iPad Pro 12.9 inch and LaCie rugged 1tb usb-c issue

Hello Kingephotos,

Thanks for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are unable to access files from your external drive on your iPad. We can understand why you'd reach out for a solution.

To start what format do you have the hard drive formatted to?

Also, here is a user guide that can help.

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

Cheers!

I'm having the exact same problem with a LaCie 5T external hard drive (rugged mini) and it is formatted to exFAT. The drive shows up in Files on my iPad Pro 2021 (12.9"), but says "Content Unavailable. The folder contents could not be displayed because of an unknown error". There is nothing on the drive but I'd like to use it for storage. I cannot put anything into it.

Hi koo22.

I have the older Seagate 4TB and used to format my drives to exFAT but experienced the same issue on my iPad Pro. I even bought a USB C to USB 3 Micro cable but still the same issues.

I decided to reformat them to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and have had no issues since.

However, I am aware that trying to use my drive on a Windows computer does not work at times but its not an issue for my purpose.

Hope this helps.

Thank you! This has worked and now I can actually use the drive with my iPad. :-)