Can I connect a USB external hard drive to iPad?

Hi stefanog,

I'm in similar boat as you but not just photos but also big video files and many of them. idevices are a no go since wifi is the only way to connect an external hd. wifi is much too slow for reasonable transfer rates. Yes, you can directly connect most any external HD to an android device but the problem becomes battery life of the android device. You can't charge the android device and connect the external hd/transfer data at the same time. Trust me I've tried many different ways to use my phone or android tablet. The android file utility is great. But best I could do was transfer under 30GB to external HD on one tablet charge. Usually I've got a lot more than this on one sd card. I did this by purchasing a usb/sd card reader and plugging that into android device, then connecting external SSDs to the usb hub. These were with sd cards with ~200MB/s download rate and usb 3.1 external ssd. So, unfortunately, I still need to bring a larger surface pro or laptop with me to clear my sd cards and store media on trips. perhaps there are bigger battery tablet solutions than when i last investigated. Hope this helps.

FWIW, I just recently got the Sandisk connect wireless stick - works like a charm. When connected via USB to my iMac, it acts like a regular external hard drive; once paired with the iPad Pro, you choose the wireless network of the stick and it'll recognize it wirelessly. You will need the connect app in order to access the files and you can move files to and from the iPad using that app.

That this can’t be done possibly the stupidest thing Apple has overlooked. I’d love to be able to us my iPad for so much more. I’d love to not take my laptop. I’d love to not carry an Android device to do certain tasks. I’d love to justify the purchase of an iPad Pro.

Stupid.

You can't use regular computer hard drives with Apple iDevices.

There are a few special storage devices for mobile devices. There are portable, bulit-in WiFi hotspot hard drives for mobile devices made by Western Digital and Seagate.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1660

http://www.seagate.com/consumer/stream/

There are special mobile lightning connected and built in WiFi Hot spot, USB flash drives made by SanDisk (now owned by Western Digital)

https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage/ixpand

https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage/connect-wireless-stick

http://www.adamelements.com/iKlips/iklips.html

Good Luck!

What if you are trying to offload images (from SD card) to an external Hard Drive using the ipad pro. And then edit those images using a lightroom app on the ipad pro etc...

but you are in a remote location with power but no access to wifi?

Hi schoolzy. The devices described are WiFi hotspots. You don't use a network to connect to them, you just select their WiFi and connect. Note that the transfers of files are all kind of manual, and you can only work on images by copying them to the iPad (probably to Photos). So you'll end up copying stuff back and forth.

How doable would be to use Lightroom on an iPad without a laptop on a trip? I'd want the images to be on an external drive or SSD. Wouldn't wifi be really slow to work on video or raw files?

Is there any sort of portable wifi hub to plug any drive to it and connect it to an iPad?

Also I would want to backup the images on a second drive.

Would an Android tablet allow that as well?

Not sure if an iPad can substitute a Macbook Air for travel

iPads are not laptop/Macbook replacements, yet.

iPads are still mobile companion devices to more capable computing platforms.

iPads are lesser mobile computing devices running a more simplified mobile OS.

If you own an iPad Pro and it isn't working for your needs or workflow, you can sell it for another mobile devices that may meet your needs.

The alternatives are out there.

Life is too short to be using an electronic gadget that isn't doing what you need it to do.

Good Luck to You!

I’m sorry but I don’t think Apple should be sticking a PRO label on any device that has been so intentionally crippled for no reason other than Apple wants to maintain a vice-like grip on their myopic universe. If they are going to market this as a laptop replacement, then they need to give us some real world tools to accompany it, and a keyboard and pencil are not the only thing users have been begging for.

Yes. You will need to buy a Kingston Mobilite G3 device to access almost any external USB hard drive. Set-up is easy. Just download the free Mobilte app to access the hard drive contents with or without the need for internet. Another app to download is FileBrowser. The app allows you to access the drive as a wireless NAS. You also get the ability to drag and drop files to the external drive if you have IOS 11 installed. This IOS 11 feature makes it easier to save pictures, pdf’s, spreadsheets, and other document by just dragging and dropping.

What Diana said.

All these storage devices generate their own WiFi signals.

But, over a length of time, these devices will need to be charged over electricity.

He did say he had power, just no network, so should be OK. Of course, the iPad won't last long either with no power.

Re-read and heed my advice above your post.

🙄