Storage says it's full, but it's not.

Can you please take a screenshot and show us how's your iPad Storage, going to:

Settings>General>Ipad Storage?

Regards

Giulio

I would suggest that you use the link that I provided in my previous post to "copy archive" all pictures (I repeat it here for your convenience: Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support ), so that then you can delete them from your iPad and iCloud, making room on your device.

Giulio

What did you mean (in your original question) when you said: "I tried deleting photos but they just pop back"?

Are you using iCloud Photo, and/or othe iCloud syncing?

Should be this case, I would try to follow these instructions:--> Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

When done (your photos or other info are safely stored on your computer) delete whatever you want from your iPad.

Giulio

Your profile says iPad Pro, iPadOS 13

Did you check in the Software Update setting? Maybe you have your iPad set to automatically download the newest update and iOS 14 is just sitting there taking up your storage, waiting for you to click install. That may explain the storage issue.

I assume you have/own an older iPad Pro if it is a 32 GBs storage midel.

You should be aware that an Apple 32 GBs storage device is very bare minimum of internal data storage space, especially in an iPad Pro model.

2 GBs left of internal, free data storage space is at the very bare minimum for any iOS device and especially so for iPadOS.

A 32 GBs Apple iPad, after drive formatting, installation of iPadOS and a minimum of between 2-4 GBs ONLY leaves approx. between 18-20 GBs of actual, practical usable data storage and that is it!

So, the fact that you keep running your iPad Pro at the bare minimum of data storage is not good!

You need to free up free data storage space on an iPad/iDevic.

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/ot use other third party data storage/backup services, like Google Drive/Photos, DropBox, Box, Amazon Cloud services, Flickr ( for photos/images and videos ) or other similar data services.

Google offers 100 GBs of data storage for only $1.99/month. 200 GBs for $2.99/month, as an example.

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).

Thin out/delete any music/videos/movies/TV shows/podcasts/images/eBooks/eMagazine/iBooks/audio books/Documents/PDFs, etc.

Delete 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 the iPad Storage panel, 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.

Good Luck to You!

I agree with MichelPM about adding another form of storage for your files.

So if I'm reading your comment correctly, you still can't update your iPad. If you already chose to delete a bunch of files and they keep popping back up, could you not just log out of your cloud service or photo synching right now so the files don't keep popping back onto your iPad?

I imagine you could log out of your cloud backup/synching then delete the files that came back to your iPad. That way they wouldn't come back on to fill the space again. That may give your iPad just enough space to install the newest update.

I imagine the iPad needs a certain amount of space to do the software update and freeing up that space may give it what it needs. I don't know the exact sizes, but once the newest update replaces the current software, it should free up a ton of space. You pretty much have two operating systems sitting on your iPad taking up space right now.

Once the new software update is on, you could probably log back into your cloud/photo synching, but you may run into the same problem in the future when another software update comes along.....UNLESS....you do what MichelPM suggested and add more cloud storage. Good Luck

Okay, and what about iCloud Photos? Are you syncing them there?