How to change media sync options on iPhone & iPad to make more storage available

If you’re making an attempt to make use of a Mac to update iOS on iPhone or iPadOS on iPad, you might even see an error message that claims one thing alongside the traces of “Updating to iOS 17.1 requires at least 975.2 MB of free space on your iPad. Please change your media sync options to make more storage available.” and be unable to update an iPhone or iPad to the most recent model of iOS or iPadOS system software program. This error is most probably to be seen when the iPhone or iPad is low on out there cupboard space, however it might probably occur when an affordable quantity of storage is obtainable as properly.

Managing storage is a type of relentlessly tiring issues about having an iPhone or iPad that isn’t the biggest doable storage capability, as a result of even with iCloud Photos enabled, offloading unused apps enabled, and different house saving options, typically occasions a customers device can bloat themselves into having no out there cupboard space. Often the storage scenario will get so tight and bloated by system recordsdata that the person has no management over, however will be present in System Settings when taking a look at Storage data. In some instances, it’s possible you’ll discover 20GB+ of “iOS / iPadOS” and “System Data” (which appears to be the brand new title for “Other”) which you can’t do something about, there’s no strategy to clear any caches and logs which are probably contributing to the bloat, and a tool will be so overburdened which you can’t even set up software program updates for iOS or iPadOS, leaving you to be caught with older system software program that’s weak to identified bugs and safety dangers. That is, until you utilize a Mac or Windows PC to update an iPhone or iPad, as a result of you’ll be able to update with a pc and IPSW even on an iPhone or iPad that’s practically fully full on storage, as a result of it bypasses the on-device obtain requirement of updating iOS/iPadOS by way of Over-the-Air in Settings.

Amusingly, when the iPhone or iPad is full and also you attempt to set up an update, Apple’s Settings app will typically inform you to attach your device to a pc, and update by way of there, however if you try this, your Mac (or PC) can throw one other storage associated error that claims one thing like this; “Updating to iOS 17.3 requires at least 975.2 MB of free space on your iPad. Please change your media sync options to make more storage available.”

So, what are you presupposed to do? How do you “change your media sync options to make more storage available” and is that the answer that Apple suggests it’s? The reply is, no, it’s often not.

How to Change Media Sync Options for iPhone/iPad in MacOS

Be conscious this often doesn’t resolve your storage problem, however right here’s the way you do it:

1. Select the iPhone or iPad within the Finder sidebar
2. Go to the General tab
3. Toggle the setting for “Manually manage music, movies, and TV shows”

If you toggled it on, now you can manually handle your media content material in your device, permitting you to unencumber house by deleting that sort of media content material.

If you toggled it off, the overall syncing course of will apply to managing music, motion pictures, and content material.

Either scenario could unencumber some storage for some use instances.

You can then strive once more, and it’s doable that macOS will be capable of update the iOS or iPadOS device you initially tried to.

And to rant for a fast second, with how storage hungry iOS/iPadOS/MacOS and the app ecosystem will be in some conditions, it might be good to have some storage and cache administration instantly in iOS, iPadOS, and even macOS, so we might do issues like power apps to empty their cache and short-term recordsdata. This would assist to forestall these third celebration apps that take up big quantities of house unnecessarily as a result of whopper app cache sizes and app conduct. Another choice is to easily purchase an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, with more storage, however not everybody does that. Even higher, Apple might merely improve the minimal base mannequin storage on all their units, and cease promoting any iPhone or iPad which are lower than 128GB, and cease promoting Macs which are beneath 512GB. But, that’s probably a couple of years out.