External usb drives on lightning iPads (almost all that support iPadOS)

As I will continually state and emphasise!

That Lightning to USB 3.0 connector NEEDS external power to use ALMOST ANY EXTETNAL DRIVE on the market with a Lighnting connector eqipped iPad. Period!!

AND it is what it is!

If you cannot accept this fact, then you will never be using any external drives with your iPad on iOS 13.

iPads and the Lightning connector are low power hardware, many of the standard drives out there are not.

Most common USB flash drives out there for sale, use too much power with an older lightning connector equipped iPad!

This is fact!

All USB devices, upon initial connection to a USB Controller, declare their power requirements (in mA) to the host device. This is a burnt-in value is retained within the USB accessory - and if this nominal “declared” value exceeds the power delivery capability of the iPad, then the iPad will display the warning message and not enable power.

Consider also that whilst the iPad (often with the aid of an adapter) can now be connected to external USB accessories, it cannot provide the power capabilities of a traditional computer. Many [if not the majority of] current USB thumb drives exceed the power delivery capabilities of the iPad - and therefore require additional power to operate. This power can be provided via connection of an additional supply via the adapter - or via a self-powered USB hub (i.e., the hub its own power supply).

Faster interfaces and Flash memory consume more power. Older (usually slower) thumb drives usually have lower power needs. Some devices are deliberately designed to have low power requirements.

The iPad is first and foremost a low power device - with capabilities and power management features intended to optimise the portability of the device. Whilst external USB connectivity to external bulk storage is now supported, the device cannot natively support the higher power needs of some devices.

What would be useful to end-users would be for Apple to publish the threshold specification, for iPad, that the built-in Lightning/USB interface can provide. Unfortunately, as with many core technical specifications, these are not generally released by Apple.

Conventional spinning hard drives are proving to be problematic, probably due to the needed initial surge of power to spin up all of the mechanical components and moving read/write optical arm inside conventional hard drives.

USB flash drives and portable SSD drives work fine, ( NO moving parts ) as long as external power is connected to the genuine Apple Lightning to USB-3.0 adapter.

This is the way it is.

I received and tried out the iklips duo plus 64GB flash drive today. Miraculously, it works plugged directly into both the ipad and iphone lightning ports without an adapter or added power source of any kind (it has a lightning connector on one end and standard usb 3.1 on the other). The only hiccup is that it seems to require an iklips app rather than running off  the ios/ipados 13 Apple Files app in native format. It takes about 30 seconds the first time to automatically download the iklips app and run through a few settings. After that, it is barely noticeable on the iphone and adds a few extra clicks to access the iklips files on the ipad (it seems to work slightly differently for some reason). I wish it was supported by the Apple Files app directly, but the iklips app only adds a slight complication and overall it is far and beyond a better, more elegant solution than running a regular flash drive with an adapter and power supply, especially for portability.

My simple answer to you is that it is what it it is.

With older Lighnining connector iPads, you will need to use external power to power ANY external drive connected to it, as the iPad's Lightning connector is incapable of conveying the needed power requirements of any external data storage device.

Unfortunately, we have several issues here that we can do little to resolve...

1) Apple do not provide any specifications as to the power-delivery capability of their Lightning ports - or the threshold at which the warning will appear.

2) Most recent “high speed” USB storage devices will be USB3.0 - which, by definition, have higher current requirements than slower devices.

3) Peripheral device manufacturers rarely (if at all) publish the specific power needs that are declared by the USB device during the initial USB handshake - principally because this parameter may vary between manufacturing batches of the same device. This is because, for example, storage devices might be sourced from several silicon manufacturers - each chip manufacturer producing components to slightly differing specifications.

If you insist upon a definitive answer, try this...

If you can find any, try to find some really old USB1.1 storage devices. They’ll likely be slow - and really low power.

I sincerely hope this will assist you in your quest for something that will meet your needs.

I may have found the exception to the rule (or perhaps the needle in the haystack is the better cliche). Technical support at Adams Elements indicates that the iklips duo and duo + will connect directly to an iphone/ipad lightning port and run without an adapter or additional power supply. Based on this, I ordered one and expect it to arrive Friday and then will report my own findings.

The Lighnng connection simply is NOT designed to convey large amounts of electrical power. Period!

As Lotus Pilot has already stated in detail, ALL iOS devices are low power computing devices, but the older iOS devices with a Lightning connector only accept low powered external devices or devices that utilise their own external power sources.

Once more, this is the way it is.

Most of Apple’s current iOS devices STILL use Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector.

It is what it is.

We should all be grateful that Apple opened this ability up, at all, and made it work on all iPadOS compatible iDevices AND, also, mouse/trackpad support AFTER nearly 10 years!

Another option for external powering storage devices on Lightning connector equipped iPads, on the go, ,are portable, rechargeable power banks.

The fact stands that years of commonplace types of drives need more power than ANY iDevice can deliver to these drives.

This is something all iDevice users are going to have to deal with.

Well, I am a long time Apple user, I trust in Apple as a brand, also in the devices Apple make.

Anyway I think that when Apple introduced iOS 13 and the ability to connect external storage to the iPad I expected something better than having to buy a $ 50 adapter to which you have to connect a charger.

It's all about this.

If anyone has found a low power flash drive that can connect to an ipad and/or iphone lightning connector without an added power supply, please let us know. The Adam elements iklips Duo+ looks like a possibility, but it is kind of expensive to try on a whim.

My question clearly shows and is based on understanding the fact that most, or possibly all, flash drives draw too much power for the lightning connector without an added, external power supply. A helpful response would be if someone has found a low power flash drive that does not require additional power or even knowing if they have tried almost every one, including the Adams Klips +, and concluded that there probably are none. "Almost any" means not all require additional power.

Thank you for very much for that informative reply. It is much appreciated. I have tried a few old USB 1.1 flash drives, but so far the ones I've tried only work with the Apple powered camera adapter. The quest continues since there may be a few out there even though it may be a lost cause. Thanks again.

With a external lightning power supply, this is not the solution. Like me, I want to use pen drives without anything more. I know that to use a spinning disk I need more power but no for a pen drive.