iPad mini iPad mini 6Gth Gen 64Gb how much space left?

[MrMister111]

With iPadOS 26 on a iPad mini 6th Gen how much actual usable space is left?

Currently have a Fire and it's so slow, it's literally used very sparely for watching media mainly, so mostly streaming. But if on airplane, very odd time I'd want to download.

Apple also, frustratingly, don't allow Movies and TV that I've purchased to stream or download, only on Apple devices, lesson learned there!

Won't be main iPad for home, it's to chuck in a bag literally for when out and about.

Don't need 5G as hotspot is enough.

Also it'll be 2nd hand is it still relevant today for the 6th gen?

 

[rui no onna]

I already traded in my 64GB wifi iPad mini 6. It was one of my daily drivers and it was constantly running out of space for updates. Note, battery life was pretty bad by the time I traded it in.

On a lightly used 64GB iPad 9 (iPadOS 27 dev beta 2) on my dummy iCloud account, OS and system data takes up 24GB already. My apps (mostly streaming apps and some essentials) use ~18GB leaving just ~22GB free. Mind, you need ~15GB free nowadays for OTA updates to install smoothly.

You could download 1-2 videos on a 64GB iPad. Maybe more if you use lower quality. However, I'd consider 64GB to be mainly streaming-only at this point in time.

 

[Gloomy]

With iPadOS 26 on a iPad mini 6th Gen how much actual usable space is left?

Currently have a Fire and it's so slow, it's literally used very sparely for watching media mainly, so mostly streaming. But if on airplane, very odd time I'd want to download.

Apple also, frustratingly, don't allow Movies and TV that I've purchased to stream or download, only on Apple devices, lesson learned there!

Won't be main iPad for home, it's to chuck in a bag literally for when out and about.

Don't need 5G as hotspot is enough.

Also it'll be 2nd hand is it still relevant today for the 6th gen?

My iPad mini 6 WiFi + Cellular is currently running iPadOS 27 Public Beta, it has about 8.5GB of apps/data and some photos & drawings on it. iPadOS and System files occupy about 22GB between them, but it fluctuates. The iPad mini 6 is still a great device for use today as the A15 Bionic is no slouch, but the iPad mini 7 with the A17 Pro chip would definitely have the edge when it comes to future proofing.

This leaves roughly 30GB of storage on the device. Hope this helps! 🙂

 

[MrMister111]

Thanks. Not a lot at all! I knew this, and as say it's a secondary device, so mostly streaming. It'll just be so better than Fire I imagine.

I'll just have to install streaming apps basically, and any updates I'll delete downloads to get it on.

Hopefully iPadOS 27 is streamlined a bit, otherwise I'll not install it. Wonder if iPadOS 18 last one before the big change was any smaller

 

[Gloomy]

I was going to mention it in the original post, but I had iPadOS 18 on it until yesterday. It was actually using more storage - I think it had about 25GB free space. I did the OTA update to 27 PB and it actually freed up 5-6GB of space.

 

[MrMister111]

I was going to mention it in the original post, but I had iPadOS 18 on it until yesterday. It was actually using more storage - I think it had about 25GB free space. I did the OTA update to 27 PB and it actually freed up 5-6GB of space.

Great! Was hoping that newer they maybe cut some old code/rubbish to streamline it a bit. I'll hold off maybe on 27 in case uses more, as "every penny counts" on such small GB.

 

[PegLegDreg]

Depends what storage it has. 'System Data' can balloon out of control for no logical reason so it's a bit of a moot point. Just delete as you go as you said!

 

[makdiddy]

You can use the Movies Anywhere app for Android to link your Apple account if you’re in the USA. You should then be able to watch shows you purchased from Apple and download them.

 

[MrMister111]

You can use the Movies Anywhere app for Android to link your Apple account if you’re in the USA. You should then be able to watch shows you purchased from Apple and download them.

Heard about this, but not available in UK 😔

 

[FeliApple]

OP, did you buy it in the end?

 

[MrMister111]

OP, did you buy it in the end?

I did! much much better than fire. Still runs decent enough. As I say its for use as second/spare.

When I got it I updated and it had 45Gb free, iPadOS said was 13Gb, obviously system data goes up and down.

Trouble is with Apple TV movies/TV/aTV+ everything is BIG. As in size, there is no option for limiting. like say Prime where you can choose 3 levels of storage. If its just on a 8" screen, doesn't need to be 4K, Apple don't allow that.

Looking at it now, just updated to 26.6, iPadOS says 18.8Gb for some reason

 

[FeliApple]

I did! much much better than fire. Still runs decent enough. As I say its for use as second/spare.

When I got it I updated and it had 45Gb free, iPadOS said was 13Gb, obviously system data goes up and down.

Trouble is with Apple TV movies/TV/aTV+ everything is BIG. As in size, there is no option for limiting. like say Prime where you can choose 3 levels of storage. If its just on a 8" screen, doesn't need to be 4K, Apple don't allow that.

