Lightning to USB adapter w/power = very little watts available

You should be using an Apple 12W power adapter or even better, Apple's 20 W USB-C power adapter with a USB-C to Lightning cable.

My iPad with Lightning connector has no issues with my Samsung T5 SSD, when it is connected via the AppleLighting to USB-3 adapter that allows external power.

You need to purchase the actual, genuine Apple Lightning to USB-3 camera adapter, from Apple, and plug that adapter into external power using your iPad charge cable and Apple power/charging block!

Tap the link below.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2/lightning-to- usb-3-camera-adapter?fnode=37

You NEED TO PURCHASE THIS EXACT genuine Apple adapter above!!!

This is THE ONLY adapter that works!

Cheaper ( cheap in price and quality ) third party “knockoff” adapters WILL NOT WORK!!!!

With Lightning connector equipped iPads, you need this adapter as it has a Lightning connector power connection to power both the iPad and to connect a commonplace USB flash memory drive or portable SSD drive.

Without the additional power to the iPad, USB flash drives and portable SSD drives will NOT work with older iPads with the Lightning connector.

The Lightning connector alone cannot convey the,necessary power requirements needed for normal USB style flash memory drives.

YOU NEED TO CONNECT AN EXTERNAL POWER SOUCE TO THIS ADAPTER for that adapter to work with ANY externally connected drive!!! Even to get any standard USB flash memory drives to work on older Lightning connector equipped iPads.

For external power sources, you CAN even use portable, carry-able, rechargeable power banks that can be found everywhere online ( try Amazon ) that can power the iPad and external drives, as well.

There are lots of YouTube videos that discuss and demonstrate this.

Here are just two references, as an example.

YouTube video reference links below

Tap the links below.

https://youtu.be/1Jm-xcrbFy8

https://youtu.be/8iHc1mc5SJE

You must use a full Mac or Windows PC computer to do the re-formatting of any external drive to use with iPad/iPhone/iOS/iPadOS.

My experiences have recommended that any external drive needing to be used with ANY Apple iPadOS device really needs to be formatted on an Apple Mac computer to ensure/insure correct operation.

If NO Mac computer, find and family member or friend that owns a Mac to possibly help you format this drive

OR

You need to search online for your nearest, “local” Apple store location and call contact phone numbers and call to make an appointment to ANY external drive you have properly format by Apple employees who have access to a Mac.

They will be glad to assist you.

In addition, the external drive needs to be formatted using a single data drive partition into one of these file/data formats below.

Apple Mac computer native drive formats - APFS ( Apple Proprietary File System ) OR Apple HFS+ ( Hierarchical File System+ )

Fat 32

exFAT

Apple Website external drive help links here below.

Tap the links below.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad1c415e32/ipados

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/external-storage-devices-ipad75b7b23f/14.0/ipados/14.0

connected

You are attempting to connect multiple Power Adapters? If so, while your maths may be flawless, your execution overlooks a significant limiting factor…

Your iPad (or adapter) will only accept power from a single input that is designated for power. As such, the only way to introduce more power is to use a single Power Adapter capable of sourcing more power. However, there are other technical limitations…

Lightning connections are effectively limited, by current, to 2.4A@5V (12W). Higher power requires the use of a Power Adapter that supports USB PD (Power Delivery). When connected to compatible devices, USB PD can operate at higher bus voltages - therefore delivering more power through a compatible Lightning port (e.g., 2.0A@9V / 1.5A@12V = 18W).

During initial connection, the source (Power Adapter) and sink (the connected device and accessories) negotiate the highest common power profile supported by all connected devices and the Power Adapter.

Hello chattphotos,

We understand that you're trying to back up your photos to an external hard drive. Per the article Connect external storage devices to iPad, "External hard drives often require an external power source when used with iPad. If an external hard drive doesn’t supply its own power, and your iPad has a USB-C or Thunderbolt / USB 4 connector, you can use a powered USB hub. If your iPad has a Lightning connector, you can use the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter connected to a USB power adapter."

The article also outlines what can be chained together. For example, "With iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation) or iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), you can connect multiple USB drives and other Thunderbolt devices to each other, then connect the chain of devices to the charging port on your iPad." So not all devices will work with a chain of devices.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

You appear to be attempting to source power from multiple USB connections - this being something that the USB bus architecture was never designed to intentionally support.

Continue down this path at your own risk; you can expect more than just fried cables.