How to reclaim storage from photos in iOS?

[Narked Diver]

Hi,

My wife has a 32 GB ipad and she has used up about 30 GB

About 15 GB are photos that have downloaded from the iCloud when she has viewed them

She has photos optimised so her whole library (over 100 gb) is not stored on the ipad - only those she has viewed

I know iOS is supposed to clear these down as necessary but 15 GB seems a bit excessive

Is there any way to manually clear photos off the ipad manually without deleting them?

Thanks in advance

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The short answer is no. However, there is a longer answer.

If iCloud Photo Library > Optimize Storage is working correctly, it will automatically remove photos when the storage space is needed for other purposes. If there's little demand for the remaining 2 GB, it may leave things just as they are.

The long answer is that an Erase all Content and Settings followed by a Restore From iCloud Backup may achieve what you desire. When I've done that (in attempts to resolve various, unrelated issues with my old iPhone 6, and when setting up my iPhone X), the amount of space used by Photos was reduced dramatically. In the case of iCloud Photo Library > Optimize Storage, it seems it only downloads the thumbnail images when you restore, and downloads larger size images only when you view them.

 

[snow755]

Get her a new IPad with 128Gb or 256GB and Problem solved

 

[Enclavean]

Get her a new IPad with 128Gb or 256GB and Problem solved

 

[Narked Diver]

Thanks for the various suggestions

I’m wondering if the following would work

Turn off iCloud Photo Library on her ipad then manually delete all the photos from her phone and then turn iCloud Photo Library back on

What it prevent the photos from being deleted from her iCloud or would they be deleted when the iPad syncs to the iCloud when the photo library is turned back on?

 

[chabig]

Since you have "Optimize iPad Storage" I'd just forget about it and let the OS manage storage the way it's built to.

 

[Narked Diver]

Since you have "Optimize iPad Storage" I'd just forget about it and let the OS manage storage the way it's built to.

I would but iOS doesn’t seem to be managing it - my wife is getting a lot of “cannot do that - not enough storage” alerts

 

[chabig]

Ok. How about turning “Optimize ipad Storage” off and on again?

 

[NoBoMac]

Re: turning iCloud Photos off/on: I am not using that part of iCloud, so a guess here, but, all the iCloud functions seem to have option of "remove from device" or "keep on device" when toggling off. So, in theory, can turn off Photos, select remove, then reenable where the database should rebuild, but will not affect iCloud.

Basically, should work as if you are getting rid of a device and replacing with a new/different one.