Is the iPad Air third generation compatible with external hard drives? The physical hard drives not iCloud?
Standard USB Sticks, yes. SSD drives, would need a powered hub. See this link --> Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPad - Apple Support
Standard USB Sticks, yes. SSD drives, would need a powered hub. See this link --> Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPad - Apple Support
For iPadOS13.x to access external media - such as thumb-drives, SSD and HDD - they must be formatted as FAT, FAT32 or exFAT (FAT64) for universal readability across Apple, Microsoft or Linux systems. Additionally, if only used with Apple systems, APFS+ Is also supported.
Microsoft proprietary NTFS and other formats are not supported by iPadOS. If necessary, drive formatting must be performed on other computing devices; drive formatting actions are not supported by iPadOS. For compatibility with iPadOS, the drive must only have only single partition.
You will likely need to provide additional power to external storage devices via a powered USB hub - as the iPad will not be able to provide sufficient power.
Dependent upon your model of iPad, you will need to use an appropriate adapter (such as the Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adaptor - for devices that use a Lightning connector) or directly using USB-C for the most recent models of iPad Pro. When using USB-C, you may still need to use a self-powered SSD/HDD or powered USB hub to provide adequate power to the system.
I hope you find this helpful.
Ipad
