HAPPILY IMPERFECT

It’s MY iPAD, let me delete stuff!

Dear Apple,

I can remove apps from my iPad, except the Photos app (there may be others but my issue is with the Photos app).

I don’t sync my iCloud Photos to my iPad. I don’t use it for that, it’s purely as a consumption device. I watch movies and TV shows on it. I occasionally use it to write with.

Ultimately I only need four apps on it. Apple TV, Disney+, Ulysses, and Journal.

Right now, the Photos app is annoying me. There are NO photos or videos on my iPad. Yet the ‘Documents & Data’ are taking up 2.4GB of space. Why?

And more pertinently, why the fuck can’t I delete it?

Digging in to this I know that, as for all Apple apps, the ‘Documents & Data’ is a fluctuating space of cached files etc, but the solution to clear it usually to delete the app. Except I can’t delete the Photos app. Apple don’t want me to.

As much as I enjoy Apple products, it’s stuff like this that drives me crazy —I await the Androidists chant of ‘we can do that on Android, you silly Apple user!— and makes me wonder why? Why can’t I delete that app? I can delete other apps that come pre-installed, so why not Photos?

Is it because I want to have Journal on my phone, and it uses Photos? Perhaps, but as Journal is another app that I can’t delete I’m stuck.

2.4GB is not a small amount of space in terms of a few episodes of a TV show.

I realise this is a VERY first world problem, but it’s really annoying me…

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2 responses to “It’s MY iPAD, let me delete stuff!”

  1. Alexandra avatar
    Alexandra

    I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to get up on my soapbox and complain like this about Apple apps. We should be able to use our iPads the way we want to and, for our own lifestyle. Having it cluttered up (and taking up space) with useless apps most of us never use is annoying.

    Though it’s true that I appreciate that we get these all preloaded to begin with, but please, make it so we can leave them in the cloud till we need to use them.

    Reply
  2. df avatar
    df

    You cannot do it because it’s integrated into OS, it’s similar to how you cannot delete Finder on Mac or File Explorer on Windows. E.g. you won’t be able to take screenshots without it. Even if you never ever take screenshots, it’s a feature of the OS that relies on Photos.

    Reply

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