App sizes

[martyn94]

My iPad is getting full, so I've been poodling around seeing what I can ditch. I find that the most trivial apps take staggering amounts of space. I have four banking apps, with much the same functionality, varying from about 5GB to 28GB (about 6 times the King James Bible in ASCII). It's forty-odd years since I wrote any computer programs, so I guess I'm out of touch. But what are these guys doing?

Apart from stiffing me for an extra €100 euros or so, for the extra memory,
next time I replace my iPad.

[russell]

But what are these guys doing?

Concentrating on eye candy rather than functionality and efficient code?

Russell.

[Allan]

My iPad is getting full, so I've been poodling around seeing what I can ditch. I find that the most trivial apps take staggering amounts of space. I have four banking apps, with much the same functionality, varying from about 5GB to 28GB (about 6 times the King James Bible in ASCII). It's forty-odd years since I wrote any computer programs, so I guess I'm out of touch. But what are these guys doing?

Apart from stiffing me for an extra €100 euros or so, for the extra memory,
next time I replace my iPad.

I should check again Martyn, I have hundreds of apps on my iPad and the only ones above 50mb are those that include downloads like Music, newspapers and iPlayer. None of them gets remotely near a Gigabyte and my banking app is 5.5mb.

Only the largest model iPad could hold an app of 28gb, are you sure you don't mean Mb?

[martyn94]

My iPad is getting full, so I've been poodling around seeing what I can ditch. I find that the most trivial apps take staggering amounts of space. I have four banking apps, with much the same functionality, varying from about 5GB to 28GB (about 6 times the King James Bible in ASCII). It's forty-odd years since I wrote any computer programs, so I guess I'm out of touch. But what are these guys doing?

Apart from stiffing me for an extra €100 euros or so, for the extra memory,
next time I replace my iPad.

I should check again Martyn, I have hundreds of apps on my iPad and the only ones above 50mb are those that include downloads like Music, newspapers and iPlayer. None of them gets remotely near a Gigabyte and my banking app is 5.5mb.

Only the largest model iPad could hold an app of 28gb, are you sure you don't mean Mb?

You're right of course (tho MB rather than Mb). I thought I had edited it, but it doesn't seem to have "taken". My point, though, remains: 28 million "letters" is a hell of a lot of code to do not much.

[Smiley G]

Martyn, the only advice I can offer is to back-up your iPad Apps. to your iTunes account on your computer/laptop. It will not take long with the Lightening-USB cable.
After you have done this, remove the Apps. you don't want on your iPad and free up some memory.
You can always re-install them either from the Cloud or from the iTunes Sync function.
The only downside to this is when you go to the App. Store and check for updates, you'll have to download them to your computer as well.

[martyn94]

Martyn, the only advice I can offer is to back-up your iPad Apps. to your iTunes account on your computer/laptop. It will not take long with the Lightening-USB cable.
After you have done this, remove the Apps. you don't want on your iPad and free up some memory.
You can always re-install them either from the Cloud or from the iTunes Sync function.
The only downside to this is when you go to the App. Store and check for updates, you'll have to download them to your computer as well.

I hate ITunes with a passion. It works well enough (maybe: I really don't know) in the ways that make money for Apple, but the other things that it is meant to do are about as clunky as they could conceivably be (have you ever tried, eg, ripping a three-CD opera set?).

But in practice you can just delete the app on your home screen and find it again in the App Store ("Purchased Apps"; "Not on this iPad").

But mostly I just can't be bothered. My iPad is just a sort of domestic appliance. I don't spend time primping and pruning my toaster, so I'm stuffed if I want to do it with my iPad. So next time I'll no doubt go for the bigger memory.

In the meantime, I usually just delete a few back copies of the "New Yorker" (which are huge: all those ads for cars I can't afford, and wouldn't buy if I could).