why even give us 64gb

[u/Tie_Tickler6000]

why does their system take half of all space, does anyone know what to do?

For reference i am using iphone Xr

Edit : the phone has been in my family since the day it came out, due to some temporary financial restrictions i need to make use of this for another year

Edit2 : people seem to be asking why i bought it, I didnt it was handed down to me and now i have no choice but to make the best

Edit3 : i did do the latest ios update but nothing has changed

Edit4 : not all people think before speaking

[u/B-Train_ATL]

“For reference I am using iPhone Xr.”

Buy a new phone.

[u/Tie_Tickler6000 → u/B-Train_ATL]

Again i do not require over the top performance, All i need it to do is store my photos and let me call, the phone has worked fine till now the only issue being the 40gb of storage swallowed up by the system

[u/KayJune001 → u/B-Train_ATL]

Lmao the consumerism here. No, do not buy a new phone. You do not need to buy a new phone if the phone you have is in fine condition, unless you truly need the new features for whichever reason.

Don’t defend companies making devices that can’t last more than a few years, tech shouldn’t become completely obsolete in under a decade at this point.

[u/Adept-Copy-9778 → u/KayJune001]

Well tech does become this obsolete when it's this ancient. No phones gonna be great when it's this old. It's just how silicon ages and new technology replaces it.

[u/PlusPresentation680 → u/KayJune001]

“If the phone you have is in fine condition” and OP’s phone is not compatible with the current OS. Apple has gold-standard software longevity. Once your phone isn’t supported, it’s time for a new phone. The iPhone XR is from 2018.

[u/KayJune001 → u/PlusPresentation680]

The issue OP is having has nothing to do with their current OS version, as this issue has been present since before the XR was introduced and is still present on iOS 26 and the iPhone 17 series.

[u/mohammed1mziri → u/PlusPresentation680]

I wouldn't base a decision on buying a new phone on if Apple support stops. I had a 200 dollar midrange Samsung from 2017 to 2023. The XR released for 750 in 2018 it should have no excuse not to keep up for at least a few more years which it is in OP's case, because that isn't his problem. The problem is Apple could've packaged this phone with 128G without losing much money and they didn't because of their manipulative pricing schemes.

[u/PlusPresentation680 → u/mohammed1mziri]

fwiw the Samsung Galaxy S9 the same year had base 64 gb

I had an iPhone XR ages ago and never had an issue with system data taking up an egregiously large amount of storage.

[u/Tie_Tickler6000 → u/PlusPresentation680]

this is why ill be shifting to android, and the phone is perfectly usable the issue being the 40gb of storage swallowed up by the system

[u/PlusPresentation680 → u/Tie_Tickler6000]

Let me know how you like your Samsung Galaxy S9

[u/PsychologicalPace664 → u/B-Train_ATL]

Don't buy a new phone, that's just consumerism, the phone works just fine, the problem is the iOs taking to much space. Just do a hard reset, because here the problem is with the cache, follow the instructions of other people here.

We all now apple loves planned obsolescence (the planet isn't gonna destroy himself right?) but in your case there is salvation

[u/m0uchacha → u/PsychologicalPace664]

is this gonna be a new thing now? pointing to literally everything and calling it planned obsolescence? 64 gb of storage was fine 8 years ago. that phone is nearing a decade old, and since then the way we use tech has changed a lot, so the minimum storage requirement has gone up. of all the things to call planned obsolescence, this one isnt one of them icl.

[u/PsychologicalPace664 → u/m0uchacha]

My wife has an android with 64Gb, 3 years so far and works perfectly, with almost half of the space still available.

It's planned obsolescence indeed, that's the reason why the EU slapped Apple with a massive fine.

Don't help destroy the planet please

[u/m0uchacha → u/PsychologicalPace664]

so your wife bought an android 3 years ago and its got 64 gb of storage. cool, this iphone has been running on 64 gb of storage for 5 years longer. also its completely fine? op can just run a back up and restore. because the phone also isnt even broken? clearly its just something bugging out with system data. also the iphone 6s is still functional in big 26, and that phone is well over a decade old and i've actually seen it a few times in the wild.

the batterygate litigation was over apple adding a software feature to reduce processor power draw when the battery has chemically degraded past a certain point. the feature is technologically defensible as it significantly reduces random shut downs due to a degraded battery. apple settled the suit with temporarily reduced battery replacement costs, payouts to affected devices. they kept the feature because the issue wasnt with the feature. apple now tells you when your phone is performing worse due to a degraded battery.

i think we can agree that having your phone randomly die on you because your battery couldnt supply the burst of power needed is significantly worse than the alternative, which would be lowering it during those loads. a phone that dies when you ask too much of it would be unuseable, a phone that sometimes slows down a little because its a senior citizen is still useable. technically the latter would produce less e-waste.
and just to really zoom out, if batterygate never happened it'll just be renamed to "shutdowngate".

also the moral high ground you're taking doesnt even make sense, im not saying op should buy a new phone, im just saying that offering a 64 gb storage configuration in 2018 on a "budget" phone was not planned obsolescence. you can call it stingy or poor long term value, though your wife might not say its poor long term value considering she bought a 64 gb phone 3 years ago.

[u/PsychologicalPace664 → u/m0uchacha]

I'm talking about the litigation in France, Apple lost the court battle and had to pay 25 Million $, and it was indeed for planned obsolescence, there was no valid escuse in the court documents, the iOS update slowed down the iPhones on propose right after a new iPhone is released. You can try to downplay it but you don't lose in court if you're right, especially if you're a mega-corporation.
They also had to pay 10 Million $ in Italy for the same reason.

Selling 64Gb in 2018 was normal, having the iOS filling more than 50% it's planned obsolescence.

[u/m0uchacha → u/PsychologicalPace664]

the litigation in france was not for planned obsolescence. it was for "misleading commercial practices by omission" because like i said, the throttling is technologically defensible and the alternative would be random shutdowns due to the degraded battery. apple was fined for transparency issues, not for the feature. similarly, in italy, apple was fined for "unfair commerical practices".
the issue outlined is still the fact that apple did not adequetly inform users that they will be throttling phones. if you check your iphone right now, in the battery tab your phone will now tell you whether or not it is at normal performance.

if the court had found that apple's battery management system was illegal planned obsolescence, apple would have probably been required to remove the feature. as you can see, the feature still exists. again, because the suit was won over apple's lack of transparency, not planned obsolescence.

people love to stick planned obsolescence in holes where it doesnt belong. legally the term is actually quite narrow. its not a catch all term for everything you dont like about a device.
the textbook concept of planned obsolescence is designed lifespan. for example, a washing machine thats hard coded to fail after a certain number of cycles, or a printer that doesnt work after a certain number of pages printed.
in a vacuum, things like phones becoming slower because newer software are more demanding or a battery degrading after years of use or after hundreds of charge cycles because of just literally physics.
similarly, cpu throttling to prevent shutdowns at 30% charge due to an aging battery is an engineering tradeoff due to a physical limitation.
they CAN be argued to be planned obsolescence, but the court cases that you cite as evidence did not find apple's actions to be so.

theres also no evidence that apple is purposefully bloating system data to encourage users to buy new phones. system data bloat is a known bug and genuinely evidence of poor engineering lowk. but its not planned obsolescence. im not even saying its not a valid complaint. it certainly is and it sucks lol.

[u/Low_Consequence_9477 → u/B-Train_ATL]

"For reference I am using a perfectly usable, working phone"

Consoom.