed 9.5GB!
(Not sure where it came from, but I'm glad to have it back... and disappointed that it was missing in the first place...)
Make sure your backup is current and you know the password, if encrypted.
Disable Find My iPhone.
Restore to factory (10-15min).
Went through the basic setup tweaks (it defaults to 6 digit passcode, now).
Restore backup (I enabled encrypted backups long ago and it took 4 tries to get the right password... oops!) (15min).
Authorize (iCloud?) from another device (my iPad).
Restore iCloud (It asked for iCloud security code or another authorized device. I used the security code, which generated an iCloud Keychain verification code that was sent to the iPhone, which was in the middle of setting it up, so it showed momentarily and moved on. Fortunately, it was mirrored to the Mac mini. Then I never had to enter it... perhaps a race condition with the previous step?)
Strangely, a few apps appeared to be installed, but a big sync with iTunes put everything where I expected it to be.
Finally, iTunes said 10.1GB free & iPhone said 9.9GB free. Not too bad. So, yay?
Best Answer
System storage contains core system files that are necessary for your iPhone to function and also some temporary cache files. There isn't any easy way to delete these cache files. You can try deleting your Safari history & website data and restarting your phone to clean some of the cache files. Occasionally (I do it once a year), I make a backup of iPhone data and reset it. This might take some time to do but certainly deletes a lot of the cache files and make your phone storage as it would be out of box.