4 ms·

I bet a big part of it is that you need ~5GB of free space which is really difficult on 8 or 16GB devices. iOS 7 only needed 1 or 2, if my memory is accurate.

Hansi 12y ago
If it's done via iTunes the space requirement isn't an issue (or at least less of one). I was able to upgrade with less than 1GB free in iTunes. But yes the lack of many people being unable to use OTA upgrades does put a hamper on things.
albedoa 12y ago
Yup. I'm a "technical user" and it still took effort and a few decisions to free up 5.7GB, which included deleting a few things I otherwise would have kept. I imagine many people can't be bothered.
mpg33 12y ago
Wow that is a huge difference. I don't think we will see the 16GB option offered in future iPhone models.
acomjean 12y ago
Thats what holding me back from upgrading and I have 32gb 4s. Plus it just doesn't seem that compelling and upgrade. Makes one wonder the 16-64-128 gb storage strategy.
- calvin_c 12y ago
  You don't need the on board space if you upgrade through iTunes. It's a drag, considering OTA updates have been a big push since iOS 5, but it avoids the issue of trying to clear out 5 GB of space.
  - buro9 12y ago
    And those of us on Linux who have no Mac or Windows PC? I haven't upgraded my iPod and iPad precisely because of the space issue. Looks like I won't be upgrading.
    - jedberg 12y ago
      If you go into an Apple store they'll let you use their computers to do it.
      - buro9 12y ago
        I'm in London so this seems the easiest thing to do when I get the chance. The VM route feels a lot like yak-shaving.
    - jeffreyparker 12y ago
      You could use VirtualBox and the free Windows VM images from http://www.modern.ie http://www.modern.ie
  - fro 12y ago
    For many people who's phone is their sole device, this is asking the impossible.
    - selectodude 12y ago
      We're talking about iPhones here. I would be shocked if anyone's iPhone was their sole computing device.
      - calvin_c 12y ago
        True, but Apple has advertised "PC-Free" as a selling point of iOS devices since they rebranded iCloud in 2011. Theoretically the device should function perfectly fine as your sole computing device. I suppose their solution to this problem though would to have a larger storage option.
      - soylentcola 12y ago
        Again with the anecdotes but a good friend of mine does exactly this. He's not a tech enthusiast and hasn't owned a computer since I've known him. His wife has an old laptop but he doesn't use it and isn't familiar with it. At some point in the past couple of years he wanted a smartphone after seeing all of us using ours for instant messaging, Instagram, etc. and he chose an iPhone specifically because they have a reputation of being user friendly for even the inexperienced user. His phone recently ran out of space due to the large number of photos he had taken so I advised him to hook it up to his wife's computer and use iTunes to back everything up. He looked at me like I had three eyes. Up until then he had never done this. Everything came over the air and he treated it as a standalone "appliance". I did my best to walk him through it and stress that he might want to get a Dropbox or Google Drive account for some level of redundant backup since his wife's laptop isn't what I'd call reliable. As far as I know he sort of glossed over when I got to that second part but at least he managed to get his phone working again. It had actually gotten to the point where things stopped working due to lack of available storage.
- Reich 12y ago
  As others have mentioned, upgrading through iTunes is a workaround. I'd like to propose another solution that's worked for me. Back your phone up to iCloud (this is probably the biggest bottleneck if your data doesn't fit into the free storage). If you have a recent backup, you can wipe your phone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all content and settings). That should clear up plenty of space on your device. Then upgrade and restore your backup once it's completed. This is how I upgraded to iOS 7 and 8 without having iTunes installed. But definitely be _sure_ you have a backup.
rblatz 12y ago
This is the issue. And people have no idea how to effectively clean up space. Scott Hanselman had some relevant tweets about this from around when ios 8 launched. http://twitter.com/shanselman/status/512299554243616768 http://twitter.com/shanselman/status/512299554243616768
jeremymcanally 12y ago
Just a tip, but I don't think you have to do this if you use iTunes to upgrade. I know it's a bummer, but don't let that keep you from upgrading. I think I had to do it for iOS 7 actually. 16GB ain't what it used to be. :)
Jonovono 12y ago
Upgrade through iTunes. You don't need much free space at all. I upgraded with about 300MB.
roc 12y ago
It's popular to suggest this is a symptom of the paltry entry-level storage -- but I think that's naive. People's storage use expands to the capacity of their device. Even if the entry level was 64GB, Apple would see this effect. [1] As these devices are increasingly sold to people who have never plugged them into a PC running iTunes, the storage problem is exacerbated: without being able to dump everything to a (cheap) external drive, users agonize over which memories to delete and many simply balk at the entire process. And this isn't just a problem with updates: people struggle with this during regular use. So what we have is really two problems: no space to update and no way to simply/effectively/cheaply archive device data. So what is needed are two solutions: 1. Apple needs to reserve storage space for updates. [2] 2. Mobile devices, in general, need a PC-free way to bulk-archive data. Cloud services are great and all, but people are far more likely to walk into a Best Buy and pick up an external drive, than they are to find/vet/pay for Flickr. And even if they're willing to pay for the service, most are not willing to pay the hosting fees for the quantity of digital memories they're creating. And if you can't save everything, you're just back at the same problem of asking people to explicitly cast memories into the void, and they just won't do it. Not happily. Not willingly. And they'll resent every instance where they feel forced. We're well past the point where the value in this arrangement was obvious. Why iOS devices, in particular, can't talk directly to Time Capsules (for device backup and a local media archive) is beyond me. It's particularly curious that Apple is ignoring the situation, given that they don't seek to profit from being a cloud provider, and would stand to make a decent chunk of change from putting a Time Capsule (or three) into every iOS home. They could even leverage the AppleTV as yet-another-viewer of this home-archived media and sell a few more of those. I know it's popular to assume this is all inevitably going "to the cloud". But there's simply too much data being collected. People marvel at how much data is being uploaded to Youtube/Facebook/Instagram/etc. But for every picture or video uploaded to those services, how much data did that one user capture that they didn't upload? And then consider how many users are capturing similar amounts of data but never upload anything. The growth rate of data capture is far exceeding the growth rate of bandwidth and the affordability of "enough" cloud storage. It's going to be years and years until cloud storage is "there". There's a huge opportunity in the interim. Beyond iOS, I don't know how every storage vendor doesn't have their own android solution to the problem. Solving this problem can sell an awful lot of hard drives. That you're explicitly selling the safe archive of precious memories is going to mean you can sell a higher number of RAID solutions as well. And the growth rate of captured data means you've got a huge market for selling additional/newer storage devices to your installed base. [1] Desktop users don't fill multi-terabyte hard drives as often, only inasmuch as they don't connect high quality data capture devices. Hand a person a DSLR or a GoPro and they'll fill every drive they buy. Mobile devices fill more-quickly, more-regularly, largely because they all have high quality cameras built in. [2] The updates themselves probably should be smaller at this point, but you'd always need room for a full restore anyway. So shrinking the update sizes is really only a bandwidth concern and can't lead to a reduction in the reserved space.

