My ipad is wifi-only. I turn wifi off. I upsweep all apps closed. I power down. I power up. I open Settings to confirm wifi is still off. I open the google photos app. I see my photos.
Huh?
iPad Pro, iPadOS 14
I see that my question title was missing the vital data that only the detail contained: My wifi-only ipad accesses google-server photos when its wifi is turned OFF. I am guessing you did not read the detail before giving your response, which pertains not to photos on the device but on the google servers accessible via the google photos app.
I did read the entire post but may be misunderstanding it.
My assumption is that if you are able to see the photos when wi-fi is turned off that the photos are stored on your device as well as on the Google servers. That is an option with the Google Photos app. My previous reply included a link to instructions if you want to remove photos from your iPad and have them only on Google's servers.
Thank you, FoxFifth--I get now you meant cache, and thank you for your help. I see now that every one (!) of my pics is downloaded so I am seeing ghosts versus current data. I've also learned that I can take pic A with iphone and pic B with ipad and not see A on ipad's google photos (tho it appears in the iphone's first) and not see B on the iphone's. This is after exiting the google photo app each time and after having wifi turned on for the ipad. So the timing of the syncing is just a mystery for me. Since I intend to take no more pics with ipad, however--was only experimenting--this shd be no issue.
If you want to remove the photos from your iPad see the following instructions from Google support: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128843?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&hl=en&oco=0
Why is my wifi-only ipad able to access google photos?
