Apple’s 1 sentence on external storage

[Padcatt]

Below.
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I am beginning to think that A) apple released a feature that’s more a work-in-progress than a solid feature, or B) They stated something for the purpose of selling more iPads, regardless of the veracity of the statement. Most Apple tech support staff have no clue that iPad OS 13 supports external storage.

IMO, there is no way that Apple doesn’t know what works and doesn’t work with their products. There is no way they don’t know that iPad users want to use external storage with their iPads. Everything I’ve read or seen (YouTube) tells me that this feature doesn’t work the way they state it does. Even the external devices that “work” do so sporadically. The wifi-based external drives seem to work better, but...I could already do that before iPad OS 13. It’s called iPhone.

Has anyone with a 2nd-Gen iPad Pro gotten an external drive to mount on an iPad so that it can be read and written to, every single time you connect it?
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External drive support
Access files on a USB drive, SD card, or hard drive.

^ No qualifiers other than drive type. No asterisk referring reader to mouse type listing all the requirements and exceptions. Just 1 clear sentence telling you what you can now do.

Source: www.apple.com > ipad > ipad os > features > files

 

[Padcatt]

Additional Info which I hope will help others:

I bought a SanDisk iXpand flash drive at Best Buy. Price was $55 - about what I’d expect for 128GB with USB and Lightning connectors on the same stick.

The media was recognized by the iPad immediately. I was able to transfer files with little issue. However, my first choice of what to transfer has a lot of nested folders with documents in them and I sense that that sort of hierarchy is hard for the iPad to write from itself to external media. So I got a lot of fails in working with that folder - at first...until I began experimenting. The iPad has no issue whatever with the very same folder that’s on the iPad. Other folders transferred without error from iPad to the same iXpand media.

Also, regarding the “Cannot use accessory because it requires too much power” warning I get when I connect a USB flash drive via Apple adapter: the Apple Pencil draws power when you charge it from the iPad, so...how much more (if any) power can a flash drive need?

I spoke extensively with a Senior Apple Advisor yesterday. He agreed that what I (and others) are trying to do is perfectly reasonable and is what the new feature (ability to attach external storage) is meant to enable us to do.

Perhaps Apple is working on this issue, but at least 3 Senior advisors at Apple agree that difficulties with external media connected to an iPad OS 13-supported iPad is, in fact, an issue.

 

[Padcatt]

I didn’t mean to be coy about “experimenting.” I tried other folders, saw that they copied entirely, for the most part. I spend a lot of time checking: 2 instances of Files open side by side, compared source to destination.

For the ones that didn’t copy entirely, I still don’t have a sense of what the issues are.

There is a YouTuber who has a few videos on this subject, and he said something about giving the media the same file structure as would be on camera media. When I’ve seen camera media, I see the same files and folders as any other storage has, except of course the naming is coded, often the date is part of it, but most to me looks like gibberish.

But as far as “file structure” is concerned, isn’t it all Parent / Child?

 

[alexm1]

Found this article that may be of interest. I think I will wait a little longer before I buy a powered hub, see his last comment re the iPad “resetting”.

iPad Pro USB-C hubs: the best, worst, and weirdest options

 

[twerppoet]

Found this article that may be of interest. I think I will wait a little longer before I buy a powered hub, see his last comment re the iPad “resetting”.

iPad Pro USB-C hubs: the best, worst, and weirdest options

Nice article, I enjoyed reading it, but keep in mind that it predates iOS 13, and all the updates since then. At best it reflects some of the early betas. Hopefully the mentioned issues are less than they were, and less with each update. Also, I’m hoping there will be some new hubs on the market soon that better support external storage devices.

Wait and see, as per usual.

 

[alexm1]

Nice article, I enjoyed reading it, but keep in mind that it predates iOS 13, and all the updates since then. At best it reflects some of the early betas. Hopefully the mentioned issues are less than they were, and less with each update. Also, I’m hoping there will be some new hubs on the market soon that better support external storage devices.

Wait and see, as per usual.

I did miss that it predated IOS 13.
I have started to move work from my windows laptop to my iPad and will move more when there is effective support for external storage, as you say, wait and see.
Apple is strangely quiet on this so I guess there are still issues.

 

[alexm1]

An update on using external storage with my iPad Pro (2018). I read on cult of Mac that the kingston nucleum hub worked successfully so I bought one plus an SSD and it works perfectly to backup from my iPad. Tried an HDMI cable to my tv as well and Apple TV plays perfectly.
Using file browser for business as my file manager but the native app worked as well, just less features.

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the update.