Hi Marilyn,

Updating with iTunes or Finder does require less space on your device than an Over-The-Air update because iTunes/Finder leverages your computer’s storage and processing power.

Although an update removes some downloadable parts of installed apps temporarily to free up space for an update, this usually is for when a small amount of storage is needed. In your case, your iPhone is nearly completely full and probably needs more space than iOS can automatically remove. As mentioned, iOS/iPadOS remove some parts but never remove entire apps to free space.

Are you using a Windows PC or a Mac? If possible, you might want to try and update your iPhone using a Mac with macOS Catalina using the Finder app or macOS Mojave and below using iTunes. Since you remain in the Apple eco-system, you might have better luck with that.

Otherwise, going into Recovery Mode is your best bet or if you backup regularly, you could also set up your device as new and then link to your backup.

In the future, try to always keep about 10-20% of your device’s total storage free and available–so for an iPhone with 128GB of storage that’s about 13-26 GB. Keeping this allotment open helps your device and its apps run smoother, with fewer problems and battery drain.

Any information on what to do when the phone is full, 127.2GB of 128, battery getting low, and iPhone 6s+ goes to the apple logo and stays there?

Got it into Recovery mode, iTunes on PC with most recent iTunes update.

Attempted “update” (not ready to do recovery) and it would hang up during the download.

I was told by Apple that the removal and replacement of the IOS would not download because the file was probably larger.

But reading your article, shouldn’t it have removed some apps to create room? Now the phone is still in Recovery Mode Screen.

Any suggestions?

Hi Alison,

It’s possible that your iPod Touch only goes up to iOS 6.1.6. According to our research, iOS 7 requires a 5th generation iPod touch or higher.

To identify your model, see this article: How to know what iPad or iPod model you have