Hello all. How do I safely dismount my SSD that's plugged into the USB 3 camera adapter attached to my iPad? When I just disconnect it, and plug it into my Windows machine, I get a message that the disk needs to be repaired. I'm sure it's because it wasn't unmounted properly. This is on a 5th gen iPad WiFi. My 7th gen WiFi arrives tomorrow. TIA!
iPad (5th gen) Wi-Fi
In very simplistic terms, what essentially happening is this...
iPadOS appears to be primarily designed to support small flash memory devices - intended to support “quick disconnect” of the device - whereby the device can be simply disconnected after completion of a device-write operation.
Bulk-storage devices, such as SSDs, operate differently. These internally buffer device-write operations - and then “write” multiple changes as a block. So as to prevent data corruption, bulk-storage devices expect to receive a dismount command prior to disconnection - to ensure that pending write operation complete prior to disconnect. A “clean switch” is nominally set to indicate, upon the next mount, that the file-system is “clean”.
iPadOS, optimised for quick-disconnect, cannot set the “clean switch” on bulk-storage devices. As such, upon subsequent connection to a PC/Mac (that does correctly identify and support bulk-storage devices) the SSD cannot be verified as having had a prior “clean” dismount. When this condition is detected, the OS triggers the “repair” scan to detect potential errors.
Until or if Apple change the supported behaviour of iPadOS, this cannot be avoided. This is not a defect of the SSD - but instead is a current limitation of iPadOS.
In very simplistic terms, what essentially happening is this...
iPadOS appears to be primarily designed to support small flash memory devices - intended to support “quick disconnect” of the device - whereby the device can be simply disconnected after completion of a device-write operation.
Bulk-storage devices, such as SSDs, operate differently. These internally buffer device-write operations - and then “write” multiple changes as a block. So as to prevent data corruption, bulk-storage devices expect to receive a dismount command prior to disconnection - to ensure that pending write operation complete prior to disconnect. A “clean switch” is nominally set to indicate, upon the next mount, that the file-system is “clean”.
iPadOS, optimised for quick-disconnect, cannot set the “clean switch” on bulk-storage devices. As such, upon subsequent connection to a PC/Mac (that does correctly identify and support bulk-storage devices) the SSD cannot be verified as having had a prior “clean” dismount. When this condition is detected, the OS triggers the “repair” scan to detect potential errors.
Until or if Apple change the supported behaviour of iPadOS, this cannot be avoided. This is not a defect of the SSD - but instead is a current limitation of iPadOS.
Not an issue with my laptop. It sees a corruption occur from unplugging without safely dismounting. I use my SSD between my desktop and 2 laptops without issues, because I unmount the drive. It’s only when it’s plugged into my iPad and disconnected without unmounting, and then plugged into a PC where I get the error that a file has been corrupted.
There really isn't a method to unplug a SSD device from iPad other than when you have transferred whatever you wanted to the SSD, to just unplug it. Why it's not reading correctly on your laptop appears to be an issue with your laptop.
Then I'd recommend reaching out to the SSD manufacturer. I have no issues with this between my iPad and my Windows 10 laptop with my SSD.
Thank you lobsterghost1
Thanks Lotus and very interesting for sure.
Thank you very much. You confirmed what I thought. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something hidden in Files that allowed a dismount.
Unfortunately not... 🙁
How to dismount SSD attached to ipad?
