All iPads Anyone experienced this using iPad and external hard drives?

[BhaveshUK]

Hey everyone 👋

Yesterday, I was away from my iMac and decided edit my upcoming YouTube video on the go. First time I’ve attached an external hard drive to the iPad Pro (2020) to work with LumaFusion. I usually video edit exclusively on the iMac.

Everything worked perfectly during the day and I got the whole video completed. Unfortunately, when I got home, I encountered a serious issue. I tried connecting the hard drive back to the iPad so I could upload the final export on my home Wi-Fi. The hard drive couldn’t be found. I restarted the iPad but it still didn’t work. Finally decided to try the iMac and the hard drive was still not being found as it usually would’ve.

Only way I could get the hard drive working again was to connect it to my mum’s Chromebook and reformat the whole thing. But that means all the work on that hard drive has now been lost (including the video). It makes me very hesitant to connect a hard drive to the iPad again in case this repeats.

Is this a known issue with iPad? And if it is, how do I avoid this occurring in the future?

 

[sparksd]

Hey everyone 👋

Yesterday, I was away from my iMac and decided edit my upcoming YouTube video on the go. First time I’ve attached an external hard drive to the iPad Pro (2020) to work with LumaFusion. I usually video edit exclusively on the iMac.

Everything worked perfectly during the day and I got the whole video completed. Unfortunately, when I got home, I encountered a serious issue. I tried connecting the hard drive back to the iPad so I could upload the final export on my home Wi-Fi. The hard drive couldn’t be found. I restarted the iPad but it still didn’t work. Finally decided to try the iMac and the hard drive was still not being found as it usually would’ve.

Only way I could get the hard drive working again was to connect it to my mum’s Chromebook and reformat the whole thing. But that means all the work on that hard drive has now been lost (including the video). It makes me very hesitant to connect a hard drive to the iPad again in case this repeats.

Is this a known issue with iPad? And if it is, how do I avoid this occurring in the future?

What format was the drive? iPadOS has had problems with corruption with exFAT drives.

 

[BhaveshUK]

What format was the drive? iPadOS has had problems with corruption with exFAT drives.

I had it formatted to exFAT as I believe this enables use between Mac/ Windows. It’s a shame to hear iPadOS has issues corrupting these drives.

Is there a solution for this exFAT issue? Or equally a better format to use between MacOS and iPadOS to avoid corruption?

 

[rui no onna]

Hey everyone 👋

Yesterday, I was away from my iMac and decided edit my upcoming YouTube video on the go. First time I’ve attached an external hard drive to the iPad Pro (2020) to work with LumaFusion. I usually video edit exclusively on the iMac.

Everything worked perfectly during the day and I got the whole video completed. Unfortunately, when I got home, I encountered a serious issue. I tried connecting the hard drive back to the iPad so I could upload the final export on my home Wi-Fi. The hard drive couldn’t be found. I restarted the iPad but it still didn’t work. Finally decided to try the iMac and the hard drive was still not being found as it usually would’ve.

Only way I could get the hard drive working again was to connect it to my mum’s Chromebook and reformat the whole thing. But that means all the work on that hard drive has now been lost (including the video). It makes me very hesitant to connect a hard drive to the iPad again in case this repeats.

Is this a known issue with iPad? And if it is, how do I avoid this occurring in the future?

Yep. I've had this issue with both FAT and exFAT formatted drives. I don't trust iPadOS with external drives.

If you only need to switch between iPad and Mac, perhaps formatting as APFS works better.

 

[sparksd]

I had it formatted to exFAT as I believe this enables use between Mac/ Windows. It’s a shame to hear iPadOS has issues corrupting these drives.

Is there a solution for this exFAT issue? Or equally a better format to use between MacOS and iPadOS to avoid corruption?

My long thread on this -

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/file-corruption-on-copy-to-external-storage.2235171/

 

[Ludatyk]

I had it formatted to exFAT as I believe this enables use between Mac/ Windows. It’s a shame to hear iPadOS has issues corrupting these drives.

