iOS client taking up too much storage

problem
#1

Right now, NewsBlur is taking up 860 MB for “Documents and Data”, more than twice the amount of any individual app that I have installed.

Offline stories is turned off, and “Store” is set to 100.  How can I reduce the amount of space it takes up?

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#2

Probably updates and cached data. Delete the app and reinstall and you should see a significant change in storage size being used. 

#3

In preferences (iPhone/iPad), there is an option to “Delete Offline Stories”, so one might not need to delete the app and reinstall.

On my iPhone, NewsBlur uses 1.85 GB (offline preferences: download stores, don’t download images, store 1,000 stories). Identical offline preferences on my iPad, but space used is 884.3 MB. My “Saved Stories” folder has 2,369 stories (not sure if that’s a factor in the usage), everywhere (i.e. on the web, iPhone, and iPad, since it’s done at the server level).

I have lots of space left on my iPhone and iPad, so it’s not a top priority. It would be nice if it was smaller, though (could make backing up the devices a bit faster).

I’d be curious to know what exactly is being stored, i.e. is it storing all the images? (which would take up more space than HTML or text) Is HTML or text being saved in a “raw” state, or is it being compressed in some manner? (compression might reduce space by 90%+ for HTML or text) Are all stories from the beginning of time being saved, or just the “Saved Stories” folder, or some combination of both based on date (i.e. last N days)?

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#4

I honestly think its an issue with the last few iOS releases. Ive noticed storage creep on quite a few different apps lately and its been brought to the attention of the Apple Engineers, so I’m guessing it may be something with the software storage allocation. Not 100% sure. 

#5

it just crept up to 885 MB of “Documents & Data”  :)   Might be more to it than just NewsBlur.  Accuweather eats up 265.4MB (for weather!!). 

#6

Yeah I honestly think it’s an iOS storage alloction issue. Facebook and Twitter take up almost 1gb each after a month and I have to delete them to clear out space.

#7

Twitter had an app update today, and in the notes it said “We added a storage setting where you can see how much storage space caches use, with an option to clear them.”

Thus, it appears iOS app developers do have a way to clear those caches.

#8

Looks to me like it’s a web cache. I’ll look into clearing the web cache as an option on Preferences for the next release. I’ve got a couple other iOS bugs (3d touch to add site, reply bug) that I’ve been meaning to fix. After the campaign is over I’ll get back to launching an iOS update.

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