Right from the very first model that hit store shelves in 2015, the Apple Watch has always come with user-accessible storage for photos, apps, and other content — but how much storage does an Apple Watch actually have? Not every smartwatch has user-accessible storage. When that’s the case, it is difficult to install apps, store photos, or even download offline playlists.
The Apple Watch Series 1 launched with a storage capacity of 8GB. When the Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 3 models launched, they too came with 8GB of storage. However, the launch of the Apple Watch Series 4 saw the storage capacity doubled from 8GB to 16GB. The following year, the Apple Watch Series 5 debuted with even more storage as it packed a 32GB storage capacity, four times that of the Series 1. Subsequent models have launched with the same storage capacity.
Storage Allocated To Media Is Capped
The Apple Watch Series 6, Series 7, and Series 8 models all have 32GB of built-in storage. This also applies to the $799 Apple Watch Ultra and the budget Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) models too. Apple also makes no distinction in the storage capacity between Bluetooth and LTE models, so regardless of which one a person purchases, they get the same storage capacity.
With 32GB of storage, Apple’s current generation smartwatches pack more storage than some of their rivals such as the Galaxy Watch 4 series and Galaxy Watch 5 series, which both have 16GB of storage. Interestingly, the Pixel Watch, which is Google’s first smartwatch, has 32GB of storage.
An important detail Apple Watch users have to note is that only a portion of the watch’s storage capacity is available to them for use. Apart from some of the storage being allocated to the OS and system apps, Apple has also capped the amount of storage that can be used for media which includes photos, podcasts, offline playlists, and audiobooks.
For the Apple Watch Series 1, the storage allocated to media was just 2GB which is a quarter of the total capacity. For the models with 16GB of storage, Apple bumped up the allocated media storage to 4GB while current-gen models with 32GB of storage such as the Apple Watch Series 8 have 8GB for media files.
So when an Apple Watch owner gets a message on their watch that says the storage dedicated to media is full, it doesn’t mean they are out of storage entirely, it just means that they can’t store any more photos or audio files on their watch. To check how much storage is left on an Apple Watch, open the Settings app, go to ‘General’, and select ‘Usage’.
Apple Watch owners can also check the available storage on their iPhones. Open the Watch app and select ‘My Watch’. Go to ‘General’ and tap on ‘About’. A screen showing the storage capacity as well as available storage should be visible. Users can also see the number of songs, photos, and apps available on their Apple Watch on this page.
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