"Storage Almost Full"
That message has haunted millions of iPad users over the past 13 years.
Here's what you can do to avoid this fate.
Offload Apps You Barely Use
This should be your first step.
Go to Settings → General → iPad Storage.
Find an app that looks pretty useless.
Click Offload App. This deletes the app but keeps your documents and data.
Offloading is useful for apps you need but don't use often (think airline apps).
Delete Useless Apps
You can also save storage the old-fashioned way.
Find useless apps you haven't used in a while and don't need (like that one game you haven't played in 6 months).
Long-press → Remove App → Delete App
Don’t Keep 50,000 Photos On Your iPad
I'm a teen.
By default, that means I have thousands of random photos on my iPad.
Whether it's old homework assignments or a friend testing out my selfie camera, these photos are taking up valuable space.
I use iCloud Photos (thanks dad for keeping me on the family plan 🙏). But if you don't, you need to do the following:
find a quiet place to sit
grab your iPad
open the Photos app
delete every non-cool/important/memorable photo you have
You'll save an insane amount of storage (it's actually mind-blowing).
Optimize Your Photos
If you're too lazy to go through your photos, you have another option.
Go to Settings → Photos.
You should see an option to "Optimize iPad Storage"
This feature only keeps low-quality versions of your photos on your iPad. The fancy versions are dumped in iCloud.
Delete Every Video That One Friend Sends
Go to Settings → Messages → Keep Messages.
If your iPad is running low on storage, you NEED to change this setting.
Next, go to Settings → General → iPad Storage → Messages.
Look through the big files you've received. 99% of them are probably useless. Delete them.
Look At The Clouds
Use iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, or whatever you can use.
Cloud storage will save you an unbelievable amount of storage. Without iCloud, I'd probably be maxing out my iPad's storage every weekend.
Apps like Google Photos (which saves your photos to the cloud) are also pretty cool. If you have photos that you wanna keep but aren't important, you can dump them in the app and delete them from your iPad.
Now, you can access these photos without needing to take up storage.
Delete Duplicates
You probably have hundreds of duplicate files on your iPad.
I know I do.
Throw Out The Old Stuff
As you're going through your files, you can also delete useless ones.
The Files app on my iPad are clogged with old homework, outdated resumes, and random video files. You probably have something like that too.
Like I mentioned above:
find a quiet place to sit
grab your iPad
delete every non-cool/important/memorable file you have
Taylor Swift Isn’t That Important
Your music is taking up way more storage than you think.
I barely listen to music. Turns out I have 945 MB of music downloaded on my iPad.
If you use Apple Music, here are four things you must do if you're running out of storage:
Go through your downloaded music and delete songs you hate
Enable "Optimize Storage"
Disable "Download in Dolby Atmos"
Disable "Automatic Downloads"
Time for a break
I've spent this entire post talking about deleting apps, photos, files, and more.
Sometimes, people overdo it.
If you end up with some extra storage to spare, you should download Concepts.
I've used it for years (if you don't believe me, check my post history). I've used it to take notes, brainstorm article ideas, and even design a science fair project.
It's one of the few apps I recommend for every iPad user out there. And I genuinely believe this (again, check my post history if you wanna verify this claim).
Concepts has been kind enough to offer a free 30-day trial. And no, you don't have to enter your credit card info.
Back to the post ⬇️
Change Your Podcast Settings
Your podcasts are also taking up way more storage than you think.
If you're one of the few people in this world who actually listen to podcasts, here are two changes you should make:
Enable "Remove Played Downloads"
Disable "Automatic Downloads"
Make Your Camera Suck
If you're using your iPad to take professional videos:
Why?
You're wasting storage. Set your camera settings to the lowest possible option.
Change App Store Settings
Go to Settings → App Store.
Find the Automatic Downloads section. Disable Automatic Downloads.
Stop Saving Articles
You might have a ton of stuff in your Safari reading list (either on purpose or on accident).
Become like me:
Delete everything. After all, who actually reads their Reading List?
The Ultimate Hack
Warning: This is a danger zone ⚠️
Backup everything to iCloud
Connect your iPad to a computer
Factory reset your iPad
Make any iPadOS updates you need
Restore your data from the backup
This is probably your best bet if you’re about to run out of storage. Be careful.
Final Thoughts
"If you wanna save storage, don't be an idiot—stop downloading stupid things"—An anonymous internet user
Thanks for reading!
Adi
A really cool app to delete photos: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6444738335 It makes deleting photos faster and more fun.