Hansi 12y ago

If it's done via iTunes the space requirement isn't an issue (or at least less of one). I was able to upgrade with less than 1GB free in iTunes. But yes the lack of many people being unable to use OTA upgrades does put a hamper on things.

albedoa 12y ago

Yup. I'm a "technical user" and it still took effort and a few decisions to free up 5.7GB, which included deleting a few things I otherwise would have kept. I imagine many people can't be bothered.

mpg33 12y ago

Wow that is a huge difference. I don't think we will see the 16GB option offered in future iPhone models.

acomjean 12y ago

Thats what holding me back from upgrading and I have 32gb 4s. Plus it just doesn't seem that compelling and upgrade. Makes one wonder the 16-64-128 gb storage strategy.

calvin_c 12y ago
You don't need the on board space if you upgrade through iTunes. It's a drag, considering OTA updates have been a big push since iOS 5, but it avoids the issue of trying to clear out 5 GB of space.
- buro9 12y ago
  And those of us on Linux who have no Mac or Windows PC? I haven't upgraded my iPod and iPad precisely because of the space issue. Looks like I won't be upgrading.
  - jedberg 12y ago
    If you go into an Apple store they'll let you use their computers to do it.
    - buro9 12y ago
      I'm in London so this seems the easiest thing to do when I get the chance. The VM route feels a lot like yak-shaving.
  - jeffreyparker 12y ago
    You could use VirtualBox and the free Windows VM images from http://www.modern.ie http://www.modern.ie
- fro 12y ago
  For many people who's phone is their sole device, this is asking the impossible.
  - selectodude 12y ago
    We're talking about iPhones here. I would be shocked if anyone's iPhone was their sole computing device.
    - calvin_c 12y ago
      True, but Apple has advertised "PC-Free" as a selling point of iOS devices since they rebranded iCloud in 2011. Theoretically the device should function perfectly fine as your sole computing device. I suppose their solution to this problem though would to have a larger storage option.
    - soylentcola 12y ago
      Again with the anecdotes but a good friend of mine does exactly this. He's not a tech enthusiast and hasn't owned a computer since I've known him. His wife has an old laptop but he doesn't use it and isn't familiar with it. At some point in the past couple of years he wanted a smartphone after seeing all of us using ours for instant messaging, Instagram, etc. and he chose an iPhone specifically because they have a reputation of being user friendly for even the inexperienced user. His phone recently ran out of space due to the large number of photos he had taken so I advised him to hook it up to his wife's computer and use iTunes to back everything up. He looked at me like I had three eyes. Up until then he had never done this. Everything came over the air and he treated it as a standalone "appliance". I did my best to walk him through it and stress that he might want to get a Dropbox or Google Drive account for some level of redundant backup since his wife's laptop isn't what I'd call reliable. As far as I know he sort of glossed over when I got to that second part but at least he managed to get his phone working again. It had actually gotten to the point where things stopped working due to lack of available storage.
Reich 12y ago
As others have mentioned, upgrading through iTunes is a workaround. I'd like to propose another solution that's worked for me. Back your phone up to iCloud (this is probably the biggest bottleneck if your data doesn't fit into the free storage). If you have a recent backup, you can wipe your phone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all content and settings). That should clear up plenty of space on your device. Then upgrade and restore your backup once it's completed. This is how I upgraded to iOS 7 and 8 without having iTunes installed. But definitely be _sure_ you have a backup.

