This is why you're running out of storage

a guide to making the most of 32/64/128 gb

Aditya

Oct 14, 2023

assorted-color plastic toy lot — Photo by Rick Mason on Unsplash

"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.

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