tvOS bug limits 128GB Apple TV 4K to 64GB

A bug in tvOS can prevent users from using the full 128GB of the top-range Apple TV 4K, leaving 64GB unusable.

Key to the few but good updates in the latest Apple TV 4K is the option to have a 128GB version, which particularly suits users of Apple Arcade. The greater capacity means more games can be stored on the Apple TV 4K and so be instantly available.

However, according to flatpanelshd, only the first 64GB of space is recognized by tvOS.

It is very definitely a bug rather than some hardware issue, because the error message users get is triggered in very specific circumstances. It appears whenever a user has filled 64GB and then attempts to download a game or an app.

"The app can't be installed because there isn't enough space," it says. "Delete one or more apps or manage your storage in Settings."

However, if the user is on even 63.9GB and then attempts to download an app that would take it well over the 64GB threshold, they can. That doesn't allow access to the remaining space, though.

Check your storage

There have been third-party tvOS apps that would show a simple figure for the amount of space used, and the amount remaining. However, the two best-known ones, Space Left and TV Storage Info, are currently no longer available in the tvOS App Store.

Other than just installing games and apps until the 64GB error is either reached or not, users can only check Apple's own rather poor storage information. Go to Settings, General, and scroll down to Manage Storage.

This lists all installed apps and their sizes. It's arranged with the largest apps at the top, and all have a delete icon next to them.

What you can't do is get a running total for all install apps.

6 Comments

beowulfschmidt 2349 comments · 12 Years

About 2 years ago

Well, that's unfortunate...

johnwhite1001 51 comments · 6 Years

Apple needs to bring people back to the office. Obviously if a product with 128 Gig of memory can only use half of it remote work is not working out for them.

dewme 5738 comments · 10 Years

johnwhite1001 said:

Apple needs to bring people back to the office. Obviously if a product with 128 Gig of memory can only use half of it remote work is not working out for them.

Does it really matter where the inadequate testing is taking place? Do the test engineers develop better test cases in the office?

Someone must have written boundary value (BV) test cases to ensure that the insufficient memory available warning was being presented properly for all system configurations, which included 32 GB and 64 GB for the previous models. When they added a 128 GB model they obviously should have updated their test cases to include the new memory limit in their BV testing.

Either they failed to update their BV test cases, ran the same BV tests as before, didn’t run BV tests, or (worst choice) have the limits hard-coded into the source code. None of these bad decisions should be dependent on where the work took place, unless the worst possible condition occurred, where tests were skipped but marked as having been completed because no confirmation is taking place when people are working from home.

Note that I’m discounting whether the memory limit checking code is working correctly. It could be broken. That’s not the point because if it isn’t working correctly the BV testing should still have caught it prior to release.

People are far more likely to actually work harder if they are at the office where they can be observed. This one Apple Guy that lives near me spends almost all day out in his yard playing with his dogs.

Armoured_Bear 4 comments · 4 Years

johnwhite1001 said:

People are far more likely to actually work harder if they are at the office where they can be observed. This one Apple Guy that lives near me spends almost all day out in his yard playing with his dogs.

People really shouldn't post nonsense like this, it is simply not true.
Professional software engineers do not sit and do nothing unless a manager is hovering over their desk, it's not the 50s.
Do you really think it's not blatantly obvious in hardware/software development how much work is being done working remotely or not.

This is from a Software Engineer who has been working from home for 2 years and has seen our productivity and happiness increase.