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How much storage is required for iOS 18?

My phone has a total of 64 GB of storage.


I’ve offloaded nearly all my apps and also deleted a couple. My phone originally said the upgrade was 7.08 GB, and so did the 17.7 update, so I figured just skip the 17.7 and do the iOS 18, so I freed up the necessary space for 7.08 GB. It then said I had enough space for the 17.7, but not the 18. I decided to just do the 17.7 and then see if I could try to get iOS 18 after the update, and when my phone finished updating to 17.7, I checked the “upgrade to iOS 18” and the storage it said it needed CHANGED TO 14.71 GB. UM WHY????


Also, the update for 17.7 on my mother’s (iPhone 14 with 128 GB) and sister’s (iPhone 12 with 64 GB, same as mine) phones said the update was about 716 MB while the iOS 18 was about 4 GB.


My main question is why do both of those updates on my phone require more storage than theirs if it is the SAME UPDATE ROLLED OUT TO EVERYONE?? Even if it has something to do with all the stuff I have on my phone, it is all offloaded now, so …??? And, even regardless of THAT too, I don’t understand why it says iOS 18 is literally nearly 15 GB like what….????


My storage is now 53.87 GB and I literally have no idea what else to offload/delete.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 12, iOS 17

Posted on Sep 16, 2024 5:13 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 10:19 PM

I’m under the same predicament!!! I’ve tried skipping 17.7 and installing 18 but it kept refusing, saying I need 6GB. Of which I had plenty of storage. Cleared almost all my apps, had more than 10GB available but it still refused.


I just installed 17.7 now, thinking once I’m done with it, it would let me install the 18.


The shock I just got when I saw the 6GB that was initially required for installing 18 has changed to 14GB?!!


Like?! I have nothing else to delete.


At this point, Apple is just forcing us to buy new phones. Making things difficult for us because they now have a new phone on the market.


This is so frustrating coz my phone is all of a sudden glitching and malfunctioning out of the blue!

37 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 18, 2024 10:19 PM in response to why_must_this_happen

I’m under the same predicament!!! I’ve tried skipping 17.7 and installing 18 but it kept refusing, saying I need 6GB. Of which I had plenty of storage. Cleared almost all my apps, had more than 10GB available but it still refused.


I just installed 17.7 now, thinking once I’m done with it, it would let me install the 18.


The shock I just got when I saw the 6GB that was initially required for installing 18 has changed to 14GB?!!


Like?! I have nothing else to delete.


At this point, Apple is just forcing us to buy new phones. Making things difficult for us because they now have a new phone on the market.


This is so frustrating coz my phone is all of a sudden glitching and malfunctioning out of the blue!

Sep 22, 2024 10:02 PM in response to why_must_this_happen

Same exact issue for me! I’ve deleted everything in the “Review downloaded videos and audios,” offloaded apps, deleted apps and Spotify downloads….everything possible. It now says I’m at 51.09GB/64GB, which is apparently not enough, as others in this thread have said. If this update will be necessary/ideal for iPhone functioning, it should not require an unrealistic amount of storage. Please help @Apple.

Sep 20, 2024 4:26 AM in response to why_must_this_happen

Check your system data in your iPhone storage to see how much space it's taking up. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple way to reduce it with just a few clicks. However, you can try some methods that might help free up space. Follow steps from this tutorial , and see how much system data you can clear. Once you've done that, try installing iOS 18


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Sep 17, 2024 5:44 PM in response to why_must_this_happen

[Scroll to the end of this comment for most recent update/TLDR]


UPDATE: I am currently using a computer to update as was suggested. I downloaded iTunes on the computer and got everything set. It now says the software update is 8.01 GB—still double the size of my mother, sister’s, AND now my father’s file sizes (after I asked him later last night how big it said the size of the download was on his phone), but at least it doesn’t say almost 15 GB anymore…


Anyways, I was originally at “45 minutes remaining” a few minutes ago but it decreased down to “3 minutes remaining” just a minute ago. As I’m finishing typing this sentence, it has about 10 seconds left.


Okay, now it’s done downloading. I’m going to see what will happen next.




…Okay it’s about 1.5-2 hours later now. The update that I said had finished downloading actually never installed? So I had to redo all that again, which the backup took I think as long as the update… (it automatically started a backup every time I plugged my phone back (I have a touchy lightning cable) into the computer, so..).


TLDR/most recent update:

Long story short, I did finally get the iOS 18 update/“upgrade”, but I had to plug my phone into a computer, download iTunes on the computer, and wait over an hour for my phone to update.



Also, funny thing is the computer I was using was my mother’s and I had forgotten that it wasn’t able to turn on after a recent power outage so I had to fix THAT first lol…. Busy day…

why_must_this_happen wrote:

My phone has a total of 64 GB of storage.

I’ve offloaded nearly all my apps and also deleted a couple. My phone originally said the upgrade was 7.08 GB, and so did the 17.7 update, so I figured just skip the 17.7 and do the iOS 18, so I freed up the necessary space for 7.08 GB. It then said I had enough space for the 17.7, but not the 18. I decided to just do the 17.7 and then see if I could try to get iOS 18 after the update, and when my phone finished updating to 17.7, I checked the “upgrade to iOS 18” and the storage it said it needed CHANGED TO 14.71 GB. UM WHY????

Also, the update for 17.7 on my mother’s (iPhone 14 with 128 GB) and sister’s (iPhone 12 with 64 GB, same as mine) phones said the update was about 716 MB while the iOS 18 was about 4 GB.

My main question is why do both of those updates on my phone require more storage than theirs if it is the SAME UPDATE ROLLED OUT TO EVERYONE?? Even if it has something to do with all the stuff I have on my phone, it is all offloaded now, so …??? And, even regardless of THAT too, I don’t understand why it says iOS 18 is literally nearly 15 GB like what….????

My storage is now 53.87 GB and I literally have no idea what else to offload/delete.


Sep 18, 2024 4:08 PM in response to why_must_this_happen

I have iphone se 2022 and mine came in at 10.53GB I dont know why either. I barely have anything on my phone either. Perhaps this is why the ios 18 destroyed my icloud storage. It did give me back a ton of iphone storage but it destroyed the icloud storage. After further research I believe there is a database corruption in the icloud backup storage which is causing the backup storage to increase instead of get smaller. When u delete old backups and backup again the backup should decrease not increase. This problem started in ios 18

Oct 9, 2024 5:36 PM in response to leeMsk

Update:


I’ve finally managed to download iOS18 on iPhone XS.


This required me to delete every single app I could, in order to acquire the 14GB space that was required of my device.


After installing iOS18, ally the glitching and malfunctioning issues I had with my phone, vanished.


My device immediately started functioning like a brand new phone.


So if you’re encountering issues with your phone on iOS less than 18, try all you can to install 18, you’ll thank yourself.



How much storage is required for iOS 18?

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