I know it’s probably a long shot, but is anyone here good with iPhones? My phone (12 Pro Max) seems to have a glitch where it artificially increases my storage every time I move some kind of data from it. It also happens when I try to make a backup or enable stuff like iCloud Photos. I’ve looked up and down the internet and while I find people with similar ‘phantom storage’ problems it’s nothing like what I have where it’s this consistent problem with the same thing.
Is anyone else familiar with this and might be causing it?

give it back Jamal

Yeah, I am

is it the 256gb one?

>>33317672 (OP)
iPhones have this thing where they delete pictures if they are already backed up if you have it set that way
they also uninstall apps you haven't used in a while
it's not phantom storage it's just stimating space it thinks it can generally give you if you wanna record something heavy or something
t. been using iPhones for 10 years, they've only started doing that some updates ago.

>>33317684
Not him.
>>33317720
Excellent.
>>33317879
Actually yeah. How’d you know?
>>33317912
That’s the thing though. I’ve never made a backup of this phone far. Long story short I got locked out of my Apple ID for a long while and didn’t feel like making a new one but I’ve recently recovered it, which is how I found out about this. When I try to back it up, the storage will slowly increase as if I’m moving things *to* my iPhone, and I’m always forced to stop it short because the damn thing will keep going until I get the ‘storage full’ notification and I have to stop the thing before it bricks itself (I have like 16 free gigs as I’m typing this). Same thing when I try to enable iCloud Photos or when I’m moving photos off it to make space. I’m trying to move everything to my new phone. I’ve also tried the manual transfer but the same issue occurs. Just resetting the phone is usually enough to return it to its *actual* storage space but not always. I have a few hunches on how to fix it but I’d rather not risk it unnecessarily and get some other insights.

>>33318037
>>how’d you know
My 256gb 13 had the same issue
What have you tried so far? For me
It eventually went away but literally like a quarter of the storage would be taken up by the so called “data” shit, is that what’s happening to you?

there is no being "good" at iPhones

either you open your hole every time apple wants to fuck you or it gets ruined. that's all there is

>>33318250
Nah that’s not my issue, but I’m guessing they’re related somehow, I do see silly like that show up from time to time when I go to check in the storage, including with the system data, but I assume it was just a minor hiccup because it’s back now to 12~GB or something along those lines after I force reset it, which usually clears it up and returns it to its actual storage space, but not always. One time I was just wholesale stuck at full storage after an attempted transfer and it wouldn’t return to the actual storage I had before no matter what until I deleted some stuff. So far I’ve only really tried moving and deleting photos and videos off my phone (also deleted most of my apps) to accommodate for the inevitable space increase when I start any of those processes, but from the looks of it I’ll need to delete at least 30-50 GB more at the speed it was going and I’d really prefer not to do that. The other thing I found was that after deleting the failed back up that I cancelled, for some reason it actually gave me more space than what I had before but only by like a gigabyte, I don’t understand how but obviously that’s not enough anyway, it’s just pretty curious. The next option I had in mind is to try updating it, I’ve been avoiding iOS updates because they always come with some janky annoying shit everytime I do them, my last one was two years ago and I also generally hate the UI updates they did to it but right now it seems the most painless method, I have a little more than enough space to do it to complete the installation (it’s asking for 11GB to install but the update itself only takes up like 5GB), so my hope is that this is a bug that it will fix, my fear is that it changes nothing and I lose 5GB worth of space anyway plus now have a possibly even buggier phone.

To be clear, my main goal is to actually be able to make up a backup so I can move all my stuff onto my new phone.
>>33318297
Sad but true :(

>>33317672 (OP)
This is quite common. The storage bug is caused by apps failing to clear their cache, often because they don’t have enough space to do it but occasionally due to poor engineering. If it’s happening every time you interact with data what I would suggest you do is back up your device locally using iTunes, then export all your important documents (the Files app can be helpful here), then do a factory reset and move the documents over one by one.

The iPhone is notoriously unreliable for this kind of file management. It’s been one of the biggest declines in product quality since Tim Apple became CEO.

You can also try asking >>>/g/, but be prepared for snarky responses.

>>33318037
>>33318421
You could have a corrupted file causing this. If you’re restoring from a backup every time you will end up restoring the file. Try moving things manually with the files app. If everything is already on iCloud you can just move it to a new phone through there.

>>33320152
>You can also try asking >>>/g/
Not him but I thought they don’t help with this stuff and just boot you over to /wsr/ now?

>>33320152
>The storage bug is caused by apps failing to clear their cache
Would this still apply if I already deleted most of my apps? The only ones I have left at this point are the basic stuff, notes, safari, and messenger are the ones I use the most, does the cache not display in the stated storage that they take up?
>device locally using iTunes
I thought about this too, only problem is my only (working) PC is pathetically low on storage itself, and from what I understand any backup you make on a PC is going to roughly take up the same amount of space that the iPhone has. I’m not really sure, but I get the feeling it would trigger the same issue that it does when I move videos and photos off of it too, so I might just have to end up cancelling it anyway, but I’d be willing to try it too, would probably have to go to a cafe or something though .
>The iPhone is notoriously unreliable for this kind of file management. It’s been one of the biggest declines in product quality since Tim Apple became CEO.
I’ve had similar issues with pretty much every iPhone I’ve owned before, nothing like this though, so that sounds reasonable.
>You can also try asking >>>/g/, but be prepared for snarky responses.
I was actually going to, but the stickies post says tech support questions go to /wsr/ which is really slow so that’s why I came here.
>files app
This is actually near completely empty for me too, I’m looking inside and it’s just a couple images I think I downloaded by mistake, or do you mean there could be some unseen file taking up space/being buggy?
The backup right now just doesn’t go through for me at all so I’m not sure I could do the files thing, and since I don’t have an existing one the factory reset isn’t really an option for me.

>>33317672 (OP)
You're probably just holding it wrong. I wouldn't worry about it.

>>33321686
:(

>>33317672 (OP)
That’s the really sucky thing about iPhones, they’re prone to all kinds of personalized software glitches that people can’t really help you identify or solve unless you give them like a novels worth of context and retrace your every step

>>33317672 (OP)
Not to sound like a shill, but asking Apple Support might be your best bet at this point, it sounds like something that is entirely unique to your phone

Any status update OP?

Apple is for technology hypochondriacs, geriatrics, women and sex predators

I’m the latter btw

Gayest fucking phones on the market, but they’re cheap

>>33327478
Nah I haven’t tried anything yet been busy with irl shit I’ll come back with an update if and when I get around to it in case anyone is curious

>>33327705
What’s wrong with chondriacs