A question about OTG adapters.

[graywoulf]

Greetings! Over the years I have used an OTG adapter for my Android devices and so I thought that having one for my iPad Mini 4 would be a good idea as well. So as I am shopping on eBay for one, I am seeing warnings and disclaimers about them not working with certain IOS versions as well as not supporting video and so forth. What is the deal with this? And what should I look for when shopping? Thanks!

 

[twerppoet]

There is no true equivilant of an OTG connector for the iPad.

On Android you are only converting to one USB connector type to another. This is simple, and just about anything that can connect to USB (and you can find an app for) will work.

On iPads you convert from Lighting to USB, and while the Lighting cable is USB on one end, not all USB periferials are supported. To get most USB periferials to work with an iOS device it pretty much as to be made for iOS, and you need an app for that perifrial. The few exceptions are some card readers (mostly very low power ones and only for photo/video import), keyboards, microphones, and a few others I’m probably not remembering.

In short, there is no cable you can buy that will make random USB stuff work with the iPad.

So, what you really need to do is specify what you need to connect to the iPad, or what you are trying to do with the iPad. Once you do that members may be able to recomend solutions they use.

Note: There are some things that are extrememly difficult (or impossible) to connect to an iPad, which is why I own a couple of cheap Android tablets dedicated to my SDR (Software Defined Radio) hobby.

 

[graywoulf]

I really appreciate that information. You have taught me a lot about Apple products and the iPad Mini 4. I have been doing a lot of research on the Mini 4 and the world of Apple. I installed iTunes on my Windows 7 laptop today and it would not run. I got an error message about a missing .dll file. I tried to install that file but there was a problem with that so I gave up. I will just wait and access it on the iPad. I knew that Apple products were proprietary so I have to learn all of that stuff too now. Thanks again for the information.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

If you want to read more about your iPad and iOS 11, you can check out the iPad User Guide for iOS 11. I recommend the iBook version (free in the iBook Store), mostly because it’s easier to search. But you’ll have to wait for your iPad to get it. In the mean time you can use the web version at https://help.apple.com/ipad/11/

Apple used to offer PDF versions, but it looks like theys stopped that a couple of iOS versions ago.

This link may help with your Windows iTunes installation: If you can't install or update iTunes for Windows

 

[graywoulf]

You are so very helpful and appreciated for it.

 

[graywoulf]

Is there any other way to transfer files from my laptop to the iPad using the cable without having iTunes installed?

 

[graywoulf]

No problem.

If you want to read more about your iPad and iOS 11, you can check out the iPad User Guide for iOS 11. I recommend the iBook version (free in the iBook Store), mostly because it’s easier to search. But you’ll have to wait for your iPad to get it. In the mean time you can use the web version at https://help.apple.com/ipad/11/

Apple used to offer PDF versions, but it looks like theys stopped that a couple of iOS versions ago.

This link may help with your Windows iTunes installation: If you can't install or update iTunes for Windows

Thanks again for your help. I am happy to say that I now have iTunes working on my laptop. I finally realized that I needed to uninstall a newer version of a registry file so that I could replace it with the older version that iTunes was looking for. As I always say "Endeavor to Persevere".