Yes, I have searched and read the internet. Still don’t understand what to do. Thought someone here schooled in Apple might.

iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro — one user account on all three. iPad is 32 GB WiFi only. The iMessages and Photos are marked as having consumed the majority of the iPad memory.

The iPad has NO original photos taken on the iPad. All I see are photos from the iPhone.

The iPad is running 29 GB of 32 GB, and is acting flaky. I have deleted unused apps.

If I want to remove photos, videos, from both Photos and iMessages, to free up iPad memory, what really happens to them? Obviously I do not want to truly delete them.

Your only real option is to offload them onto an external storage device and free up space. Lots of options for that out there.

You should be able to disable icloud sharing with the ipad and delete the pics only from the ipad, they'll stay in your free cloud storage. You can also get additional cloud storsge for very little money, I forget what it costs though. Thinking about it, if the pics are in icloud I didn't think they used any physical memory on the ipad.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
You should be able to disable icloud sharing with the ipad and delete the pics only from the ipad, they'll stay in your free cloud storage. You can also get additional cloud storsge for very little money, I forget what it costs though. Thinking about it, if the pics are in icloud I didn't think they used any physical memory on the ipad.

I'm paying $1.09/month for 50Gb of iCloud storage.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
You should be able to disable icloud sharing with the ipad and delete the pics only from the ipad, they'll stay in your free cloud storage. You can also get additional cloud storsge for very little money, I forget what it costs though. Thinking about it, if the pics are in icloud I didn't think they used any physical memory on the ipad.

This. You can turn off sharing with your phone, so only photos you take, or save, on the iPad will be on there, and deleting photos on the iPad won’t affect photos on the phone. I think you only get 5GB of iCloud storage for free, but 50GB only costs 99 cents a month.

Dunno if you're aware, but text messages are saved by default on a physical device through iCloud, but that option can be disabled. Depending on how long you've had the ipad, you may have years of saved text messages.

Here's how to disable that function:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208960

quote:

Originally posted by SparkyWho:
Dunno if you're aware, but text messages are saved by default on a physical device through iCloud, but that option can be disabled. Depending on how long you've had the ipad, you may have years of saved text messages.

Here's how to disable that function:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208960

Definitely start here. You’d be surprised how much space all those Geo tag pictures people send in text along with Memes and other tidbits take up. Videos texted are huge as well.

For the pictures, in settings go down the list on the left to "photos" and select it. Then on the right side, turn "photo stream" off. This will prevent pictures from your other devices from loading on your iPad.

For apps, in settings select "general" on the left and then select "iPad storage" on the right side. This will show you what apps are using storage. Select an app from the list to see how much memory the app uses for the app and for data. (I think you already knew this)
You can delete unused apps to clear up memory. If you have apps that you do use but use up memory for data you can deleate the app and data and reinstall the app. This will reduce the amount of data stored but it will build back up as you use the app.

One of my biggest bitches about iThingys has always been no expandable memory.

It’s all about how you setup the iPad, phone, and cloud. My iPhone and iPad are cloud sharing. Photos on my phone sync to my iPad. My iPad is 64 gig. I have over 13,000 yes, thirteen thousand photos, and I still have 18 gigs available.

Now, when I go to send a photo, I do have to wait a second or two for it to download. I can view them just fine, but if sending, it adds a second or two to the process.

The thing is, I set this up so long ago, I’m not even sure how or where to guide you. Most of it is how it runs out of the box. At some point I made a change to Settings > Photos > iCloud photos turned on, and Optimize iPhone/iPad Storage is checked.

You need enough cloud storage for all the photos. I pay $3 a month for a 200gb. I still have 70 gb left. It’s pretty affordable.

I think that should solve your issues.

I have a newer Air 2, Wifi only with the smallest memory in that model.
I set it from the start to use icloud for bulky stuff like photos and have had no problems at all. I don't normally keep old or unimportant messages but those shouldn't take up much space unless they have large files or photos attached.

