Where, oh where, has my iOS space gone?

November 12, 2012 8:14 AM

I have an iPad 3 and I do not have Photo Stream turned on yet the Settings->Usage->Photos & Camera reports that Photo Stream is using 5.1GB? How is this possible and how do I recover the space?
posted by mcarthey to computers & internet (5 answers total)

If you are comfortable deleting whatever cache that might be, you can return to that Photo Stream line item and swipe to delete (swipe to the right over the Photo Stream entry). That should give you back that space. I have no clue what that could be (did you used to use Photo Stream?), so buyer beware and all that.
posted by jroybal at 8:34 AM on November 12, 2012

Yes, I used to use Photo Stream but have since disabled it. I wonder if it is cached on the device? I thought the purpose of Photo Stream was that it saved to the "cloud" and, therefore, didn't take up space on the device? I have backed up all photos but would like to see what is there before indiscriminately deleting the data. I downloaded the iCloud Control Panel but it doesn't not provide a mechanism for viewing the Photo Stream.
posted by mcarthey at 8:43 AM on November 12, 2012

Photo Stream photos are downloaded and cached to the device such that the user can access them offline.
posted by jroybal at 9:22 AM on November 12, 2012

iOS 6 and the latest version of iPhoto include features to delete a photo from the Photo Stream but this is not currently support in Windows. However, it is more for use to remove maybe a sensitive photo from your Photo Stream to (hopefully) prevent it from being downloaded to your other iOS devices. This feature isn't really for "clearing" your Photo Stream in order to save space.

As others have pointed out, it is probably just the cache on your device that needs to be cleared if you want to recover the space (although I would have thought that the photo stream cache would have been cleared when you disabled the feature).
posted by nickerbocker at 10:24 AM on November 12, 2012

I have attempted to 'drag' across the Photostream listing in usage to delete it. Despite the delete button becoming available it does not seem to make a difference. The line item still exists and reports 5.1GB used.
posted by mcarthey at 1:44 PM on November 12, 2012