Kid's iPad Storage Full Before a Trip? What to Delete First

It's the night before the Thanksgiving drive or flight. You go to download a few shows onto your kid's iPad and it says there isn't enough storage. The quick fix: open Settings > General > iPad Storage to see what's big, offload the games they aren't playing right now (Apple says offloading keeps their data), delete shows they've already watched inside Netflix or whichever app downloaded them, and clear old screen recordings and videos in Photos. Then empty Recently Deleted, download the new shows on Wi-Fi, and test one in Airplane Mode before you leave.

The steps below follow Apple Support and the iPad User Guide (iPadOS 26 and 27). Do them at home, on Wi-Fi, with your kid next to you. It's their stuff, and they know which screen recording of a Minecraft build is the one that matters.

Before you delete anything: whose account is this iPad on?

Open Settings and look at the name at the top. If it's your name, slow down. Plenty of family iPads are signed in with a parent's Apple Account, and if iCloud Photos is on, the iPad's photos and your iPhone's photos are the same library. Apple's Delete photos on your iPhone or iPad page says it plainly: delete a photo or video on one device and it's deleted on every other device signed in with the same Apple Account.

So on a shared-account iPad, deleting "the kid's videos" can also delete your own videos from your phone. In that case, skip the Photos step below and stick to apps and downloads. For the long run, Apple recommends that each family member has their own Apple Account; you can create a Child Account through Family Sharing and still share purchases. That's a project for after the trip, not the night before.

Step 1: see what's actually using the space

1. Open Settings and tap General.
2. Tap iPad Storage. Give it a moment to load.
3. Look at the colored bar at the top, then the list of apps underneath, biggest first.

Apple's How to check the storage on your iPhone and iPad explains the categories. "Apps" includes games and everything they've saved. "Photos" is the Photos library. "Media" is music, videos and voice memos. You can't do much about "System" or "Other", and Apple notes that cached and temporary files are cleared by the iPad itself when it needs space.

On most kids' iPads, the top of the list is games, then a streaming app or YouTube, then Photos. Work down the list in that order.

Step 2: offload games they're not playing this week

Big games are usually the single largest thing on a kid's iPad, and the ones they played last summer are still sitting there. Instead of deleting them, offload them:

1. In iPad Storage, tap the game.
2. Tap Offload App, then confirm.

Apple says offloading "frees up storage used by the app, but keeps its documents and data". The icon stays on the Home Screen with a small cloud next to it; tap it later and the game downloads again with its saved data. Delete App on the same screen removes the app and its data, so save that for games they've truly outgrown.

Two cautions. Reinstalling an offloaded game needs internet, so don't offload the game they'll want in the car or on the plane. And many games keep progress in an online account rather than on the iPad, so if your kid signs in to a game with a username, it's even safer to offload. Our longer offload vs delete guide covers the automatic Offload Unused Apps setting too.

Step 3: delete old downloads inside the streaming apps

Shows downloaded for the last trip are still on the iPad unless someone deleted them. They don't show up in Photos or the Files app. They live inside the app that downloaded them, so that's where you delete them.

In Netflix, open the Downloads tab and remove anything already watched. Netflix's own help page on downloads says to delete downloads once you're done watching to free up space, and that downloads expire after a period of time, with some titles limited to a number of downloads per year. So an old download may not even play anymore. Disney+, YouTube, Prime Video and the rest each have their own Downloads section that works the same way. We walk through several of them in how to delete Netflix, Spotify and YouTube downloads; the steps are the same on iPad.

Step 4: clear screen recordings and old videos in Photos

Kids hit the screen recording button a lot, and a few minutes of recorded gameplay is a big video file. Video is what fills a Photos library, not selfies. To find them, from Apple's iPad guide Locate photos and videos by media type:

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Scroll down and tap Media Types.
3. Tap Screen Recordings. Then come back and check Videos.
4. Tap Select, pick the ones your kid agrees can go, and delete them.

Then free the space for real. Deleted items go to Recently Deleted for 30 days first, so the storage doesn't come back yet. In Photos, tap Collections, scroll to Utilities, open Recently Deleted (it may ask for Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode), and delete them there. After that, Apple says they can't be recovered. More on this in how to empty Recently Deleted.

If the Photos library is the big one, Phone Diet runs on iPad too and groups Screen Recordings, Large Videos, Screenshots and Similar Photos so you can review them by size. Your first cleanup of up to 1 GB is free; after that it needs Premium.

Step 5: download for the trip, then test it

With space cleared, download the shows and games for the trip while you're still on home Wi-Fi. Netflix recommends being on Wi-Fi for downloads to save data, and hotel or airport Wi-Fi is the last place you want to try.

Then do the check that saves the trip: turn on Airplane Mode on the iPad, open each streaming app, and play the first few seconds of one download. Open the trip games too, since some need to be online the first time they launch. If something won't play offline, you'll find out on the couch instead of on the highway.

Leave some room after downloading. A completely full iPad struggles to save anything new, including the photos your kid will want to take at Grandma's. If you're also clearing your own phone, our pre-trip checklist for iPhone and offline maps without filling your phone pair well with this.

What Phone Diet can and can't do here

Full disclosure: we make Phone Diet. On a kid's iPad it can only help with Step 4, the Photos library. It can't offload or delete games, can't touch an app's saved data, and can't see or delete downloads inside Netflix, YouTube or any other app. Settings and those apps do that, for free.

It also follows the same iCloud Photos rule as everything else: on an iPad signed in with your Apple Account, deleting there deletes on your iPhone too.

Who it's not for: if iPad Storage shows Photos is small and games are the problem, you don't need it. Steps 1 to 3 will free the space. Where it helps is a library stuffed with thousands of screenshots, near-identical selfies and long gameplay recordings that would take an evening to sort by hand.

Questions people ask

How do I see what's taking up space on my kid's iPad?

Settings > General > iPad Storage. It lists apps by size with recommendations at the top. Tap an app for details.

Will offloading a game delete my child's progress?

Apple says offloading keeps the app's documents and data, so progress saved on the iPad stays. Deleting the app removes it. Reinstalling needs internet, so don't offload the trip games.

If I delete photos on my kid's iPad, will they disappear from my iPhone?

Yes, if the iPad is signed in with your Apple Account and iCloud Photos is on. Apple says deletions sync to every device on the same account.

Where are screen recordings on an iPad?

Photos > Collections > Media Types > Screen Recordings.

Why is the iPad still full after deleting photos?

They're in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Photos > Collections > Utilities > Recently Deleted, then delete them there to free the space now.