iPA Explains: Why Installing Big Apps & Games Requires Lots Of Extra Space

Michael Johnston · October 14th, 2009, 08:03 PM

I'm guessing that many of you have run into the dreaded "not enough free space" message once while installing apps onto your iPhone even though the app should be small enough to fit. So why does the message appear? The truth is that, even though an app may report that it's small enough to squeeze into the last few gigabytes on your iPhone, every app is compressed before it's downloaded. This means that an app is transferred to your phone, uncompressed, and then the compressed version is discarded, effectively requiring a little more than twice the space of the reported size of the app.

So how much space does a large app need in order to be installed?Well the first thing you need to consider, especially with larger apps and games, is that once uncompressed, these apps are slightly larger than iTunes will report them as. A good example is the TomTom app. iTunes reports it as taking 1.21 GB but once uncompressed, it's actually closer to 1.33 GB. This means that you'd need at least 2.54 GB free to install the app. You may even need to free up a little more.

The quickest way to squeeze one of those big apps into your iPhone or iPod touch is to temporarily dump off some music. Music doesn't require zipping and unzipping to get on the phone, so you can put it right back after you've installed the app. To be safe, you'll want to free up about 2.25x the amount of space that the app is reported to take up in iTunes. This method should allow you to fill every last bit of space without too much work.

Enjoy!

ofiraz · October 15th, 2009, 04:16 AM

It would be nice if when installing from itunes (in opposite to downloading the application directly to the iphone), itunes would first uncompress the package in the in host machine and then transfer the package to the iphone.

Michael Johnston · October 15th, 2009, 02:12 PM #3

Quote:

Originally Posted by ofiraz

It would be nice if when installing from itunes (in opposite to downloading the application directly to the iphone), itunes would first uncompress the package in the in host machine and then transfer the package to the iphone.

I think it's technically possible for this to be done but I feel like it could slow the transfer because it's one file verses potentially hundreds of files, depending on how the app is designed.

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Michael Johnston This is my fricken site, durrrr Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Rockford, IL Posts: 2,695 Thanks: 11 Thanked 45 Times in 40 Posts	iPA Explains: Why Installing Big Apps & Games Requires Lots Of Extra Space - October 14th, 2009, 08:03 PM #1
	<script language="JavaScript" src="http://adserver1.backbeatmedia.com/servlet/ajrotator/13894/222/viewJScript?pool=13886&type=3158&pos=20&zone=5000"></script> I'm guessing that many of you have run into the dreaded "not enough free space" message once while installing apps onto your iPhone even though the app should be small enough to fit. So why does the message appear? The truth is that, even though an app may report that it's small enough to squeeze into the last few gigabytes on your iPhone, every app is compressed before it's downloaded. This means that an app is transferred to your phone, uncompressed, and then the compressed version is discarded, effectively requiring a little more than twice the space of the reported size of the app. So how much space does a large app need in order to be installed?Well the first thing you need to consider, especially with larger apps and games, is that once uncompressed, these apps are slightly larger than iTunes will report them as. A good example is the TomTom app. iTunes reports it as taking 1.21 GB but once uncompressed, it's actually closer to 1.33 GB. This means that you'd need at least 2.54 GB free to install the app. You may even need to free up a little more. The quickest way to squeeze one of those big apps into your iPhone or iPod touch is to temporarily dump off some music. Music doesn't require zipping and unzipping to get on the phone, so you can put it right back after you've installed the app. To be safe, you'll want to free up about 2.25x the amount of space that the app is reported to take up in iTunes. This method should allow you to fill every last bit of space without too much work. Enjoy! __________________ About my iPhone: iPhone & Color: White 32GB iPhone 3GS iPhone Version: Whatever the latest is because I'm crazy like that. Computer & OS: 15" Unibody MacBook Pro + OS X Leopard 10.5 AIM: iPhoneAlley twitter: MichaelJohnston

ofiraz Forum Lurker Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	It would be nice if when installing from Itunes... - October 15th, 2009, 04:16 AM #2
	It would be nice if when installing from itunes (in opposite to downloading the application directly to the iphone), itunes would first uncompress the package in the in host machine and then transfer the package to the iphone.