Memory management (not RAM!!)

[alibulloch]

After literally weeks of searching I've resorted to posting here to find a solution to what I think is the most ridiculously simple problem that I'm surprised no one has ever experienced it before - I'm out of space on my iPad but I have absolutely no idea of working out where I am using my storage memory.

You can read hundreds of threads talking about clearing up RAM and there are multiple apps that clear it for you, however I have not been able to find any useful app to show me how i am using my storage space.

before everyone points out that iTunes shows you how you are using your storage i would like to point out that it doesn't. i tells me that i have 13gb of apps (god knows how) and it shows me how big *some* of them are, however these apps total about 2.5gb. some apps just do not appear here and i can only assume that the remaining apps make up the remaining 10.5gbs.

Is it just me or is an app that shows you how much storage space each of your apps is taking up the one of the most basic functions iTunes should perform? and if it doesn't how difficult can it be to write one? Windows has been able to tell you how much storage space files are taking up for about 15 years!

ok - rant over, any help with understanding where all my space is gone is much appreaciated - many thanks!

 

[twerppoet]

There is a trick you can do in iTunes to get a better idea of what an app is taking up.

Just looking at the app size in iTunes (or on the store) can be misleading, because it does not include the files space the app takes up. For instance, the movies in an app like OPlayer will also show up as app space in iTunes. Only those movies, music, etc that you can see and sync in iTunes will show up in their respective categories.

What you can do is go to the Apps page, and check/uncheck different apps. Watch the Capacity bar, and it will change (takes a couple seconds). Since you can't see changes less than 100MB, this is a very rough indication, but it works. Just be very careful not to hit Sync or Apply while doing this, or the app will be removed. Tapping Revert after each experiment is probably safest.

Yes, I know this does nothing to answer the basis of your rant, but it's better than nothing. At least you can check on the apps most likely to be problem children.

As for the apps that do not appear in iTunes, right click on your iPad under the Devices list and choose Transfer Purchases. This will copy them to iTunes, where you can proceed to mess with them.

 

[alibulloch]

As for the apps that do not appear in iTunes, right click on your iPad under the Devices list and choose Transfer Purchases. This will copy them to iTunes, where you can proceed to mess with them.

That's brilliant - thanks very much - just activated automatic downloads and the progress bar is now showing that it is transferring all the apps i could not see before. I think the problem is going to be in the games I have installed (i thought is was spotify/magazines) as some of them are massive (c.f. Rage HD....)

thanks again.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. Glad to help.