iPad storage full message

You iPad threw up a message indicating your are nearly a gigabyte short of being able to install iPadOS.

During the install their is a point where there needs to be a data buffer amount where part of the OS download/instsller gets stored in the iPad's internal storage while it is trying to do the complete install of iPadOS.

A full install of iPadOS is over 8 GBs.

So, you need enough room for iPadOS, plus some, that is needed as a data buffer in the iPad while the OS is installing in the iPad.

You simply do not have enough room to install iPadOS 13, as it stands.

You need to free up another 1 to 2 GBs somewhere to make sure you have sufficient room to install iPadOS.

That is what you need to do.

So, if you can, backup all your current data in your iPad, first, then start deleting things I recommended in my other reply post.

Another option.

Do you own a real computer with iTunes installed on it?

You could try upgrading your iPad by connecting your iPad to a full computer, connected to the Internet, and do the iPadOS upgrade through iTunes and let iTunes download and install iPadOS into your iPad and you do not need to worry about making additional storage space on the iPad to install the full iPadOS.

iTunes will install exactly what is needed directly to your iPad without any extra needed data space buffer on the iPad.

Trust me.

He doesn't have enough free, internal data storage space to perform the upgrade.

iPadOS is too large, now.

I have seen this whole scenario play out before here, many times.

The OP needs to free up another 1-2 GBs before re-attmpting the iPadOS install.

You need to free up free data storage space on an iPad/iDevice and you need to start by backing up your iPad to either Apple's iCloud or by connecting your iDevice to a computer running the latest iTunes and/or some other offsite, “cloud” data storage/backup services, like Google Drive/Photos, DropBox, BOX, Amazon Cloud Drive, Flickr ( for photos/images ), etc.

Then, delete any installed apps that you no longer use or use infrequently enough that they aren't missed ( you can always reinstalled any purchased or free apps at some time later, as you need them ).

Then, thin out/delete any music/videos/movies/TV shows/

screen recordings/images/eBooks/eMagazine/iBooks/audio books/Documents/PDFs, etc.

If you use a POP email account on your iPad, delete/thin out any old saved emails that maybe saved to your iPad.

To permanently delete photos/images off of your iDevice go into the Photos app and find the Recently Deleted folder/album and permanently delete any photos/images stored in that folder/album.

Also, you can check to see what stuff is eating up all your valuable data storage space by going into the Settings App,,General Settings Panel, in the right hand column, tap Storage & iCloud usage panel ( in iOS 11, it’s iPad Storage ), in the top Storage Panel, tap the Manage Storage panel, wait for a list of apps to generate that will tell you how much space each app is taking up on your iDevice.

Then, do a hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

iDevices need to maintain, at the very least, a minimum of between 2-3 GBs of free data storage space, AT ALL TIMES, to insure normal/nominal functionalities/operation and general overall performance of any iDevice.

Good Luck to You!

A 32 GBs iPad ends up with a usable, practical storage of between 19-20 GBs.

It is what it is.

A 32 GBs of storage is a very base model of storage in this day and age, now and iOS/iPadOS with all of its features, now, eats up a good chunk of that internal storage space.

iOS 12 and iPadOS are huge mobile OSes, now!

Both eat up about 7-8 GBs of an iOS device’s internal space, especially on iPad!

Once again, it is what it is. There is no changing these facts.

That is why I never purchase the lowest storage model of any of Apple's iOS devices.

A 128 GBs storage iPad, after formatting leaves approx. 118-119 GBs.

With the full 8 GBs installation of iPadOS, that leaves 110-111 GBs.

Factor in the 2-3 GBs minimum data storage amount, this leaves a 128 GBs iPad with a practical, usable internal data storage space of between 107-109 GBs.

Bottom line, you need to free up another 1-2 GBs of internal storage space to perform the iPadOS upgrade.

The serial number doesn’t help me determine what iPad you have.

Under Settings, about, what iPad MODEL does it tell you your iPad is?

What does it say for available storage space on the iPad itself? Go to Settings > General > About and check what it says.

Your iPad is a 5th Generation iPad.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/specs/apple-ipad-9-7-inch-early-2017-wi-fi-only-specs.html

Go to Settings>General>About>Available to see how much space you have left on the device. See if that matches what you see in the screenshot.

Your iPad should have enough space for the update. I have no idea why you are getting this message.

I don’t want to contradict my esteemed colleague on this issue but when I updated my iPad Air 2 and my wife’s 6th Generation iPad to iPadOS, I don’t think the size of the file was larger than 2.5GB. I can’t document that with anything Apple has online from what I can see, but according to this, the downloaded size is about 3GB.

https://osxdaily.com/2019/09/22/how-prepare-for-ios-13-ipados-13/

My wife only has a 32GB iPad and about half of the space was already used up when I updated her device to iOS 13.

I still say that you have plenty of space to update assuming that those readings are correct and that there isn’t some underlying issue that we don’t see.

All things being equal, I wonder if backing up, restoring as new and restoring the backup would clear this up. You would need to do this using iTunes on your computer.

A final note, I believe that a 32GB device out of the box would have around 27GB of usable storage available. IIRC, that’s what iTunes should say when you connect your iPad to your computer, launch iTunes and click on the Summary Tab. You should that amount next to Capacity in the Summary pane.