iPad Air Old Ipad Air - Clean up and just use for streaming?

[Mojer]

Hello,

I have an old Ipad air. It syncs with all of my other devices (Iphone, IPad Pro, MacBook). It is very slow and laggy. I basically only use this Ipad Air for Netflix and other streaming. I am guessing that if I remove the thousands of photos, messages, etc etc it will be faster. How do I do this without deleting the information that syncs to the other devices? After I do this unsync this iPad with the other devices what are the recommendations for increasing the speed? I know that this is probably a very basic question, however, I just want to make sure that I do not delete everything off of the other devices it currently syncs with. Thank you!

 

[rui no onna]

Erase All Content and Settings, then Setup as New. It’s the most efficient way to clean up the old iPad while not affecting any of your synced data.

iMessage sync is disabled by default, iirc. You might have to manually disable iCloud Photos, Notes, etc.

Keep apps installed to the minimum essentials and disable Background App refresh, Siri, etc. You might also want to enable Reduce Motion in Settings - Accessibility.

 

[bushman4]

Good idea to keep it. Unless you needed the $50-$100. AlwYs good for streaming or keeping things on that you don’t want on your new iPad

 

[JPack]

Unless the device is critically low on storage space, removing data won't speed it up. It's A7/1GB and well past usability based on today's standards.

 

[rui no onna]

Unless the device is critically low on storage space, removing data won't speed it up. It's A7/1GB and well past usability based on today's standards.

Base storage on the Air is 16GB so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s constantly 90+% full. Back when I was still using mine, it was always down to a few MB free even with apps pared down to the bare necessities.

I just had a look recently at the 32GB iPads in the household and those were at 30 of 32GB used with few apps installed (mostly streaming services). System + Other takes up quite a large chunk nowadays.

Also, keeping it empty will likely cut down on some background tasks like search indexing, facial recognition, sync, etc.

 

[Mojer]

Erase All Content and Settings, then Setup as New. It’s the most efficient way to clean up the old iPad while not affecting any of your synced data.

iMessage sync is disabled by default, iirc. You might have to manually disable iCloud Photos, Notes, etc.

Keep apps installed to the minimum essentials and disable Background App refresh, Siri, etc. You might also want to enable Reduce Motion in Settings - Accessibility.

Don’t I have to turn something off in settings first so when I delete everything on the old iPad it doesn’t sync those deletions with my other devices? Thanks!

 

[rui no onna]

Don’t I have to turn something off in settings first so when I delete everything on the old iPad it doesn’t sync those deletions with my other devices? Thanks!

Nope. You’re not exactly deleting synced content. This is more like “factory resetting” the iPad so it doesn’t affect synced data at all.

Settings - General - Transfer or Reset iPad - Erase All Content and Settings