Fix iPhone’s out of space error

Share 25 comments » December 9th, 2007 - 5:43 pm

(for windows and mac)

ofs00.png

After you installed lots of native softwares, you may get this message. It may prevents you to install more softwares even you have 2GB storage left. This is because these native iPhone applications are stored under “/Applications” which have limitation. It does not matter even there are lots of space left.

There is a way to fix, use Putty in Windows or Terminal in Mac.

For windows, key in the information of iPhone (e.g. the iPhone’s IP address, “root” as username and “alpine” as password.) in Putty and you can perform the following steps.

And for Mac, open the Terminal, and type “ssh root@192.168.0.123″. (change 192.168.0.123 to your iPhone’s address.) Then, you can perform the following steps. The follow guide is tested under iPhone 1.1.4.

Always backup your iPhone’s personal stuff before going to the following steps.

Step 1. Type in the following commands. Press enter after each line. (change “mobile” to “root” if you are using iPhone 1.1.2 software or lower):

cd /
cp -pr Applications /var/mobile

mv Applications Applications.old
ln -s private/var/mobile/Applications /Applications

Step 2. Check whether Applications directory is moved or not by the following command:

cd /
ls -la

Step 3. You should see something like this. Noted the highlighted line:

Step 4. If yes, slide to turn off the iPhone and turn it on again. Then, type the following line to clean-up:

cd /
rm -rf Applications.old

Step 5. Restart your iPhone again and install those applications for all of the 8GB/16GB storage.

Advertisement

25 comments

  1. Frederik says:

    Hi,

    that’s what’s happened to me after that fix

    Blanc iphone

    photo
    http://fbonde.com/cph/DSC00002.jpg

    any help please..!

  2. admin says:

    Frederik,

    Can you SSH into your iPhone and find out where is your Applications folder?

  3. Paul Walker says:

    It broke mine too.

    I just renamed ‘Applications.old” back to Applications, and removed the new one and it worked again

  4. Ward says:

    Can anyone confirm that this actually works?

  5. admin says:

    Ward,

    this at least work for my case. I tested it more than twice

  6. Machine says:

    I’m having the same problem as Frederik.

    I used terminal on the iPhone directly however, and not putty to issue the commands. Now I can’t even use putty to get back into the phone.

    any suggestions?

  7. admin says:

    Machine,

    Is that your computer and iPhone on the same IP range?

  8. Machine says:

    Hey Admin,

    I think my problem was I forgot to install open SSH after my last restore.

    Oh well I just restored the phone back to 1.1.1, and followed the steps above, worked like a charm! However I wish there was an easier way, oh well.

    thanks

  9. Joey says:

    Ran out of space… followed your instructions above and everything went smoothly freeing up space for new installs.

    Thanks for the good work.

  10. Marisa says:

    Thanks for this article!!! This is a lifesaver.

  11. hidehide says:

    My SSH icon stays there after the jb.
    However, even I type the new password and restart, the password is still the old one!
    Then I tried to upgrade the one from you. Its still not working.

  12. JayTee says:

    I cannot find iphone’s ip address. I went to Settings -> Wi-Fi -> blue arrow but all I get “Connection closed by remote host”.

    I’m a little new to all this so any help would be most welcome.

  13. admin says:

    JayTee,

    Have you connect any wifi under Settings > Wifi?

    After you connected, tap the blue arrow near your connected point and you should see the IP address

  14. carlos says:

    i did everything and in step 3 the highlighted line said application
    –> private/var/root/applications/applications and then i retaart my iphone and now it doesnt enter to spring board the screen its empy. help what to do???

  15. admin says:

    carlos,

    What version are you in?

  16. carlos says:

    im on 1.1.2 version

  17. nick says:

    I’m also having the same problem as Frederik my whole springboard is totally empty, help!

  18. jon says:

    there’s other methond, just uninstall some of those app that u don’t need, or perhaps u have alot of theme. Just delete them …man this fucking work……….:)

  19. Jon says:

    This caused my iPhone’s home screen to only show a few icons and constantly popup a help screen on rearranging icons. I was using 1.1.4. I don’t recommend doing this. I had to restore the iPhone.

  20. tabasko says:

    Working …. 1.1.4 (french iphone)
    Don’t forget to reboot twice as mentioned by the author of this page…

    People using program called “Categories” may see errors … solved a the second/third reboot …

    This solution work properly.

  21. derfasaurus says:

    Using 1.1.4 Worked Beautifully, thank you.

  22. Porraz says:

    Hi. Same here. MY IPHONE IS TOTALLY BLANK, EVERYTHING IS GONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!

  23. admin says:

    Porraz,

    Do you know how to SSH? You can try to find out where is the applications you moved.

  24. Eduardo says:

    It works, but the instructions are incorrect,
    because in /var/mobile already are a Applications folder, and when you copy like the instructon you are coping de simbolic link not the folder, but you can do the same using another folder in /var/mobile/, yet create one.

    cd /
    mkdir /var/mobile/ApplicationDefault
    cp -pr Applications/ /var/mobile/ApplicationDefault/

    rm Applications
    ln -s private/var/mobile/ApplicationDefault Applications

    something like that i don“t now if that i completely correct i wrote that from memory.
    and sorry my horrible english i am from argentina.

Leave a Reply