iPod 6th Gen. Storage still full after deleting 25 GBs of Music

As you know apple discontinued support for all iPods. This has rendered my $250 device useless. Upon looking to update it to the newest iOS available which is 12.2 or something it said I had no space. I was 1 GB shy. So i deleted all of my music which was 25 GBs worth. Thinking Apple is still a good company I thought I could proceed with the update, however after doing multiple hard resets, my device is still unable to recognize the space available and thus I am unable to update my iOS. I searched the forums high and low and none of the offered solutions work.

So my question is, is there some method that anyone can offer that will ACTUALLY work?

I used to love apple a lot but it's really a shell of its former self. Steve Jobs would be disappointed to see what's it become now. To see the "me too" button clicked +1,000 times from other frustrated customers is mind boggling. To think such a problem persists in a mega corp like apple. At this rate there is zero chance I can get my music back on my iPod nor update the iOS.