Connecting external hard drive to ipad

Your external hard disk must either be self-powered - or if the HDD is powered by the USB Bus, then you MUST use the Apple Lightning to USB3 adapter that includes both a USB3 Type-A connector and a Lightning port for the essential connection of external power.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MK0W2ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

Are you using the Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter - Model A1619 - described elsewhere in this discussion? This is the only adapter recommended by Apple to connect external USB devices.

This adapter also has a Lightning connector - to which you can attach your charger to provide additional power.

Have you also tried using a different USB stick? Sometimes thus can “unblock” an interface - and/or identify a bad USB device.

One other observation that may help. After updating to iPadOS, I did find it necessary to restart my iPad one additional time for the adapter to recognise external USB. Since then, my iPad Pro has recognised external USB without any issues.

Hello,

Most likely your drive is formatted in a way that is not compatible with iPad.

iPadOS 13 supports the following disk formats with a GUID partition scheme:

• macOS Extended journaled — YES Read and Write
• APFS - YES Read and Write
• FAT32 — NO
• exFAT — NO
• NTFS — NO

I’m pretty certain that supported USB device formats include FAT, FAT32 and exFAT (which is FAT64) - as these are the basic formats used to format the majority of devices when new. exFAT is required if individual files exceed 4GB.

NTFS, by contrast, is definitely not supported.

Its worth noting that iPadOS/iOS devices, to my knowledge, are not able to format a connected device. Any formatting actions must be done elsewhere.

Hope you find my responses helpful.

LP

[PS: I have a 128GB FAT32 USB stick connected - and working - as I type this very reply]

Hello,

Correct, you cannot format your hard disk with WIndows to use on an iPad. iPad can only use hard disks formatted with a Macintosh.

Yes - its called the Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter. This is the only adapter that, for Lightning equipped devices, will reliably work with compatible USB storage devices. Don’t get hung-up on the “Camera” descriptor; this really is the official adapter that Apple state will work (and from personal experience with iPadOS, I can confirm does work).

Cost, relative to that of your iDevice, is inexpensive. The Apple Store currently lists them at $39/£39.