Does anyone have any new recommendations to help iTunes recognize that my 128 iPhone and 128 iPad aren't 16 GB models?

Question

I have suffered from this problem for years, but since upgrading to 128 iOS devices in September, the mysterious iTunes/iOS hidden data disease has gotten intolerable. Here's the deal:
I use my iPhone and iPad mostly for media consumption. I don't have a ton of apps. I have lots of videos, music through iTunes Match, and a few pictures. I'm one of those dinosaurs who doesn't use the cloud but downloads it, stores it, and syncs it via USB frequently (which I would bet is the root of my problem). Although I have a large capacity devices, I sync almost daily. And each time I sync, my displayed free space and the space iTunes allows me to use differs more and more. Old fixes used to involve such things as restoring the devices, turning off automatic syncing, turning off photo syncing, turning off other syncing apps, etc. And these things were temporary fixes.
Let me give you an example of what I mean by temporary. It has been exactly eight days since I last restored my iPad to brand spanking new, retaining nothing. In those eight days and approximately eight or nine manual USB syncs, each with an average of 60 GB transferred, I mysteriously have managed to lose 40 GB. This afternoon during my most recent sync, iTunes showed 86.3 GB free. However, as usual, it wouldn't sync anything close to that. By the time I had whittled my selections down to an acceptable amount, it still showed I had 47.2 GB free both in iTunes and in Settings on the iPad. Yet when tested it by trying to sync a 50 MB app, it said there was not enough available space. In days past, problems like this would take weeks or maybe even months to accumulate. And the culprit would usually be the "Other" category. When that happened, the remedies I described would help. This new beast is something else, though. Like I said, this took only eight days.
I finally decided to post something, though, after I reset my iPhone to factory settings this evening. When I was syncing the initial apps and videos, it would not let me sync more than 30 GB of material. I don't know what to do, guys. I bought the maximum capacity devices because I like my HD content. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? If you say I just need to sync less, (1), Apple needs to get its act together, and (2) It might sound crazy, but I can probably only push it to 2 days, so I'd only be postponing my problems a few days.
If anyone can help, I would appreciate it. Forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere. I have spent time searching, but all I found was the answers I have already tried numerous times.

Answer 1

Emily Sitton wrote:
I got my baby iPhone the day it came out. Seriously, I love it. I'm not really mad about the price drop, a little frusterated, but I knew what I was getting myself into when I purchased mine so early. But, now that I know there are ringtones in the future, I just can't wait.
So basically, does anyone know for sure when we will be able to get the ringtones? And what about iTunes on the iPhone, when will that pop up? I'm sure these questions have been posted already, but I just can't seem to find a sure answer.
I'm worried that it is just my iPhone/computer that can't find the update to get all the cool new feautres, any help?
thanks in advance!
Sit tight, once it's out you WILL KNOW. The Apple Discussions will be bombed!
William