iphone 15 pro max does not recognize my external SSD.

I fought with this for weeks on my iPhone 16 Pro. I even went and bought a fancy new USB-C cable from the Apple store (which didn't help) because none of my existing USB-C and thunderbolt cables were allowing my Sandisk Extreme Pro 4TB to work. Sometimes the drive would be available, but at USB2 speeds. Most times it just wouldn't show up at all.

Someone else early in this thread had the answer, though. The iPhone USB-C port doesn't provide enough wattage to reliably power many external storage devices. Connecting the storage through a powered USB3 hub fixed all my problems. Now the external storage shows up all the time, and runs lightning fast. Any of my thunderbolt or USB 3.2 wires work just fine. I can record ProRes 4k120 for over an hour with zero problems.

Hello yoosuf86,

If your external drive is not recognized by your iPhone 15, first ensure you are following these steps from Charge and connect with the USB-C connector on your iPhone 15 (that you've already looked over)

Connect your iPhone to your iPad, Mac, and other computers

You can connect your iPhone to your iPad, Mac, and other computers to transfer data, like your photos and videos, using a USB-C cable compliant with the USB-C standard, such as the cable that comes with your iPhone. These cables are widely available from Apple and other manufacturers. Just connect one end of the included USB-C charge cable to the USB-C connector on your iPhone and the other to the USB-C port on your computer.

Your iPhone will charge while connected to these devices. iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max support fast USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds up to 10Gbit per second when using an optional USB 3 cable.*

*The USB-C cable that comes with your iPhone supports charging and USB 2 speeds. If you want to use a USB 3 device, use a compliant USB 3 cable that supports 10Gbit/s.

If this continues after looking over that, reach out to the manufacturer of this external drive. They'd be the best equipped to look into the compatibility of this device further.

Cheers!

I've encountered the same issue with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I've tested it with five different SSDs using an RTL9210B case. After spending 4 hours testing various USB 3.2, USB4, and Thunderbolt cables, I've come to the conclusion that the 4.5W output on the iPhone's USB-C port is insufficient for the 2TB SSD.

In contrast, when I tried the same 2TB SSDs with the RTL9210B case on my iPad Pro M1 and iMac 27, they worked flawlessly.

I had the exact same issue. But I solved it. If you have password protected your external SSD (I have a Samsung T9 2TB, and a SanDisk Extreme Pro 500GB), you will just need to enter the password when you connect the SSD to your iPhone. This can be done by just opening the "Files" app on your iPhone, then click on the name of your external SSD attached, then following the prompt and entering your password. Once that is done you will be able to access your external SSD normally. In my case, I use the external SSD for direct export of my ProRes Log video files. Working flawlessly now. I will send an Apple Developers a message alerting them to this oversight, and hope that they address this issue in a subsequent iOS 17.2 beta update, or maybe 17.3. On my MacBook Air, there is no issue because I am prompted to enter my password when attaching the external SSD, or, in the current case, I have allowed Keychain Access to the external SSD so that the SSD is already authorized when I am logged into my Mac (via fingerprint ID, or manual password to my Mac). As for appropriate cables, make sure you are using the appropriate speed rating for the cables (not just for power), or your date will not transfer at the proper speed and frame dropping will result, or worse. Make sure your external SSD is also compatible (in speed), with the iPhone 15 (Pro or Pro Max). Hope this helps everyone.

I had the same issue with My Passport Ultra 1TB (HDD) by Western Digital. It has a USB-C connector but I could not find it in my files whenever I connect it to my iPhone 15 pro max. However, I removed the password of the drive by using my PC and connected it again to my iphone and suddenly the drive worked perfectly!

I am not sure why the drive did not work when it was encrypted with a password, but if your drive encrypted with a password and not working when you connect it to your iPhone then I recommend to remove the password and try again.

Hope this will help you and solve the issue!

I can confirm that this issue is still on 17.6.1 but it happens ONLY when you directly connect ssd/nvme by usb-c to usb-c cable. Using ANY adapter like usb-c to usb-3.1 2gen makes that drive works.

Try ANY adapters between iPhone usb-c and ssd cable.

I had the same issue with my iPhone 15 pro max not recognising Sandisk 2Tb extreme pro. Fixed by reformatting on laptop even though it was already formatted as exFat I reformatted to exFat again and reconnected to iPhone and waited about 30min and it appeared as not named in files.

As for ntfs or exfat external drives connected to iPhone 15 Pro Max (that I have) and not recognized, the main reason is that the drives must be scanned for errors from a window (in my case) pc. What I mean is that the main reason they don’t get recognized sometimes is because they have been ejected even from a TV set without safe ejection. This makes the drive return errors and the iPhone not reading it.

(iPhone 15 pro) Initially, it would not find my 1TB Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD, so I turned phone off and on. Took 10 seconds or so to pop up as a device in FILES app - but eventually did. I am backing up all photos (3700) to it. You can create a folder on SSD in FILES app on phone. The speed is NOT USB-C standard. Is really taking a while. But, it is working.

After having the same exact issues as OP and the many others on here, I tried Apple brand USB-C to USB Adapter. ($19.99 USD) FIXED SOLVED Hope this helps.

I am having the same issue... kind of. It worked the first time, and I even shot some video. I connected that drive to my MacStudio, and accessed it fine. Next time I plugged it into the iPhone, it didn't show up. I shut down and restarted the phone and it worked again. BUT, once I unplugged it and then re-plugged it in, it didn't work again.

Only shutting down the whole phone and re-starting seems to work. I tried logging out and back in, which didn't help. I tried closing the camera app completely, and that also didn't help. Only restarting the entire phone is making it work again.