rblatz 12y ago

This is the issue. And people have no idea how to effectively clean up space. Scott Hanselman had some relevant tweets about this from around when ios 8 launched. http://twitter.com/shanselman/status/512299554243616768 http://twitter.com/shanselman/status/512299554243616768

jeremymcanally 12y ago

Just a tip, but I don't think you have to do this if you use iTunes to upgrade. I know it's a bummer, but don't let that keep you from upgrading. I think I had to do it for iOS 7 actually. 16GB ain't what it used to be. :)

Jonovono 12y ago

Upgrade through iTunes. You don't need much free space at all. I upgraded with about 300MB.

roc 12y ago

It's popular to suggest this is a symptom of the paltry entry-level storage -- but I think that's naive. People's storage use expands to the capacity of their device. Even if the entry level was 64GB, Apple would see this effect. [1] As these devices are increasingly sold to people who have never plugged them into a PC running iTunes, the storage problem is exacerbated: without being able to dump everything to a (cheap) external drive, users agonize over which memories to delete and many simply balk at the entire process. And this isn't just a problem with updates: people struggle with this during regular use. So what we have is really two problems: no space to update and no way to simply/effectively/cheaply archive device data. So what is needed are two solutions: 1. Apple needs to reserve storage space for updates. [2] 2. Mobile devices, in general, need a PC-free way to bulk-archive data. Cloud services are great and all, but people are far more likely to walk into a Best Buy and pick up an external drive, than they are to find/vet/pay for Flickr. And even if they're willing to pay for the service, most are not willing to pay the hosting fees for the quantity of digital memories they're creating. And if you can't save everything, you're just back at the same problem of asking people to explicitly cast memories into the void, and they just won't do it. Not happily. Not willingly. And they'll resent every instance where they feel forced. We're well past the point where the value in this arrangement was obvious. Why iOS devices, in particular, can't talk directly to Time Capsules (for device backup and a local media archive) is beyond me. It's particularly curious that Apple is ignoring the situation, given that they don't seek to profit from being a cloud provider, and would stand to make a decent chunk of change from putting a Time Capsule (or three) into every iOS home. They could even leverage the AppleTV as yet-another-viewer of this home-archived media and sell a few more of those. I know it's popular to assume this is all inevitably going "to the cloud". But there's simply too much data being collected. People marvel at how much data is being uploaded to Youtube/Facebook/Instagram/etc. But for every picture or video uploaded to those services, how much data did that one user capture that they didn't upload? And then consider how many users are capturing similar amounts of data but never upload anything. The growth rate of data capture is far exceeding the growth rate of bandwidth and the affordability of "enough" cloud storage. It's going to be years and years until cloud storage is "there". There's a huge opportunity in the interim. Beyond iOS, I don't know how every storage vendor doesn't have their own android solution to the problem. Solving this problem can sell an awful lot of hard drives. That you're explicitly selling the safe archive of precious memories is going to mean you can sell a higher number of RAID solutions as well. And the growth rate of captured data means you've got a huge market for selling additional/newer storage devices to your installed base. [1] Desktop users don't fill multi-terabyte hard drives as often, only inasmuch as they don't connect high quality data capture devices. Hand a person a DSLR or a GoPro and they'll fill every drive they buy. Mobile devices fill more-quickly, more-regularly, largely because they all have high quality cameras built in. [2] The updates themselves probably should be smaller at this point, but you'd always need room for a full restore anyway. So shrinking the update sizes is really only a bandwidth concern and can't lead to a reduction in the reserved space.