Looking at it now, just updated to 26.6, iPadOS says 18.8Gb for some reason

Still, 40-something GB of TV Shows and movies is good enough, right?

I have an iPad Air 5 I download stuff on that’s 64GB and I mainly use it for Apple Pencil stuff and streaming, and it works just fine storage-wise.

Sure, your needs have to be rather specific, and light, but if you buy it with that idea you shouldn’t be close to running out of storage.

Case in point: I have a 128GB 9.7-inch iPad Pro that has 128GB. Ten years after purchase I have half the storage left, and I can delete a LOT if I wanted to.

Honestly? I think you’ll be fine.

 

[rui no onna]

Trouble is with Apple TV movies/TV/aTV+ everything is BIG. As in size, there is no option for limiting. like say Prime where you can choose 3 levels of storage. If its just on a 8" screen, doesn't need to be 4K, Apple don't allow that.

Settings - Apps - TV - Download Options - Fast Downloads

Caveat, the file sizes are still bigger than say Prime or Netflix.

 

[FeliApple]

Settings - Apps - TV - Download Options - Fast Downloads

Caveat, the file sizes are still bigger than say Prime or Netflix.

Interesting, I’m only learning now that this existed.

Do you know what the difference is? A regular 40-something-minute chapter on Amazon Prime is about 200 MB. Netflix, IIRC, has similar requirements.

 

[rui no onna]

Interesting, I’m only learning now that this existed.

Do you know what the difference is? A regular 40-something-minute chapter on Amazon Prime is about 200 MB. Netflix, IIRC, has similar requirements.

I can't remember exactly how sizes compare to Prime or Netflix but iirc, the low quality AppleTV option tends to be still bigger than the smallest options on Netflix/Prime. Mind, the last time I compared was in 2020 so things might have changed since then.

Here are some movies I keep on a couple of my iPads in case you have them available for comparison (smaller downloads on a 256GB mini 6 and larger downloads on a 1TB M1 Pro 11").

The Avengers
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.67 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.26 GB

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.63 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.14 GB

Avengers: Infinity War
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.78 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.49 GB

Avengers: Endgame
Apple TV Fast Download: 3.4 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 9.05 GB

 

[MrMister111]

I can't remember exactly how sizes compare to Prime or Netflix but iirc, the low quality AppleTV option tends to be still bigger than the smallest options on Netflix/Prime. Mind, the last time I compared was in 2020 so things might have changed since then.

Here are some movies I keep on a couple of my iPads (smaller downloads on a 256GB mini 6 and larger downloads on a 1TB M1 Pro 11") in case you have them available for comparison.

The Avengers
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.67 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.26 GB

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.63 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.14 GB

Avengers: Infinity War
Apple TV Fast Download: 2.78 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 7.49 GB

Avengers: Endgame
Apple TV Fast Download: 3.4 GB
Apple TV High Quality: 9.05 GB

Thanks for comparison, that's helpful. Seems to roughly be a 1/3 of the size.

For actually watching on the iPad imagine the fast one is more than good enough. Have you ever compared the viewing quality of both on iPad?

I'm hoping I can set the fast by device, rather than a global setting across Apple devices, of so I'll keep it at fast on the iPad mini

Thanks

 

[rui no onna]

For actually watching on the iPad imagine the fast one is more than good enough. Have you ever compared the viewing quality of both on iPad?

I just did a side by side of the mini 6 (Fast Downloads) and the M1 Pro 11 (High Quality). Both look really good.

I got a "There's a problem loading this content" error message on the mini 6 so I had to re-download. The new sizes are a little bigger but it's not too far off from the original sizes.

New Fast Download
The Avengers 2.89 GB
Avengers: Age of Ultron 2.84 GB
Avengers: Infinity War 3.02 GB
Avengers: Endgame 3.68 GB

I'm hoping I can set the fast by device, rather than a global setting across Apple devices, of so I'll keep it at fast on the iPad mini

The download options are per device.

 

[Gloomy]

I still have a lot of love for my iPad mini 6. I don’t use it as much as I’d like these days, but when I’m away from home it is a fantastic tool to have. 😁

Apple Pencil 2 and 5G Cellular support help keep me entertained and reading is a breeze with the Electric Orange Folio case. I hope to get at least a few more years use out of this combination.

 

[rui no onna]

I still have a lot of love for my iPad mini 6. I don’t use it as much as I’d like these days, but when I’m away from home it is a fantastic tool to have. 😁

Apple Pencil 2 and 5G Cellular support help keep me entertained and reading is a breeze with the Electric Orange Folio case. I hope to get at least a few more years use out of this combination.

I still use my iPad mini 6 a lot. I have the iPad mini 7 permanently in my EDC bag and I use that when I'm out and about. When I get home though, the mini 7 goes on the charger and I switch to the mini 6.