Images deleted from iPad 2 but memory still full of photos. How to fix this?

Question

Images deleted from iPad 2 but memory still full of photos. How to fix this?

The memory on my iPad 2 is full -- 46.7 GB of it is Photo Library. We've deleted a whole lot of images and they don't show up anymore but memory usage hasn't changed. I can't find any way to fix this on the iPad and when I connect it via USB to my Mac it doesn't show up in the finder. iTunes does see it but doesn't seem to offer a way to delete the images. Photos does see the iPad's images but when I look at them on my Mac it displays a lot of them -- but then shows many more thumbnails that only contain a couple of overlaid rectangles -- no images! Could those be ones that were deleted in the iPad but the space for each wasn't given up? That would make sense but doesn't show how to fix it.

iPad 2, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 30, 2016 7:00 PM

Reply

Answer 1

ManSinha

Level 6

12,171 points

Apr 30, 2016 7:16 PM in response to Nathaniel Childs

Can you connect the iPad to the computer running the latest version of iTunes and in Summary - look at the colored bar at the bottom - how much of it is Photos and how much is "Other" ?

Try a forced restart

Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

If that does not help

Look at this thread

What is "other" and what can I do about it -ASC

Reply

Answer 2

elcpu

Level 7

31,481 points

May 1, 2016 6:03 AM in response to Nathaniel Childs

I suspect that your operating system got corrupted. Try a forced restart first. If it does not work you may have to do a system restore to resolve.

Forced Restart: Hold down the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time for about 15-20 seconds until the Apple logo appears. You will not lose anything.

Restore:

First backup your device using iTunes. Then import your photos to your computer and copy all important data. Try restoring from backup first and testing it. If it does not help, you may have to restore as New and reconfigure from scratch as the backup could be corrupted. For this reason it is important to have your photos and data saved separately from the backup.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252

Reply

Answer 3

Cbear80

Level 1

14 points

May 6, 2016 1:13 AM in response to Nathaniel Childs

Hi Nathaniel,

Not sure if you have resolved your problem yet. I had this issue with my phone. I realised that deleting the photos doesn't completely clear them off your device. To fully delete the files I had to go into albums at the bottom of the screen and then click on recently deleted. I was then able to delete all. This cleared the data and freed up my phone data.

I hope this helps,

Cbear80

Reply

Answer 4

May 6, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Cbear80

Yes, Cbear80, that's what I finally found too. We rarely used that album view and hadn't seen that there's a 'recently deleted photos' album there. Deleting the contents of that album solved the problem. Thanks for your response!

Reply