Attach adaptor to iPad Pro to access USB thumb drive

Hello,

Are you using Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 Adapter?

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

• macOS Extended journaled — YES Read and Write
• APFS - Coming in iPadOS 14
• 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.

Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPad - Apple Support

To be recognised by iPadOS, the attached USB storage device must be formatted to FAT, FAT32, exFAT or APFS with a single data partition; Microsoft proprietary formats (such as NTFS) or multiple partitions are not supported by iPadOS.

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.