You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
My iPad says OS 18.1 is available to update but I have insufficient stockage space. So I plugged the iPad into my Mac, went to Finder, found my iPad, and when I click on update software, it says I have the latest software
OS 18.0.1
iPad, iPadOS 18
The iPadOS 18.1 update is still rolling-out across Apple's regional update servers - and may not yet be available to all servers. Your iPad and Mac computer may be connecting to different update servers.
It is generally recommended that you maintain 4-6GB of free space at all times - as your iPad needs some temporary space to complete some tasks - such as performing system software updates.
A system software update requires sufficient space to be downloaded, unpacked and verified prior to installation - major version updates (such as updating from iPadOS 17.x to iPadOS 18) requiring considerably more space than an incremental point-update. After the update is successfully completed, temporary files are automatically deleted - returning free space.
If your internal storage is full, or is insufficient for the task that you need to perform, your only option is to better manage the storage that you have - and delete unused Apps or unneeded data.
These support pages should prove to be helpful:
About storage on your device and in iCloud – Apple Support
What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? – Apple Support
Manage your iCloud storage – Apple Support
How to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support
Clear Other storage on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support
“Offloading” Apps can be a helpful method of creating temporary space for a software update.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/21/how-to-offload-apps-in-ios-to-save-space-without-deleting-their-data/
Additional information about creating sufficient space for installation of a software update can be found here:
If you need more space for an update on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
External storage options can often help with managing limited internal storage. Depending upon your iPad model, the iPad will either have a Lightning or USB-C port - and may therefore require either an Adapter or USB hub to connect the USB Storage device. If your iPad has a Lightning port, you’ll need an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter:
I'm delighted to learn that Apple Support have been able to assist - and that you are now able to install the update.
It is generally recommended that you maintain 4-6GB of free space at all times - as your iPad needs some temporary space to complete some tasks - such as performing system and other software updates.
Regrettably, you are always going to struggle with an iPad that has so little internal storage. These devices are primarily intended for use in Educational settings, or in environments where the ability to store local data on the device is not required.
Using a Mac computer or Windows PC can help with system software updates - as the update package is initially downloaded to the computer, unpacked and verified by the computer, prior to the computer installing the updated system software on the target device.
As is, perhaps your only workable remedy is to ensure that you have either an iCloud or iTunes backup of your iPad - and then completely erase the iPad. With no user-data present, you should be able to update the iPad; once updated, you can restore your backup to the iPad.
How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
Erase all content and settings:
Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Erase All Content & Settings
After the reset, set-up the iPad with your AppleID - but do not restore the backup. Perform the system software update using whichever method works for you.
Finally, restore the backup to your iPad:
Sure, but in my case, my 32Gb ipad can't update even if all deletable apps are deleted. It asks for "at least 14,84 of available storage during installation" and there's nothing else from the user side to delete. I've got 13.58Gb free and no luck with 18.1. No apps, documents nor anything else I can find. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
[Edited] And when I try to update through my Mac, it goes on saying that "This version of the iPad software (18.1) is the current version, and no it's not, as the ipad is showing that there IS an update pending.
[Edit 2] After contacting support, and verifying everything, we did a Force Restart and then the 14,84 Gb of storage requested went down to 6,62. And It went through. At least it's requested and being downloaded. Weird.
Well, again, the issue is that I had 13Gb free and still wasn't able to download. But yeah, more storage can help.
Trying to update iPad to new OS 18.1
