How Much Storage is Required to Install iOS 18 or iPadOS 18?

Many users have already installed iOS 18 onto iPhone or iPadOS 18 onto iPad, but there are also a large number of iPhone and iPad owners who have not yet updated to the latest operating systems. One of the most common reasons for this is as old as the iPhone or iPad itself; a lack of available storage on the device, preventing the system software update from both downloading and installing. Storage woes are nothing new for iPhone and iPad users, and managing device storage is one of the most obnoxious and annoying tech chores you can forced to engage in if you simply want to install a software update on your device.

Numbers of users are seeing an error message at the Software Update screen that says something like this: “More Storage Required – This update cannot be installed because it requires at least 15.57 GB of available storage during installation”

Let’s explore how much storage you need available on iPhone or iPad to be able to install iOS 18 or ipadOS 18 onto a device. We’ll also discuss why you need so much storage available to be able to install these updates, and how you can free up some space.

How much storage is required for iOS 18 / iPadOS 18?

Many users have gone to install iOS 18 onto iPhone or iPadOS 18 onto iPad and discovered they don’t have enough storage available to do so. So much free storage do you really need? That answer depends, but generally speaking aim to have around 20GB of free storage available to be able to install a major update to iPhone or iPad, like iOS 18.

Technically it may be more like 16.5GB of free space is necessary, but it also varies per device, and what’s on your device and what system software version you are currently using, so aiming for 20GB of free storage is prudent and generally ensures you can install the updates as expected.

Maybe you have freed up 10GB, or even 15GB or 16GB of storage, and still can’t install the iOS 18 update on your device, and if that’s the case you’re certainly not alone as there are many frustrated users griping about these issues on Apple Discussion forums. I even ran into this issue on my own iPad Pro (a 64GB model which has barely anything on it but still somehow did not have enough available storage to install iPadOS 18 without jumping through a bunch of hoops), so even the super tech savvy geeks amongst us encounter this problem, and relate to the frustration.

Why do you need so much storage to install an iOS 18 / iPadOS 18 software update?

You need a lot of storage available to install an iOS/iPadOS update for several reasons; first, the update files themselves are fairly large and require free space to hold them, additionally you need a good amount of temporary space available during the installation process so that the software update can unpack and be applied. Without sufficient storage space available, the update won’t be able to download, or install, because it doesn’t have free room to perform these necessary tasks.

It’s obviously frustrating to need so much free storage available for an iOS update or iPadOS update, especially when you’re ready to install it and excited about new features or security improvements.

How do you free up enough storage to be able to install the update?

The usual recommendations apply for freeing up storage for an iOS 18 update: remove apps you don’t use (or even those you do but are huge, then you have to reinstall them when done with the iOS/iPadOS update), offload apps, if you have a large iCloud plan you can use iCloud Photos to free up local space, or you can copy photos from the iPhone to a Mac and then remove them from the iPhone, and you can use a goofy trick to reduce the “System” and “Other” storage on iPhone and iPad too.

This is all time consuming and inconvenient, and obviously a hassle to have to do all of this simply to install a software update.

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Do you have any tricks, hints, tips, or experiences with storage issues, freeing up storage, and managing storage so that you can install iOS 18 or iPadOS 18? Share in the comments!