Subj : A nasty Apple Maps bug is eating up a ridiculous amount of storag To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Wed Nov 05 2025 18:15:09 A nasty Apple Maps bug is eating up a ridiculous amount of storage on some iPhones here's how to get rid of it Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2025 18:00:00 +0000 Description: Is Maps taking up a ridiculous amount of storage on your iPhone? You're not alone and there is a (frustrating) solution. FULL STORY ====================================================================== Whenever I ask someone why they havent downloaded the latest version of iOS, the most common response is, I dont have enough storage space. This is a very real and frustrating issue for many iPhone users, and while there are plenty of easy ways to free up iPhone storage , what if youre faced with a storage-hungry app that simply refuses to be deleted? My brother recently came to me with this very problem. He couldnt download iOS 26 (which typically requires at least 10GB of free space) on his iPhone 14 Plus because, oddly, his Maps app was listed as taking up a whopping 13.93GB. Thats already a big red flag no amount of navigation information should eat up that much space but it got even bigger when that 13.93GB obstacle stuck around even when wed cleared all downloaded Offline Maps and, as a last resort, deleted all of the apps Documents & Data (you cant completely delete Apple Maps as its a pre-installed, core iPhone app). Uh-oh, phantom storage! (Image credit: Future) A quick Reddit trawl suggested this was not an isolated case, with other iPhone users encountering the same issue, and I spotted similar threads on Apples Support Community forum, with every man and his dog proposing a different solution to the problem of seemingly un-deletable Apple Maps storage. Supposed fixes included clearing Maps history by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations & Routes > Clear History , and marking a new small, offline region, and turning on Optimize Storage . Neither method worked in my brothers case, which is why Im confident in describing this issue as a bug (not least because clearing Maps Documents & Data in Settings should remove the need to follow either workaround in the first place). However, if youre currently experiencing the same nasty Maps oddity on your iPhone, Id advise giving both methods a try before committing to the one workaround that did prove successful for my brothers iPhone (and has proven successful for others who have resorted to the same Hail Mary): a total back-up and device reset. I know, I know that sounds like a long and painful way to go about things. But backing up and resetting your iPhone doesnt actually take that long, and youll be grateful for the tens of gigabytes of free storage space youll be left to play with (I promise!). To back up your iPhone using iCloud, check out our guide on how to back up an iPhone (you essentially go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now , ensuring the Back Up This iPhone toggle is on). Alternatively, you can follow the old school method and back up your iPhone locally to a Mac or a Windows PC using iTunes or the Apple Devices app . To reset your iPhone, read our guide on how to factory reset an iPhone (TL;DR: its Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings ). Then, once youve re-booted your iPhone, follow the setup steps until you reach the Apps & Data screen. Here, you can choose to restore your data from an iCloud backup or a Mac or PC. Sign in with your Apple ID, select the correct backup, and wait for the process to complete. (Image credit: Future) Et voila! Now, when you head to Settings, your iPhone should look exactly the way it did before, albeit with Maps now taking up mere megabytes, not gigabytes (in my brothers case, the Documents & Data in his post-backup Maps app were listed as taking up a much more reasonable 68.7MB). I've reached out to Apple for comment on whether its a) aware of this strange storage oddity and b) able to provide a more convenient solution, and will update this story if I hear back. Have you encountered this Maps issue on your iPhone? And if so, did any of these workarounds work for you? Let us know in the comments below. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too. ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/iphone/a-nasty-apple-maps-bug-is-eating-up-a- ridiculous-amount-of-storage-on-some-iphones-heres-how-to-get-rid-of-it --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .