Saving hard drive space on your ipad - tips and tricks

[therealriley]

I see these tips and tricks threads become helpful tools when managing your iPad so I decided to start this one on tips to save hard drive space.
Obviously you can just delete stuff but I wonder if anyone has found any ways to save space. I.e using zip files to shrink the file sizes, using different formats of files, deleting cookies and data etc
I have noticed that when you download a lot of updates for a certain app the size of this app increases overtime, can you delete this app and then download just the latest version to shrink the space used for that app?
Has anybody out there found a way to free up space? Let us all know please.

 

[AQ_OC]

I use this one app called "Pimp Your Screen". It lets you download nice background and lock screen images. And they are high res due to the new iPad. To you it you save the image to your camera roll to use as a wallpaper/lock screen image. Well, after using it for a while I found by looking General | Usage | Storage that it was hogging up over 1GB of space. Well, it turns out that it stores any image you see in the app in its own app space and the more you look at an image, the larger it grows, regardless of whether you saved it or not (in fact, saving it just gives you two copies). To reclaim that space, I had to delete the app and load it back on. The images stored in the camera roll remain, but the ones hidden in its own app space are erased, so the space they were hogging up is reclaimed. I wrote to the company about this and the claim there is a fix coming, but I have yet to see it.

I also note that my Magazines are taking up space with old issues. Maximum PC is now up to 1GB and Mac|Life is close. The Daily and CR Magazine are also very close to 1GB. So, deleting old issues will free up space.

Other than this, the only way I can see to save space is to delete apps that don't get used much. If you need them again you can always reload them. The other option is to use the cloud to off-load your own files, but I don't see much utility in this. Some of the high-res games take up huge amounts of space....if you aren't actively playing one, you can remove it too.

Beyond these kinds of things, I don't think there is much else that can be done. Apple needs to look at compression technology that is integrated into the OS. But there is a price for that because it could slow down opening and closing of apps. The real solution is more storage space. I fully expect Apple to do this when they next refresh the iPad, as part of the growth of app sizes is due to the retina screen and the high-res images it demands.

 

[sjleworthy]

i'm curious how many peeps use an ipad exlusivly without the use of a main desktop/laptop computer? i suspect most us another computer too.

in this case, the best disk saving method for ipad is to sync more selectivly. must you store every single movie you own or every single album you own on your ipad? nope. must you store every single app you've ever bought and downloaded on your ipad? of course not.
even if you're an ipad only kinda guy, syncing and storing in the cloud is optimal. thats why these things are there. my 64 gb ipad is rarely up past the 25% capacity mark. i only keep relevant and used media on my devise. and when i'm bored and up for a change i delete and re-sync. dont forget, if you delete from your device your media is always free and easy to recover when wanted.

 

[therealriley]

Exactly the type of answers I was looking for. I know there is not much else you can do but I'm hoping members can club together here and suggest a few more things. I wanted to add though beware as some games when deleted, and redownloaded will delete your save game progress. Thanks for your answers.

 

[janner43]

This thread is very relevant to me, because nowadays we are totally tablet based in our house. As a bit of a techy geek over 3 decades now, I enjoy the challenge of thinking differently to achieve what is needed.

One of the ways I have saved space is to store the majority of our pictures, videos, downloads on our NAS drive. Believe it or not, that is a grand title for a 64gb USB flash drive mounted in our router (BT HH3). Then I access them on any device in the house. The other thing we do is to have an iPad & Android tablet mix - it really works.

 

[AQ_OC]

i'm curious how many peeps use an ipad exlusivly without the use of a main desktop/laptop computer? i suspect most us another computer too.

in this case, the best disk saving method for ipad is to sync more selectivly. must you store every single movie you own or every single album you own on your ipad? nope. must you store every single app you've ever bought and downloaded on your ipad? of course not.
even if you're an ipad only kinda guy, syncing and storing in the cloud is optimal. thats why these things are there. my 64 gb ipad is rarely up past the 25% capacity mark. i only keep relevant and used media on my devise. and when i'm bored and up for a change i delete and re-sync. dont forget, if you delete from your device your media is always free and easy to recover when wanted.

If I were to store all my music and ripped movies on my iPad, I'd need a dozen of them! I seriously doubt folks store all their music/movies unless they only have a little.

Now, apps are a different story. The idea behind an app on an iPad is you use it when you needed or play it when you want to. Unless you have exhausted it, there are reasons to keep them around. Loading / unloading becomes a PITA as some point. And there are still a lot of apps that I don't load back on my iPad because they are junk. If you are only using 25% of your space, then why did you spend money on all that storage if you're not going to use it?

 

[sjleworthy]

Because i can

 

[romeosc]

I use an AirStash.

It allows unlimited storage on iPad, iPhone, etc! I have several 32 GB SD cards filled with movies and pictures. It creates it's own wifi network and needs no Internet connectivity.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Temp70]

Thanks for sharing regarding tips and tricks about saving hard drive space on your ipad, I like it very much.

 

[romeosc]

Thanks for sharing regarding tips and tricks about saving hard drive space on your ipad, I like it very much.

Airstash is great since SD cards have dropped in price. I keep one filled with podcasts and videos for long flights and vacations where TV is limited to foreign languages. It was a life saver for flight to China last year!