iPad Mini additional storage

The drive would have to have special provision to communicate with the iPad. In addition some regions of the iPad that are most likely to be taking up lots of space (music, video, photos) may be inaccessible by the drive interface software. Put simply, there is no easy way to increase storage space on a mobile device without purchasing a device with more storage space. There are ways you can tweak what you have.:

How to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - https://support.apple.com/HT201656 - "If your device is low on storage, iOS automatically optimizes its available space while installing an app, updating iOS, downloading music, recording videos, and more."

You can check Sandisk Connect - with the app on your iPad, it works wirelessly; when you plug it into a computer, it is just a USB stick. Check for compatibility on older iPads/iOS.

https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage/connect-wireless-stick

Interesting, but you have to read it very, very carefully (and they don't really provide much information on that site). For example I note:

"Set the app to automatically copy photos and videos from your camera roll to the drive when the drive is connected."

My understanding is if you have your phone set to use iCloud Photo Library there is no "camera roll". The photos are stored in a special area that for all I know is inaccessible to the drive's app.

I have one and have used it to transfer various things including photos. You do have to get the photos on your iDevice into a folder on the app by "importing" them. However, I don't do anything automatically - I simply turn it on, launch the app, and set it to transfer photos into a folder I created for that on the app. I use it that way because I do not use any version of Photos/iPhoto on my Mac. I have mine in a folder in my Documents folder, all categorized and arranged to my liking (not Photos' idea of how a filing system should work).

Using it that way, it works like a charm and I do like the fact that you can simply plug it into your Mac and drag 'n drop things over. Makes transferring things between an iPad and a Mac very easy, especially if you don't use iCloud.

The reality is what you bought when you bought it is what you have in terms of memory. There really is no viable way to add memory to an iOS device. 16GB is extremely low by today's standards. If you are running out of storage on your device, it's time to either start deleting things you don't use or want, such as apps, photos, music, texts, emails, videos, etc., or it's time to upgrade to an iPad with more memory.

Aren't you giving somewhat false hope? Perhaps one can offload things to a memory stick. That in itself is not adding more memory to an iPad. I could free up over 6GB of space on my iPad right now, simply by moving my photos to my laptop and deleting all photos off my iPad. That is how one really increases the available memory on an iOS device.

I think it also depends upon how one wishes to utilize extra storage. It seems many of these expander devices work, but they do so using their app and features in the app itself to do something such as play extra music files on the drive. The apps may offer limited communication with other apps, but given the sandboxed nature of iOS it won't be, as you observe, a seamless jump in storage they way you could do with an external hard drive with a computer. Nor will music files on the expansion drive appear in the Music app on the device, if that is what the person wants to do.

Aren't you giving somewhat false hope?

Well, not really unless you need to be/stay in the Apple eco system. I do not use icloud and I have no need to sync, use Continuity, etc. I use it mostly for transfers; however, I am just as easily able to use it for extra storage if I simply want additional storage space. It presents itself as a simple solution if one wants to avoid anything cloud.

If the wireless storage device is designed for use with iPad, you can use it to copy/move data from your iPad. You can't, however, use the external storage to expand (or "add more" to) your 16GB iPad storage. If it's near full, you have to start moving videos, photos to the external storage to free up iPad storage.

I know better than to claim that you can expand or add more internal storage space to whatever capacity the internal storage is. That would be utopian magic. And we are now into semantics. But you can use it to get additional external space and therefore delete the internal file. Unlike iCloud, the files do not depend on anything except enough space on the external.

I'm sure you do, but I feel we are not really helping the OP here. The question was can they add an external hard drive to add more storage to their iPad. We've suggested they can clear space on the iPad, but they simply cannot add more storage to an iPad by any external device. The iPad in question is a 16GB device, which will forever remain a 16GB device.

That would be the best decision. Not only is your iPad lacking in memory, but it's been out of date for a long time and there are now many apps it can't support. Plus you haven't gotten any security updates in a long time, since you can't update to the newer iOS versions. This time around, buy the most memory you can reasonably afford.

Yes. I have been using wireless external storage for 3 months now. Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBr2k1vLojA

Not for sale anymore anyway, only used models on Amazon.