Does iPadOS support uncompressed RAW files from a Fujifilm X100VI camera? Documentation says yes, experience says no!

I think I have figured out what is happening. Good news is that my iPad does support the X100VI RAW files! The confusing part is that this appears to be an undocumented feature of the (latest?) OS. 

While I was trying to import these RAW files, for the first time I’ll note, into Photos on my iPad I saw an icon appear near the wi-fi and battery status in the top bar. It was blue and had a gear icon surrounded by two arrows. It appears that my iPad was trying to sync something, but it was unclear as to what. I searched the web to see if I could find an explanation for this icon and lo and behold I found a post here in these very forums. 

Understanding the blue gear icon on iPad - Apple Community

A few hours later I went back to my iPad, opened Photos, and guess what? The images were loading and could be viewed and edited. I think what I have stumbled upon is a new(?) feature in iPadOS. Instead of having RAW support for every possible camera included in the OS (or downloaded as part of an update) Apple has decided to instead download support for the camera’s RAW files on an as-needed basis. This makes sense from a storage perspective. A little confusing from a user perspective if things aren’t instant or described well to the user. 

So, all is well on my end. A funny – not ha ha, but weird – experience and lesson learned about how Apple software works (or doesn’t?) :p 

Thanks Richard. I double and triple checked. Not the issue.