Is there anything I can do about this extremely vague block of data that’s taking up 30% of my phone’s storage? Mind you, this isn’t the operating system itself, as that’s listed as its own category.
EDIT: I tried (a) backing up to my computer, factory resetting, then restoring from backup and (b) setting the date years in the future. Neither worked, in fact (a) actually increased my system data to 34 GB! What DID end up working was updating my iOS from 18 to 26, which I had to do from my computer via iTunes since my phone was full. Apparently major system updates reset system data
I mean… Caches, logs, and other system data currently in use by the system is a fairly decent explanation. Computers need space to put stuff while it’s working. It’s not particularly odd to not go to extremes labeling the contents of the junk pile that’ll get discarded if anything comes up.
Linux is about as open as a system can be and it has several piles of roughly undocumented junk that can be difficult to know exactly what they contain.
There’s nothing about it to “not trust”. If it wanted to hide something from you it wouldn’t tell you it was there and refuse to explain fully, it would just not tell you at all. It’s not like you can check it’s work.