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Memory level wrong in “on my ipad”

The memory space of “on my ipad” is >11GB even if locally in the app Files there is no file at all. Tried to reboot, cancel and reinstall the Files app but the problem persits; please help me to restore the correct memory level value.

Posted on Oct 25, 2020 3:46 PM

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Posted on Oct 26, 2020 4:19 PM

And what do you see, Kolmy, under the “On My iPad” menu item under iPad Storage?


I do notice that both of those are Microsoft products.


I do have a couple of PowerPoint files stored On My iPad, which do show up in PowerPoint (in On My iPad), as well as in the Files App, under On My iPad -> PowerPoint.


For Word, I don’t have any Word documents stored On My iPad.


In both, the Microsoft Apps also show an Inbox folder, On My iPad, but that doesn’t show up in the Files App.


(For PowerPoint, the Inbox folder showed a number of contained folders, until they simply disappeared from PowerPoint.)


So, I don’t know why nothing is showing up, there.


What do those Apps show in On My iPad, within the Apps?


Another place to look is the Recently Deleted folder, in the Files App.


This folder, much like the Trash on a Mac, contains files from your iPad as well as from your various Cloud providers, including iCloud.


So, you need to get Info on the files to see where they actually reside.


(Incidentally, just the files that show under “On My iPad” -> “On My iPad” -> PowerPoint, exceed the amount of storage shown for “On My iPad”, within the “On My iPad” menu item under iPad Storage.)

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 26, 2020 4:19 PM in response to Kolmy

And what do you see, Kolmy, under the “On My iPad” menu item under iPad Storage?


I do notice that both of those are Microsoft products.


I do have a couple of PowerPoint files stored On My iPad, which do show up in PowerPoint (in On My iPad), as well as in the Files App, under On My iPad -> PowerPoint.


For Word, I don’t have any Word documents stored On My iPad.


In both, the Microsoft Apps also show an Inbox folder, On My iPad, but that doesn’t show up in the Files App.


(For PowerPoint, the Inbox folder showed a number of contained folders, until they simply disappeared from PowerPoint.)


So, I don’t know why nothing is showing up, there.


What do those Apps show in On My iPad, within the Apps?


Another place to look is the Recently Deleted folder, in the Files App.


This folder, much like the Trash on a Mac, contains files from your iPad as well as from your various Cloud providers, including iCloud.


So, you need to get Info on the files to see where they actually reside.


(Incidentally, just the files that show under “On My iPad” -> “On My iPad” -> PowerPoint, exceed the amount of storage shown for “On My iPad”, within the “On My iPad” menu item under iPad Storage.)

Oct 26, 2020 1:16 AM in response to Kolmy

Thank you, Kolmy, that has been quite helpful!


The 183 MB “Available”, 31 GB Used (out of 32 GB), and the 11.5 GB used within your “On My iPad” folder (and shown with the “App” of the same name), are all quite consistent, I’m sorry to inform you.


Now, that’s not to say that the 183 MB “Available” couldn’t have been better expressed, in order to make things easier to reconcile.


This is how that is all reconciled:

  1. The local, device (hardware) storage—with a total capacity of 32 GB—is made up of Used space, Available space, Purgeable space (you’ve probably never heard of that before—at least not much in non-tech circles), and Free space. Available space is equal to the sum of Free and Purgeable space. Used space usually doesn’t include Purgeable space, but not always. (It depends upon what system is reporting it.)
  2. The “Available” space reported in the “On My iPad” folder should actually be reported as Free space, since it is always less than the actual Available space given by the Total space subtracted by the Used space, in the iPad Storage “graph”. It’s not taking the Purgeable space into account.
  3. The Used space is the sum of System, “Other”, “On My iPad”, and all the other App storage space usage.
  4. If you look in the “On My iPad” folder, within the Files App, and click on the “On My iPad” “App” menu item there within iPad Storage; you will (almost certainly) find a close correspondence. You’ll need to look in the various sub-folders, of course. (I don’t expect you’ll have hidden files or folders.)


I know you wrote, initially, that «there is no file at all», when looking at the “On My iPad” folder within the Files App.


I recommend you compare what the Files App shows there (including within each sub-folder, there), vs. what you find under the “On My iPad” menu item under iPad Storage.


Take a good hard inventory, there.


If you do find discrepancies, please show them to us!

