OnePlus 9 Pro Media Storage app bug eats up too much storage space

The OnePlus 9 Pro is arguably one of the more noteworthy premium smartphones this year so far, one that didn't come with unnecessary gimmicks or costs. It's far from perfect, especially when you consider some drama around its performance and availability, but it remains one of the best bang for buck options today. However, one new issue is causing users some concern as the phone strangely runs out of storage space for no reason at all. Fortunately, it may be a software bug that just needs OnePlus' acknowledgment and fix.

Sporting the best hardware in the smartphone market to date and flaunting Hasselblad's name, the OnePlus 9 Pro nearly scored a perfect ten in our review. Performance was almost on par with other phones on its tier (more on that later), and the camera output definitely deserves that special branding, making the phone feel worth the asking price, even if it's a tad high for OnePlus.

It wasn't without its quirks and controversies, of course, starting with the undisclosed performance throttling. And then there's the absence of the OnePlus 9 Pro base model in the US, forcing buyers to settle with the lone $1,069 premium configuration. Now there's another thing owners have to contend with, but hopefully, it's something that a quick software update can fix.

According to Android Police, owners of the OnePlus 9 Pro, including the publication's own Artem Russakovskii, noticed that their phones were suddenly running out of storage space, which consequently bogged down the device's performance. The OnePlus 9 Pro's usual diagnostic tools didn't reveal the culprit, but further investigation pointed the finger at the OnePlus Media Storage app. The exact reason for the errant behavior is still unknown, but it seems that clearing the OnePlus Gallery app's "Recently Deleted" folder frees up much of that space.

It's quite perplexing how this bug suddenly popped up out of nowhere, but it could have snuck in together with a recent system or app update. Curiously, there was also a similar but unrelated report that Xiaomi's Gallery app kept an ever-growing cache of photos even after they were deleted. OnePlus still hasn't responded to all the reports, but, considering how widespread it seems to be, they are probably already aware of the issue.