OnePlus 9 Pro Media Storage app using way too much space? You aren't alone (possible workaround inside)

Media Storage is a system process that is needed when you view, download, play, and stream images, videos, audio files, and other media files. It is obviously a system service and hence its ‘app’ can’t be accessed directly.

The service is an implementation of ‘MediaStore’ that contains metadata for all available media on both internal and external storage devices. It scans and stores media file info for quick access.

Unfortunately, the Media Storage app is turning out to be more of a bane than a boon on the OnePlus 9 Pro due to a rather peculiar issue.

The device is a OnePlus 9 Pro 256gb. It looks like the media storage app is replicating all the media in my phone. I have nearly 50gb of pictures and videos that are now being replicated in the app. This means I have lost 100gb of space.
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After poking around, I found that the Media Storage app is currently using 126GB of data. The clear storage button is grayed out. Wat?
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There have been multiple complaints from device owners about their OnePlus 9 Pro eating up way too much storage, so much so that it gets filled almost completely. Complaints date back to the device’s initial days, so it isn’t exactly new.

Upon investigation, many found that the OnePlus 9 Pro Media Storage app has somehow been storing copies of any media file within itself – if a 2GB video is recorded, the Media Storage goes up also 2GB, effectively costing a total of 4GB.

This data cannot be cleared as the “Clear storage” option on the app’s info page is greyed out.

However, as it turns out, the Media Storage data size is virtual and isn’t real storage taken up by real files. So, is something else at play?

It does seem so – Artem Russakovskii on Twitter has shared a possible workaround that should hopefully get back your precious storage, and it has nothing to do with Media Storage.

Turns out that the actual culprit behind the issue is the OnePlus Gallery app’s trash folder that’s consuming abnormally high amounts of storage for some reason.

Clearing it might take some time, but you will regain most of your storage afterward. Do note that you’ll also need to clear out the data for the Gallery app as some garbage files would still remain following the procedure.

There doesn’t seem to be any sign of an official acknowledgment from OnePlus yet, so if your phone’s storage starts acting up again, you might need to repeat the aforementioned steps.

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