Oct 26, 2020 12:33 AM in response to Halliday

Many thanks! My replies in bold:


You have an iPad running iPadOS 14.1. (Same as my iPad Pro.)

YES

Your iPad has only 32 GB of device (hardware) storage.

YES

(You have 50 GB of iCloud storage. This will have no, direct, affect upon storage on your iPad.)

YES

When you go into the Files App, and open “On My iPad”, what do you see down at the bottom of the righthand window? (You may need to scroll down. I do, anyway.)

183MB available

When you go to Settings -> General -> iPad Storage, what do you see to the upper right, above the colored “bar”?

31GB

(If you wish, you can look below the colored “bar” to see “RECOMMENDATIONS”, and the storage space taken by your various Apps, and, down at the bottom, how much is taken by System and Other.)

System 6.83GB Other 3.36 GB

Are you, by chance, referring to what is shown under Settings -> General -> iPad Storage, for what looks like the “On My iPad” “App”?

YES

I’ve never noticed that, until now. Mine shows as 623 KB. I’ve never paid any attention to things that take up so little space.

Me neither as it looked like few MB so far for me as well... but now it says 11.5GB, I don’t understand why.


BTW I attach here a screenshot to help the understanding.


Thank you very much Halliday for your kind attention and support.


Oct 26, 2020 3:17 PM in response to Halliday

Thank you so much,

it’s now more clear to me how the system work with different type of space and its use.


The consistency of the number is explained and as they appear seem to work...


Yet my doubt is that I don’t have files that occupy the “On My IPad” space, so the available memory should be by far bigger.


on this I attach here the screenshot taken from the Files app with the selection “On My Ipad”:

you’ll see there are no file in the powerpoint folder, and I ensure there are not in the word folder as well; so no file in the OMIP folder unless are hidden file (that I don’t know how to show and manage in iOS).


many thanks again.


Oct 25, 2020 4:08 PM in response to Kolmy

Welcome, Kolmy, to Apple Support Communities!


Are you saying that the Files App, within On My iPad shows “Available” >11GB, even though there are no files or folders within that area?


Or are you trying to say that the “Available” space, shown within the On My iPad area is smaller than the difference between Total and Used space shown under Settings -> General -> iPad Storage?


Or something else.


For your information, there is much that takes up a great deal of space, on your iPad, well beyond the files that may show up within the On My iPad area of the Files App.

Oct 25, 2020 4:29 PM in response to Halliday

Thanks Halliday,


when I get into Ipad storage the “On My IPad” shows 11GB;

actually the Files app shows 189mb out of 32GB of free memory.


I don’t have any file saved in “On My IPad” neither in the Files app nor in any other app having access to it.


this is an issue since two days ago... before that “On My IPad” never went up for more that few MBs.


I’ve got the 14.1 iOS, 32GB of memory and 50GB of iCloud space.


thanks for helping!

Oct 25, 2020 5:16 PM in response to Kolmy

Thanks, Kolmy, for the additional information, though I’m still not certain I fully understand your numbers.


You have an iPad running iPadOS 14.1. (Same as my iPad Pro.)


Your iPad has only 32 GB of device (hardware) storage.


(You have 50 GB of iCloud storage. This will have no, direct, affect upon storage on your iPad.)


When you go into the Files App, and open “On My iPad”, what do you see down at the bottom of the righthand window? (You may need to scroll down. I do, anyway.)


When you go to Settings -> General -> iPad Storage, what do you see to the upper right, above the colored “bar”?


(If you wish, you can look below the colored “bar” to see “RECOMMENDATIONS”, and the storage space taken by your various Apps, and, down at the bottom, how much is taken by System and Other.)


Are you, by chance, referring to what is shown under Settings -> General -> iPad Storage, for what looks like the “On My iPad” “App”?


I’ve never noticed that, until now. Mine shows as 623 KB. I’ve never paid any attention to things that take up so little space.

Oct 26, 2020 7:51 PM in response to Halliday

Dear Halliday, you got it!


there were items in the Recently Deleted items in Files that summed up to more than 11GB.... so removing them has brought back the available space to roughly 12GB, in line with what I was expecting.


now also the ipad storage shows 17GB used and 12GB free, rounded numbers...


just for the sake of completeness, as mentioned before also the “OMIP” folders in Powerpoint and Word apps do not show any file coherently with Files OMIP folder.


Thank you very much, your support has been prompt, precise and precious.


ciao

Memory level wrong in “on my ipad”

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