How to free up space on iPad in 5 steps

“iPad Storage is Full” - Have you seen a similar message about iPad storage on your device? This article will provide the 5 most effective and quick steps to free up iPad memory. 

Step 1: Remove unused applications.

Take a look at all your applications. Do you really use all of them? Most likely, that you installed an application to try and then forgot about it. Since applications might take up a lot of storage space, it’s time to put things in order on your device and remove all unused applications. 

Here is how to remove applications on iPad:

1. Go to the Settings → General → iPad Storage. 
2. Scroll down and find the list of applications installed on your iPad. Here you can see how much space each application takes up on your storage. 
3. Remove the applications you don’t need, especially the largest ones. 
4. Tap on each of the applications you don’t use. 
5. On the next screen, tap on Delete App. 

Step 2: Remove music files.

Lately, cloud and streaming technologies are greatly moving forward. Since a stable 3G or higher Internet is available almost everywhere, you don’t need to save music files on your iPad anymore. Switching to streaming music is a great step to free up space on your iPad. You can use Apple Music service to save storage space on your device.  

Step 3: Remove iMessage history.

This problem often manifests itself on iPhones. However, many iPad users also use the device for quick messages. Removing iMessage history might free up a substantial amount of space on your iPad, especially if you often send media files via iMessage.

Here is how to clear iMessage history on iPad:

1. Open the Messages app on iPad. 
2. Tap on any conversation you want to delete.  
3. Tap and hold the message you want to delete.
4. You will see the pop-up menu. Tap on More... 
5. If you want to delete particular messages, select them by tapping the circles next to them and then tap the Trash icon. If you want to delete the whole conversation history, tap on Delete All in the screen’s top-left corner. 
6. Confirm clearing iMessage history. 

Please note, when you delete a conversation in iMessage, the messages are removed only on your device. You can’t remove the messages on someone’s iPhone or iPad.

Step 4: Clear browser history.

Any browser creates and stores caches and cookies on your device. The mobile version is not an exception. You will be surprised how much space caches take up your storage space. You should regularly clear them to create more free space on your iPad. 

Below we will provide the steps on how to clear history and website data in Safari. If you use another browser on your iPad, the steps are usually similar. 

How to clear caches in Safari:

1. Open Settings on iPad. 
2. Scroll down and tap on Safari. 
3. Scroll down and tap on Clear History and Website Data. 
4. Confirm deleting Safari’s browsing data. 

Your Safari caches, cookies and other browsing data will be deleted. Also note, that this data will be deleted from other devices you are signed into with the same iCloud account.

Step 5: Remove photos and videos.

Most iPad users take many photos on the device. We usually take multiple photos to select the most successful one, but then we forget to delete unneeded shots. Another problem is the autosaved pictures and videos from Instagram, TikTok, or another social media application, which are stored in a separate album or Camera Roll on your iPad. As a result, you might have many unneeded photos and videos that take up much space on your iPad. 

I recommend that you take a look at your media files and remove all unneeded ones. This will be easy to do with the help of the free application Phone Cleaner - an application that scans Photo library on your iPad and finds and displays similar photos, as well as the largest photos and videos so that you can easily get rid of unneeded ones and quickly get more free space.

Here is how to remove similar photos and biggest media on iPad:

1. Launch Phone Cleaner on iPad. 
2. Take a look at the list of the Biggest media files and remove unneeded files. 
3. Switch to the Similar section. Here you will see your photos grouped by similarity. 
4. Select in each group of photos the best picture. Other duplicate photos will be automatically moved to the Trash. 
5. Switch to the Trash section and remove all selected and unneeded media files.
6. Confirm the action. 
7. And lastly, don’t forget to empty your iPad Trash to get rid of unneeded photos and videos permanently. 

I provided the easiest and quickest steps that will help you to free up storage on iPad and stop seeing the message that iPad storage is full. If you have any questions or your own tips, share them with us.