iPhone 13 pro not enough storage

I had this problem too. I have 196G in my iPhone 8 and transfer to new iPhone 13 Pro with 256G. It failed with the exact error as you showed by direct phone transfer. Then I try transfer by iTune in the PC windows 10. Backup succeed. Restore failed again due to not enough space in the new phone. Very interesting!!! I check the size of the backup files. It is 300G. For some reason, Apple expanses the size. Then I reduced my old phone size to 164G by removing some app and pictures. Now the iTune backup shows 249G which is smaller than 256G iPhone capacity. This time restore succeed. After new IPhone up, the it shows the storage usage is 185G. I hope this will helpful, especially for people who use iCloud for photos.

I had the same issue upgrading from an iPhone Xs (256GB) to iPhone 13(256GB). The phone to phone transfer never works for me. I also recall the phone to phone transfer didn't work several years ago when I upgraded to the Xs. The storage on my Xs was not even half used. The Xs backup file was 2GB. With this 13 upgrade, the phone was immediately useable but I waited 9 days for it to wrapup the download. The error message fluctuated from 100MB needed to 500MB needed despite 199GB free storage space (and backup only 2GB). I called apple tech support and spent hours on the phone trying to restore and fix the issue. It became clear that everything was backed up on the phone correctly but the restore failed to resolve and shutdown. We verified this by connecting the 13 to my macbook pro and we could sync, change music, etc. Efforts to try to shutdown the backup failed and the lockup prevented us from turning off the icloud account. So after many hours we decided to restore the iphone 13 with no data transfer from the icloud backup. First we verified that all of the 3rd parts app data was already being stored on the iCloud. Then we did factory reset back to a basic app phone. Once you sign into your icloud account, it restores your basic email, calendar, contacts, notes. Once you enter App Store click on your picture icon (top right) , click on purchased (apps) and toggle between "All" and "Not on this Phone" to choose all of the apps that you want to redownload. I found my data within the 3rd party apps was restored. I hope this helps.

Hi, I had the same issue and I switched my phone 2 times. I tried about 7 times on both phones combined, I was so fed up by the end of it didn’t even want to do it anymore. But I realised all this while I kept using the “download from iCloud” option, so I decided to try one last time using the “transfer directly from phone” option and it worked. It takes longer, but it works. So maybe you could try that.

I was able to do it without any issues on one phone and on another had issues like everyone in this thread. Spoke to support who then had me back up my device to iCloud then do an iCloud transfer which resolved my issues.

I fixed it by turning off iCloud for the phone migration. Then it worked. Saw this solution posted in another community forum for the same question.

Hi Eddiehansen1983,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand you aren't able to transfer your wife's iPhone to her new one due to a message about storage.

If you're using the method of Quick Start you'll want to keep the previous iPhone near the new iPhone 13 Pro through the data transfer. Please make sure to keep both devices connected to a power source and until the data migration completes. Transfer times can vary based on factors such as the connection type that you're using, network conditions, and the amount of data being transferred: Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

For issues with restoring an iCloud backup or backup from a computer, we suggest to follow these two articles: If you can't back up to iCloud or restore from iCloud backup failed and If you can't back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup

Please let us know if that helps.

All the best.

No fix. I just returned the 128 and picked up a 512 and phone to phone transfer finally worked.

Thanks for your reply Eddiehansen1983.

If you still need help getting the new iPhone set up, make sure both devices are fully updated to iOS 15.0.1. That was just released recently and could assist with this issue.

If the issue remains, and you still aren't able to set up her new iPhone even restoring from a backup, the next best step would be to reach out to our support teams. You can reach them through this link: 

Get Support - Apple

You can also contact our phone support directly through the number listed for your country at this link: 

Contact Apple for support and service

Take care.

Nightmare. I am having the same problem transferring data from iPhone 11 Pro Max (256 GB) to iPhone 13 Pro Max (256) both running 15.2.1 software. The iPhone 11 Pro Max had 205 GB used storage but kept getting the same message cannot transfer due to not enough storage on the new phone. I tried side by side transfer, restore from back-up, and I-phone to I-phone hard wired with no success. Took the phone to the Apple Store with no resolve. I then went back to the carrier and they asked me to open a ticket with apple which I did. After 2 hours later, the apple technician requested that I replace the phone. I returned the iPhone pro 13 max 256 GB and ordered a iPhone pro max 13 512 GB. I don't know if this will resolve my issue. "Apple Engineering" root cause this issue as you have have a software bug that is causing major customer dissatisfaction. Root cause and please send out a patch. I have spent at least trouble shooting 20 hours trouble shooting.

When will Apple have this fixed? Several Apple technicians, and Apple engineers have logged into both my old iPhone and new iPhone 13 Max Pro but, after 2 weeks, have still NOT been able to setup my new iPhone 13 Max Pro which has 256G of space. The iPhone 13 Max Pro with 256G always fails to restore from backup with the error message “no space”. Both iPhones are running the same IOS 15.2 operating system. Multiple Apple tech support engineers have remotely logged into both of my iPhones and also my laptop but they have still not been able to setup my new iPhone 13 with 256G because all methods of backup / store, including iCloud, Quick Start and iTunes, fail with an error message that there is not enough space on the 256G iPhone 13 Mac Pro, even though I deleted more than 100G of content from my 256G iPhone 7 Plus so it now shows that I have only used 160G of the available 256G so the new backup/restore of the 160G of content to a 256G iPhone 13 should fail with an error message of “not enough space” because the iPhone 13 Max Pro has 256G and the latest backups should only be 160G. The problem is the new iPhone 13 because, a while back, I successfully completed a backup/restore from my previous cracked iPhone 7 Plus 256G to my new (refurbished) iPhone 7 Plus 256G and it completed with no errors. Now it fails and the new variable is the new iPhone 13 Pro Max which is supposed to have the same amount of space: 256G and, even though, I have deleted more than 100G of content, in case the new OS15.2 is hogging up all the space, but it still fails.

I am having the same issue going from Xs to 13 Pro. I new phone is updated to 15 as well. Is there a fix?

Same issue - did you ever find a fix?

I have 256 gb on my iphone 8. I want to purchase the iPhone 13 pro max. Can I transfer my 256 gbs to the new iPhone?