So, it seems I should disable iCloud sharing on the iPad.

And, I should disable text messages being stored on any Apple device.

I have 2TB of iCloud storage.

Before you start deleting your photos and videos, be sure to check your storage if you've been watching podcasts on your iPad. My phone storage became full, and I discovered all of the podcasts I watched were stored in my phone memory. Once I deleted them, my storage was vastly restored.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
So, it seems I should disable iCloud sharing on the iPad.

And, I should disable text messages being stored on any Apple device.

I have 2TB of iCloud storage.

I would disable the text messages. Truthfully, the reason I was able to point out the Apple help documentation was that I had the same issue about a year ago on a Macbook Air, thankfully it wasn't creating a storage issue, but contents of the messages were showing up in Finder searches.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, unlimited photo storage is free.

Let Amazon store them, and use the free Amazon app to view photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:



I'm paying $1.09/month for 50Gb of iCloud storage.

That's interesting. I know the difference is only 10 cents but I'm paying $0.99 / month each for my wife and I for the same 50gb of iCloud.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
If you're an Amazon Prime member, unlimited photo storage is free.

Let Amazon store them, and use the free Amazon app to view photos.

And if you're on iPhone and you wish to download from Amazon Photo, you'll need a HEIC to JPG online converter. Google had no problem storing iPhone's HEIC format to JPG but, somehow, Amazon Photos just stores them in their original format.

Here is the one I use: Free Convert HEIC to JPG online.

Apple enables iCloud photos by default. I think this is insidious because I see this problem often - people buy a phone with good memory but as soon as they hit the 5 GB limit of "free" iCloud storage they get messages that it is full and they have to buy more storage (actually rent more). This is even if the phone has a lot of onboard storage - like 128 GB or more. So either you have to deactivate iCloud photos, or you have to pay for more iCloud storage. $1 for 50GB isn't bad though and I have that plan to have room for iCloud backups.

The reason they do this is because many people never back up their phones, and then panic when the phone is lost or dies and they lose all their photos. That and to make money on iCloud storage subscriptions. My phones back up to my iMac over wifi so they are generally always "safe" unless I am out of the house for a long time. My personal phone backs up to iCloud too, but I'm not entirely sure if that includes the photos.

I don't use iCloud photos or Photostream because I have a work iPhone and personal iPhone sharing the same Apple ID and I do not want business photos and personal photos to get mixed together. Plus my work phone has monitoring and security software on it that disables iCloud storage for a lot of things.

I use iMessage in iCloud to ensure iMessage synchs between my personal iPhone, iMac, MacBook, and iPad. I do not synch the business phone. Be careful that when iMessage is synched, if you delete one place it deletes everywhere. Since the business phone doesn't synch, I can delete anything personal that goes to my Apple ID and it stays on my personal devices.

I do not recommend using Google or Amazon photos, ever. I simply do not trust either of these companies to provide adequate security and privacy or maintain my exclusive rights to my photos. But FB is the worst of all.

Also stop Apps (especially music Apps) from staying in background when not in use.

I turned off iCloud on the iPad and it said it would delete 4000 photos from the iPad.

It may have. When I look now on the iPad, I see 22 photos. No idea why. All these photos were taken with the iPhone. I deleted these duplicates.

I checked the iPad storage again. There is NO change in consumed storage. 28.5 of 32 GB.

When I checked Photos on the MacBook Pro, I could still see all 4000 photos.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
I turned off iCloud on the iPad and it said it would delete 4000 photos from the iPad.

It may have. When I look now on the iPad, I see 22 photos. No idea why. All these photos were taken with the iPhone. I deleted these duplicates.

I checked the iPad storage again. There is NO change in consumed storage. 28.5 of 32 GB.

When I checked Photos on the MacBook Pro, I could still see all 4000 photos.

Connect your iPad to your computer with a charging cable and perform a backup. Then see if anything changes. Just spitballing...