iPad storage full despite deleting files

With no information about your iPad model, it is impossible to provide any comment as to its age and capabilities.

It is generally recommended that you maintain at least 4-6GB of free space at all times - as your iPad needs some temporary space to complete some tasks.

If your internal storage is full, or is insufficient for the task that you need to perform, your only option is to better manage the storage that you have - and delete unused Apps or unneeded data. 

These support pages may be helpful:

About storage on your device and in iCloud – Apple Support

What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? – Apple Support

Manage your iCloud storage – Apple Support

How to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support

Clear Other storage on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

“Offloading” Apps can be a helpful method of creating temporary space:

https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/21/how-to-offload-apps-in-ios-to-save-space-without-deleting-their-data/

Additional information about creating sufficient space for installation of a software update can be found here:

If you need more space for an update on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

External storage options can often help with managing limited internal storage. Depending upon your iPad model, the iPad will either have a Lightning or USB-C port - and may therefore require either an Adapter or USB hub to connect the USB Storage device. If your iPad has a Lightning port, you’ll need an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter:

• Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter

https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MK0W2ZM/A

I’ve got the same issues. Old iPad, and personally thinking that shouldn’t be an issue. No matter how much I delete, the storage either goes up a bit or down by not much. My iPad is half full of Apple downloads. 15gb! I’m even thinking now of resetting the whole thing. I bought a thumb drive but the copy feature from iPad to thumb is rubbish. Files split and renamed into numbers. All the cover photos gone. iPad doesn’t give great customer service. My iPad has had problems from the beginning but their response has been they can’t reproduce the problem so it doesn’t exist. If you find an answer, post here please? Good luck. 👋

When you delete photos or files they are saved for 30 days before being completely deleted. Both the photo and file folderhave a recently deleted folder. Go into the folder and delete the photos/files from there. This will delete them completely from the iPad.