iPad Storage Full? Here’s How To Free Up Space Quickly

Are you facing storage issues on your iPad, and your iPad’s storage is full? In this guide, we will share step-by-step instructions on how you can solve this problem and make space on your iPad so you can take photos, download apps, or even update iPadOS.

Check how much space you have on iPad

The first thing you should do is check how much free storage your iPad currently has. Follow the steps below.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on General.
3. Here, tap on iPad Storage.

On the iPad Storage page, you will see a bar at the top that indicates how much storage is used on your iPad and how much is free.

Here you will also see color-coded categories that tell you how much storage is being used by each category. Some of the major categories include Applications, Photos, Mail, Messages, Music, System Data, etc.

Steps to free up space on iPad

You can follow these steps to free up a significant amount of space on your iPad in just a few minutes.

1. Enable iCloud Photos’ Optimize Storage feature

The Optimize iPad Storage feature keeps a full-resolution version of your photos in the iCloud while storing smaller versions in your device’s memory. This frees up a significant amount of local iPad storage for other things.

1. Open Settings and tap on your name at the top of the side pane.
2. Here, tap on iCloud.
3. Next, tap on the Photos option.
4. Finally, select the Optimize iPad Storage option.

2. Delete Duplicate Photos

If you have hundreds or even thousands of photos and videos on your iPad, then chances are your iPad has duplicate photos. This takes up a significant amount of disk space on your device. You can easily delete duplicates by following the steps below.

1. Open the Photos app.
2. On the side pane, scroll down and tap on Duplicates.
3. You will find all of the duplicate photos on this page.
4. Tap on Select from the top and then tap on Select All.
5. Next, the ‘Merge’ button from the bottom.

You can also delete large videos that you don’t need in the Photos app. Just select the Videos folder from the side pane, find large videos, and delete them.

3. Enable Auto Offload Apps and Delete Apps

The offload apps feature automatically removes apps you don’t use often while keeping their documents and data. This lets you quickly re-download the app whenever you use it.

Automatically Offload Apps: To enable the auto offload apps feature, go to Settings -> Apps -> App Store and enable Offload Unused Apps.

Manually Offload Apps: You can also manually offload certain apps by going to Settings -> General -> iPad Storage. Here, scroll down and tap on the app you want to offload. And finally tap on the Offload App button.

You should also consider deleting apps that you don’t use that often. You can delete them from the home screen by long-pressing on their icon.

4. Delete Messages attachments and conversations

Messages app can take up GBs of storage on your iPad without you even knowing. Every photo, video, GIF, and voice memo you receive takes up storage. You can get rid of all of this by following these steps.

1. Open Settings and go to General.
2. Then tap on iPad Storage.
3. Scroll down and tap on Messages.
4. Here, tap on Review Large Attachments and delete attachments that you don’t need.

Also, delete older conversations automatically after 30 days. This can be done by going to Settings -> Apps -> Messages -> Keep Messages and selecting 30 days.

5. Delete downloaded content and files

Apps like Netflix, Spotify, Podcasts, Apple Books, and others download content locally. This can take up a lot of disk space on your device. You can solve this by deleting the content manually.

1. Open Settings and go to General.
2. Here, tap on iPad Storage.
3. Find and tap on the app you want to delete content from.
4. On the next page, swipe left on the podcast, TV show, or book that you wish to delete and then tap on the Delete button.

Safari downloads can pile up in the Files app without you even realizing. You can delete them by opening the Files app and tapping on the Downloads option from the side page. Here, delete anything you don’t need.

6. Clear Safari History

Safari’s browsing data, caches, cookies, etc., can take up space on your iPad and slow down browsing. You can clear them by following the steps below.

1. Open Settings and tap on Apps.
2. Here, find and tap on Safari.
3. Scroll down and tap on Clear History and Website Data.
4. Select the timeframe and hit confirm.

7. Delete Other or System Data

This is an advanced action. Check if your iPad’s other or system data is taking up more than 5GB. If it is, then you can restore your iPad and free up some of this space. Make sure to back up your iPad before restoring, as you will lose your data if your device is not backed up.

That’s it, these are some of the best ways to free up storage on an iPad. These methods let you free up storage and solve the iPad Storage full issue when you are running out of memory.