W hilst trying to install a recent iPhone update (iOS 17.1.2), I hit upon a bit of a problem – there wasn’t enough space left on my device to install it. So, I did what I always do in these situations –I ploughed through the storage section (in Settings > General > iPhone Storage) to find out what was eating it all up. As expected, it was mainly my Photos library but, curiously, my apps section was almost as large. Obviously, the storage facility helpfully lists all the apps and their size, so you can see which ones are causing a problem. To my surprise, Apple’s Podcasts app was using up 1.57GB of data! Removing it wasn’t going to solve the whole problem, but it would be a significant step towards it.
My main concern, however, was that I couldn’t figure out what it was storing. If Ihad been downloading endless episodes of Desert Island Discs or The Diary of a CEO (both in the top 10 of Apple’s most popular podcasts of 2023) then I’d get it but, ever since I discovered about 10GB of old podcasts clogging up my iPhone a couple of years ago, I’d turned off the download option and was only streaming them.
I initially thought the app’s massive footprint could have been caused by a cache of streamed episodes. But then I thought, the cause wasn’t really the problem here. The annoying thing was that Ihad no control over Podcasts claiming a massive amount of my iPhone for no good reason –the app itself only uses a tiny 12.7MB of space!