[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

I don’t use Merlin but I know others that do. The following, written by Ben Newhouse of Seal Beach and posted on OrangeCountyBirding bird alert, is something you should know about if you use Merlin. It may well apply to other apps like iNaturalist (just to pluck a name out of the air).
— Chuck Almdale

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Hi All. 

I’ve been doing some file management and have noticed some things about Merlin. I’m just sharing information in case it helps anyone.

So obviously any recordings in Merlin take up data storage space on your phone. And any bird packs as well, those photos and recordings will take up storage space. So I’ve gotten in the habit of deleting recordings and bird packs I no longer need.

That said…

I’ve noticed that deleting files doesn’t necessarily free up the corresponding data storage space. I went so far as to delete all the recordings and bird packs from Merlin, yet after doing so Merlin was still taking up 29.7 GB on my phone. Then I entirely deleted Merlin…reinstalled it and the US bird pack and then it was taking up 1.6 GB. In other words…It was taking up 28 GB on my phone for files I had previously deleted.

So I did a couple of trial/error tests. This is specific to my phone (Merlin version 3.2 on IOS 17.3.1). I have no idea if it does the same on other versions and/or operating systems.

Deleting method 1. Click on My Sound Recordings. Click on a recording. It opens. Click on the “three dots in a circle” menu icon in the upper right. Click on Delete. This method seems to free up any storage associated with that recording.

Deleting method 2. Click on My Sound Recordings. Swipe left across a recording. A red “Delete” button appears. Click on delete. Method 2 removes the file from the recordings list but does not seem to free up any associated data storage.

Deleting bird packs. When I deleted a bird pack it did free up the corresponding storage space.

Anyway… I’m just posting this in case it saves someone a headache.

All the best,
Ben

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