Photos takes too much space

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Level 1

13 points

Photos takes too much space

Hi guys,

I have had my iPad for just a bit over a week now. I have just noticed that the Photos app takes too much space for the size of the library that I have. I have only uploaded about 250 photos to Photos so far, and when I check the library size of Photos in my iCloud, it shows 1.7GB (which I still find a bit too much given the size of my photos, but I can live with it).

However, when I check the storage that the Photo app is using on my iPad, it shows 15GB. How is that possible? Is there a way to “clean cache” for Photos? I don’t have anything in the Deleted folder, either. I’m just really puzzled by this.

Thank you for any tips on how to solve this!

Posted on Nov 8, 2022 9:56 PM

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Answer 1

crazyavocado Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 9, 2022 6:58 PM in response to MichelPM

Hi Michel,

thank you for your reply!

I have the latest iPad Pro 2022 M2 11” model, running iPad OS 16.1.

I have tried the steps you have advised and performed the hard reset - however, my Photos app still shows that 15gb is used.

From what I’ve seen in Reddit while doing my research on the topic, it appears that people first started to experience similar issues with their iPhones and iPads when iOS 15 was released. Some of the potential solutions which worked for some of users were:

changing the system date and time manually to some date in the past, then checking the Deleted folder in Photos. For some users it showed lots of ghost pictures which they could delete from there, which freed up lots of storage. Didn’t work for me - my Deleted folder was empty when I did that trick;
turning on and off syncing Photos with iCloud, with device restarts in between. Didn’t work for me.
erasing the iPad completely, then restoring from a back-up. This makes sense only if you don’t intend to use Photos going forward - but as soon as people uploaded anything else into Photos, the issue persisted and the “used storage” grew in size quickly.

Really not sure what to do here, as I actually really liked the idea of my photos being synced all across my devices, and was even thinking of finally getting an iPhone to have this full integrity across the board. I know there are better 3rd party options out there, but I don’t like the idea of spending quite a lot on 3rd party subscriptions just to have my photos synced.

thank you,

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

81,284 points

Nov 9, 2022 5:23 PM in response to crazyavocado

Have you tried,

For iPad models with a Home button, do a simple hard reset/forced restart of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake/power button simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

OR

For much newer design iPad models, without a Home button, try the new simple hard reset/forced restart procedure for the new 2018-2022 iPad Pros, 2020/21 iPad Air 4 and 5 and 2021 iPad Mini 6 models.

1. Press and release the volume button closest to the top Power button

2. Then immediately press and release the volume button farthest from the top Power button.

3. Then, press and hold the top single sleep/wake/power button You will see the Slide to Power off button, but keep on holding down the power button until you see the Apple logo, then let it go.

Once you have performed all the steps, wait for a few seconds and your 2018-2022 iPad will boot up completely to the iPad’s Lock screen.

Best of Luck to You!

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Answer 3

MichelPM

Level 10

81,284 points

Nov 10, 2022 12:21 AM in response to crazyavocado

I have never, ever sync'd anything across my devices using iCloud. Ever.

iCloud is,,basically, a “sync-ing” service and there can be accidents where data deleted, accidentally off one device, can be deleted off all of your other iCloud sync'd devices, never to be recovered.

I have been an Apple iPad user for 12 years and a Mac user for over 25 years, I completely avoid the use of iCloud.

I backup my Mac data, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch data, photo images to my Mac and all my sundry edternal bqckup drives and use Google Drive/Photos, as well.

I am NOT an iCloud user.

So, none of my iOS/iPadOS devices have ever encountered this issu.

My current iPad models are all running iPadOS 15.7.1.

I think iOS/iPadOS 16 is still a mess, so I will be waiting out iOS/iPadOS for a few more updates before I make the big decision to ugrade all my famiy's iOS/iPadOS devices to iOS/iPadOS 16 and the most current watchOS.

I am never in an big hurry to upgrade my expensive devices to the latest OS, IF it has proven to still have significant bugs and is still unstable.

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Answer 4

crazyavocado Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 10, 2022 7:51 AM in response to MichelPM

I've been a Mac user for 15 years now. I back-up all my data, too. However, being into photography, it is important to me to be able to pick up one device and continue exactly where I was with the other device, including the albums structure, editing, etc. I use Google photos, but it has other purposes for me and doesn't offer the desired functionality. So, using Photos synced via iCloud is the best option in my case - the only alternative that I can think of that offers the same functionality and doesn't rely on Photos library is Lightroom. It's a pity this bug with the storage still exists - if it has been around since iOS 15, indeed.

I hope it gets fixed, or, perhaps, I'm lucky and someone else comes up with a magical solution :)

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Photos takes too much space

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