How do software updates use storage? The answer is different for different products. Some require compatibility mechanisms while others do not. For example, some replacement software replaces libraries or full versions. In some cases, replacement software increases in size to add functionality. Others use a hybrid mechanism that can be different depending on the type of software being updated. Here are some examples of software that use storage during an update:
Table of Contents
Apple Watch
Occasionally, the Apple Watch will report that its storage is full, even if no data is taking up the space. This is not the first time users have experienced this issue. In fact, many watchOS users have reported the same problem. While the alerts may be annoying, you can ignore them by unpairing your watch and installing the latest version of iOS. To install a new version of iOS, go to Settings > General> Software Update.
If you’re concerned about how much space your Apple Watch is using, you can check its storage capacity directly from the device. To do this, simply open the Watch app and navigate to the Storage section. On the next screen, scroll down to Usage. You can view the amount of storage that is available and how much is being used by apps and content. You can delete any unwanted content, such as music and photos, from your Watch.
iPhone
iPhone users often wonder if software updates use storage. Well, if you’re using iOS 12.1.2 or iOS 12.1.4, the update is taking up 516 MB of your iPhone’s storage. Fortunately, you can remove it from your iPhone’s Settings. In the meantime, you may want to delete any old content. To save space, you can delete the app or delete the file altogether. But first, you should check how much free space your iPhone has left.
To check whether iOS updates are using up your storage space, tap the Settings app and select the iPhone Storage tab. Here, you’ll find a list of apps, which is arranged by size. If you have a 16GB iPhone, the update will be near the top. In contrast, updates within a major version are smaller. Scroll down the list until you find the app or file that needs to be deleted. To delete an app or file, tap the X next to it and then confirm its deletion.
Microsoft Updates
The Windows 10 update process has been a mess for some time. It’s a mess because Windows tends to use reserved storage for temporary files. These files are created by various processes and apps and are then deleted when Windows updates them. As these files accumulate, the amount of free space used by the system increases. To avoid this, users should manually dump files to external storage before installing an update. This way, they won’t be wasting valuable space.
Windows 10 users, in particular, are complaining about how Microsoft Updates use disk space. The problem has been so prevalent that users have had to remove unnecessary temporary files and move important files to external storage devices. This problem is particularly acute on devices with small storage capacity. However, Microsoft has been trying to address this issue and is introducing a feature called reserved storage in Windows 10 19H1 that will keep at least 7GB of free disk space available.
Windows 10
While Windows 10 offers the ability to roll back software updates, it is not always the best solution. While the updates should overwrite old data, it may leave some temporary files on the system. If you choose to delete these, it may not take up as much space as you would expect. Major updates also tend to take up more space. If you want to keep old files, consider rolling back to previous versions. But be careful – you may get a malware update that takes up more space than you’d like.
The good news is that you can gain back some of this storage space. You can do this by removing optional features from your system. This includes all those preinstalled language packs. You can also uninstall the language packs that come with Windows 10.