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My ipad air 2 keeps giving me a storage full message, but I only have 2 apps installed. There are no photos, no videos, nothing else on the ipad. I have even deleted all of the unnecessary stock apps. I have had an ipad with 16 gb before, and was able to use lots of apps and had so much media stored on it. I am entirely perplexed, and am hoping someone may have some insight as to why this is occurring, and how I can resolve this. Thank you!
iPad Air 2, iPadOS 13
A 16 GBs iPad is not very useful in 2020.
After internal drive formatting, a 16 GBs iPad starts out at approximately between 14.5 and 14.8 GBs.
Installation of iOS/iPadOS ( which eats up, at least a full 5 GBs of internal storage, now ) a 16 GBs iPads starts out at, approximately, 9 -10 GBs of internal data storage.
iOS devices and iOS/iPadOS 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.
You never, EVER completely fill up ANY computer or mobile computing device with data!
So, this leaves your iPad with anywhere from 6-7 GBs of actual, usable free, internal data storage space, AND THAT IS IT!
That is a very paltry amount of internal data storage space now in 2020.
If you need to free up free data storage space on an iPad/iDevice, 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/podcasts/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 other 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.
iOS devices 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 iOS device.
Sorry & Good Luck to You!
A 16 GBs iPad is not very useful in 2020.
After internal drive formatting, a 16 GBs iPad starts out at approximately between 14.5 and 14.8 GBs.
Installation of iOS/iPadOS ( which eats up, at least a full 5 GBs of internal storage, now ) a 16 GBs iPads starts out at, approximately, 9 -10 GBs of internal data storage.
iOS devices and iOS/iPadOS 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.
You never, EVER completely fill up ANY computer or mobile computing device with data!
So, this leaves your iPad with anywhere from 6-7 GBs of actual, usable free, internal data storage space, AND THAT IS IT!
That is a very paltry amount of internal data storage space now in 2020.
If you need to free up free data storage space on an iPad/iDevice, 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/podcasts/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 other 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.
iOS devices 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 iOS device.
Sorry & Good Luck to You!
The OP still has a 16 GBs iPad, now, but iPadOS takes up considerably more internal data storage space now than older 16 GBs iOS devices used to with much older iOS versions.
I think it is you who is misunderstanding the posting.
Have a good day!
Michel
Thank you for your informative, and detailed response. This, in fact, makes complete sense. I will be able to make a wiser purchase for my needs next time because of your useful explanation.
I appreciate you.
Have a wonderful day
Are your talking about iPad or iCloud?
To check iPad Storage: Settings>General>iPad Storage
To check iCloud Storage: Settings>[your name]>iCloud
Regards
Giulio
Hi Michel,
Considering my bad English, I might be wrong, but I think that the OP "had" a 16GB iPad.
Now they have a different device.
Just to clarify....
Have a nice day.
Giulio
I'm not convinced, but you might be right :)
The OP stated that they had a 16 GBs iPad before the got the iPad Air 2.
So, I can only assume the OP purchased another 16 GBs iPad storage model.
The IPad Air 2 DID come in a 16 GBs storage size.
My info to you is correct.
Full storage on new ipad?
