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I deleted all my photos but they are still taking up space

I am trying to get more space on my iPad air (not the cloud). I uploaded all my photos to my PC and I have deleted all of my photos from my camera roll and photo stream. The problem is that under usage, it still says:

Camera roll 42.7 mb

Photo library 0

Photo stream 429 mb


I need to figure this out ASAP. I know thst there are a number of posts about this but I can't find any real answers. A lot redirect to older sites with advice that is outdated. Can someone please help me.

iPad, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Mar 20, 2014 7:49 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 19, 2015 7:19 PM

This worked....exactly as you said it would. I have just freed up 1GB of phantom photos...thank you!

39 replies

Mar 5, 2015 9:37 AM in response to amyfromcleveland heights

I managed to get rid of the phantom usage. Restoring iPhone and resetting the phone settings/data do not work for me.

I had to move the Date on my phone earlier by 1,2,3 months and found the phantom photos in the Recently Deleted Folder. Next, I deleted the photos manually from the Recently Deleted Folder and the usage got freed up from my iPhone.


Hope this works for you

May 12, 2014 6:13 PM in response to amyfromcleveland heights

How much space is used by your Other? You may be able to reduce.


How Do I Get Rid Of The “Other” Data Stored On My iPad Or iPhone?

http://tinyurl.com/85w6xwn


How to Remove “Other” Data from iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-remove-other-data-from-iphone/


With an iOS device, the “Other” space in iTunes is used to store things like documents, settings, caches, and a few other important items. If you sync lots of documents to apps like GoodReader, DropCopy, or anything else that reads external files, your storage use can skyrocket. With iOS 5/6/7, you can see exactly which applications are taking up the most space. Just head to Settings > General > Usage, and tap the button labeled Show All Apps. The storage section will show you the app and how much storage space it is taking up. Tap on the app name to get a description of the additional storage space being used by the app’s documents and data. You can remove the storage-hogging application and all of its data directly from this screen, or manually remove the data by opening the app. Some applications, especially those designed by Apple, will allow you to remove stored data by swiping from left to right on the item to reveal a Delete button.


What is “Other” and What Can I Do About It?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142


iPhone or iPad Ran Out of Storage Space? Here’s How to Make Space Available Quickly

http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/02/iphone-ipad-ran-out-of-available-storage-space-ho w-to-fix-quick/


6 Tips to Free Up Tons of Storage Space on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

http://osxdaily.com/2012/04/24/6-tips-free-up-storage-space-ipad-iphone-ipod-tou ch/


Also,

How to Clear Message/iMessage Cache on iPhone & iPad And Reclaim Lots of Free Space

http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-clear-message-imessage-cache-on-iphone-ipad/


What is Stored in iCloud and What is Not

https://sites.google.com/site/appleclubfhs/support/advice-and-articles/what-is-s tored-in-icloud


 Cheers, Tom 😉

Sep 4, 2017 9:44 AM in response to Charles Palenz

Sorry, Charles, but this doesn't work for me (iPad 2). I regularly delete photos from Recently Deleted right after I've deleted them from my Albums, so finding the exact previous time and date during which all those photos were still there (yesterday afternoon) is hit-and-miss and, after changing to several different times of the afternoon, I couldn't find any images at all in Recently Deleted. I know it was yesterday afternoon when I deleted the 2,800+ images from my Photos album, but I can't pinpoint the exact time at which all those files were still in Recently Deleted before I deleted them from there, also.

May 12, 2014 5:06 PM in response to amyfromcleveland heights

The same thing happened to me. I contacted apple but they didn't help me so I figured out how to fix it:


1. Open iTunes on your Mac.

2. Plug your iPad in.

3. Check that both iTunes and your iPad both say that you have pictures.

4. Open iPhoto on your Mac.

5. Select "iPad Camera" in iPhoto.

6. You should see pictures.

7. Select "Import all".

8. A pop up should apear asking if you want to delete the pictures from your camera.

9. Select delete then if you want, you can delete them from iPhoto.

10. Sync your iPad in iTunes.


That's it. Your iPad should be fixed.

Mar 16, 2015 11:49 AM in response to amyfromcleveland heights

I Have the same problem. With 8.2 I can't remove all the photos from my phone.


Yes, I have cleaned out "recently deleted".


Yes, there are no photos in my photo stream.


Yes, there are no photos in my iCloud.


Yes, I did a hard reboot.


I checked all of those things.


After removing everything Photos still was holding 2.4GB of storage space.


I did find something that works (in another forum) is to turn on iCloud photos and let it crank through trying to upload the "phantom" photos. that is supposed to trigger some sort of forced reconciliation. The first time I tried it, it took a *long* time pretending to upload hundreds of non-existent photos. Once it completed, Photos reported only using about 1GB (but there were still no Photos in my iCloud). So I turned it off and on again - it went through the long process of trying to upload the photos that don't exist. After the second try it freed up another 600MB and I was down to 400MB held by Photos. I tried a third time and that got me to zero held by Photos. The whole process took over an hour.


PHotos is clearly holding on to some sort of data it thinks still exists but that doesn't actually exist. At no point during this whole process were there ever any pictures anywhere in any of my folders or libraries. Photos was just simply holding space it wasn't using.


I Can't say for sure if it is 8.2 related because I didn't notice it before now.

I deleted all my photos but they are still taking up space

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