I recently purchased the new iPad (with the home button) 32 GB, wifi & Cellular. My usage on my old ipad is 21GB. The iPad is mainly used for the net, you tube, accessing mail, facebook and nextdoor. Given my usage, and the fact that I am not one to accumulate apps or photos on my iPad, is 32GB large enough? I was going to buy the 128GB, but they were out of stock. I either open this and keep it, or order the larger storage when it is available.
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iPad iPad 8th Generation 32GB Storage question
- Thread starter mverza
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So just by doing what you describe you do with your iPad you couldn’t have used up 21GB on your existing iPad. There’s clearly more to it. That’s the unknown factor here before we can say anything.
I am not super iPadOs knowledgeable but if I understood correctly when it comes to my iPad, it seems that the system itself should be around 7-8 GB. Am I right?
If this the case than the rest 13 - 14 GB (the difference to 21 GB) should be apps, photos, books, documents etc.
And if this is true, the question indeed is what are those 13-14 GB and can they increase with your usage.
That is correct. The excess storage is about 14 GB and it is comprised of facebook, golf apps, some photos and probably apps that could be deleted. He does not plan to add more photos or apps to the iPad. It is serving all of his needs. I guess what I am trying to figure out is how much of a margin should be left? I have no feel for how far another 8 GB would last and an iPad with 128 GB is way more than he needs. I am not going to an iPad with 64 GB because he still wants a home button. I should mention that this is for my husband, a 77 yr. old.
I see! Thanks for clarifying! Few questions on my side (full disclosure I am biased as I would not make 32 GB work for me so take my comments with a grain of salt):
1. Does he have iCloud setup? The reason I am asking is because IMO transferring photos from iOS device to a computer is like pain in the a$$. I found a way to make it work but it is not the most intuitive thing and I am not sure that everyone wants to go through that. If you do not pay for iCloud storage gets full quite fast with photos and if you delete them they are lost.
2. How often does he uses Books app? As weird as it sounds I have already 8.31 GB of books on my iPad and I do not read a lot.
I assume 32 GB can work if he relies heavily on cloud services.
Around 7GB for the OS + 7GB for Other will do it.
My dad doesn't download a lot of apps either but when I checked his iPad 5th gen (Wi-Fi), it was also sitting at just around 10GB free. The increased system footprint is why I decided to get him 128GB instead of 32GB when I needed to upgrade his iPad to WiFi+Cellular.
I've also set it up so his new iPad downloads full quality originals in iCloud Photos. I figure that iPhone+iPad+iCloud will do for the 3 copies backup rule (2x local, 1x off-site) since he can't be bothered to backup manually to PC.
Mind, I do think 32GB would've still worked fine. I just decided to go higher out of an abundance of caution (and to serve as local backup).
My experience is that 32 GB is minimal. I would not get another iPad with less than 128 GB (I just traded in the one iPad I purchased with 32 GB, a 7th gen model), but everyone has different uses for their iPads, and 32 GB is apparently enough for many users, otherwise Apple wouldn't continue to offer this size (right?).
As well as considering what you'll be doing with your iPad, how long do you expect to keep this new iPad? If you think you'll be using it for several years, then more storage will give you the ability to be using the iPad for more things in the future, without finding that you've bumped up against your storage limit.
The cellular model is quite a bit more expensive - for our usage I've always found the Wi-Fi models to be just fine. That is another trade-off to consider - a 128 GB Wi-Fi model is probably less expensive than the 32 GB cellular model.
As well as considering what you'll be doing with your iPad, how long do you expect to keep this new iPad? If you think you'll be using it for several years, then more storage will give you the ability to be using the iPad for more things in the future, without finding that you've bumped up against your storage limit.
The cellular model is quite a bit more expensive - for our usage I've always found the Wi-Fi models to be just fine. That is another trade-off to consider - a 128 GB Wi-Fi model is probably less expensive than the 32 GB cellular model.
Meh, Apple still had 16GB as base when you couldn't even do an OTA update without emptying your iPad. Compared to that situation, 32GB actually isn't as bad.
I appreciate all of the comments and suggestions. I think I will look at his existing iPad and delete all of the unused apps (such as Garage Band). That will tell me how much more storage I can gather for him. Thank you, everyone!
32gb was always enough for me. Because I use iCloud and WiFi (accessing any large files residing on my 1TB Mac Mini), I never needed more. I average 17gb used out of 32gb on my iPads. I did buy an Air 3 and Mini 5 each with 64gb, but again never came close to needing that much storage.
