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My external ssd not showing up on iPad 7th Generation, up-to-date OS 13.5.1.

My external ssd is not showing up on iPad 7th Generation, up-to-date OS 13.5.1. Purchased Apple lightning to USB 3 adapter with power and the external does not show up in Files on iPad. I have reformatted the ssd to exFAT and APFS but neither worked. The external is a new Sandisk and I I have seen countless YouTube videos of people doing the same connections. Any suggestions?

iPad, iPadOS 13

Posted on Jun 11, 2020 9:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 11, 2020 11:01 AM

To be recognised by iPadOS, the attached USB storage device must be formatted to FAT, FAT32, exFAT or APFS+ with a single partition. As the iPad has limited power capabilities, dependent upon the Storage Device, an external power source is often required.


If your iPad Pro has a Lightning port, you will need to use an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter to directly connect USB devices to the iPad. This adapter has both a USB 3.0 Type-A connector and an additional Lightning port to supply power, from your charger, to both the iPad and connected device. The external charger must be rated at 12W or more.


If you have one of the newest iPad Pro models, with a USB-C connector, you may need to utilise a powered USB hub (i.e., it has its own source of power) - connecting both the iPad Pro and the storage device to ports on the hub.


I hope this is helpful.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 11, 2020 11:01 AM in response to Kinghut6

To be recognised by iPadOS, the attached USB storage device must be formatted to FAT, FAT32, exFAT or APFS+ with a single partition. As the iPad has limited power capabilities, dependent upon the Storage Device, an external power source is often required.


If your iPad Pro has a Lightning port, you will need to use an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter to directly connect USB devices to the iPad. This adapter has both a USB 3.0 Type-A connector and an additional Lightning port to supply power, from your charger, to both the iPad and connected device. The external charger must be rated at 12W or more.


If you have one of the newest iPad Pro models, with a USB-C connector, you may need to utilise a powered USB hub (i.e., it has its own source of power) - connecting both the iPad Pro and the storage device to ports on the hub.


I hope this is helpful.

Jun 11, 2020 10:58 AM in response to Kinghut6

Hello,


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

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


*iPadOS 13 supports solid state devices formatted as FAT32 such as a SD card. iPadOS 13 does not supports mechanical hard disks formatted as FAT32.

** iPadOS 13 supports disks formatted as exFAT as long as it was formatted with Disk Utility on a Macintosh. The disk cannot be formatted by Windows.

My external ssd not showing up on iPad 7th Generation, up-to-date OS 13.5.1.

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