Is there a solution for this exFAT issue? Or equally a better format to use between MacOS and iPadOS to avoid corruption?

Yeah, as @sparksd suggested… iPadOS has had problems with external drives for awhile now.

My experience has been transfer files from external drive to the iPad… never transfer files off the iPad to an external drive. Lately, I found with iPadOS 16 it has improved a bit. But I wouldn’t trust it to work reliability… however, if you must transfer files from the external drive to the iPad I suggest using FileBrowser app.

 

[BhaveshUK]

Thank you @sparksd, @Ludatyk and @rui no onna for your swift support.

I will reformat to APFS as suggested (connecting to Windows is no longer a huge priority) and hope the iPad doesn’t corrupt the hard drive again. I’ll also look at the FileBrowser app now.

 

[sparksd]

Yeah, as @sparksd suggested… iPadOS has had problems with external drives for awhile now.

My experience has been transfer files from external drive to the iPad… never transfer files off the iPad to an external drive. Lately, I found with iPadOS 16 it has improved a bit. But I wouldn’t trust it to work reliability… however, if you must transfer files from the external drive to the iPad I suggest using FileBrowser app.

I've been using FileBrowser Pro for some time now with exFAT storage and have never run into corruption with it. But the best option is APFS (not for me though - I use Windows).

 

[Ludatyk]

I've been using FileBrowser Pro for some time now with exFAT storage and have never run into corruption with it. But the best option is APFS (not for me though - I use Windows).

I need to go ahead and switch to FileBrowser Pro from FileBrowserGo (currently have the subscription) been dragging my feet about it… I use Windows as well along with Android. So, yeah… exFAT is must for me since I transfer files across three OSs.

 

[Digitalguy]

I've been using FileBrowser Pro for some time now with exFAT storage and have never run into corruption with it. But the best option is APFS (not for me though - I use Windows).

I do the same, it's not as quick and easy as the file app but at least it's safe

 

[Digitalguy]

I need to go ahead and switch to FileBrowser Pro from FileBrowserGo (currently have the subscription) been dragging my feet about it… I use Windows as well along with Android. So, yeah… exFAT is must for me since I transfer files across three OSs.

I moved from the go to the pro last year, wasted money on the go...

 

[sparksd]

I do the same, it's not as quick and easy as the file app but at least it's safe

I rarely use the Files app - I prefer FB Pro for my online storage and SMB access to NAS, laptop, desktop, etc. It also works great when I'm on the road, using a hub to transfer pics from my camera's SD card to an SSD.

 

[Ludatyk]

I do the same, it's not as quick and easy as the file app but at least it's safe

I still use Files app… to transfer stuff between apps. But what I do wish FilesBrowser had some progress bar… if I’m not mistaken they had it before (gave percentage number).

I moved from the go to the pro last year, wasted money on the go...

I agree, it’s a waste of money. My subscription ends next year in May, I’ll switch then… I just purchased Affinity v2 Photo & Designer.

 

[BhaveshUK]

Thank you everyone! I’ve now reformatted the drive and downloaded FileBrowser on my iPad.

I had noticed the Files app doesn’t have an eject button for external drives. Does FileBrowser have this feature?

 

[sparksd]

Thank you everyone! I’ve now reformatted the drive and downloaded FileBrowser on my iPad.

I had noticed the Files app doesn’t have an eject button for external drives. Does FileBrowser have this feature?

No - it's not available in iPadOS. You can wait a moment to ensure any writes are complete or if you get really paranoid, shut the iPad off and then remove the drive.

 

[macfacts]

Pay the apple tax and get an iPad with bigger internal storage.

 

[BhaveshUK]

No - it's not available in iPadOS. You can wait a moment to ensure any writes are complete or if you get really paranoid, shut the iPad off and then remove the drive.

Thank you for letting me know. Given my experience yesterday, I will opt for the paranoid approach 😂

 

[SabinoII]

I've encountered this problem numerous times but the fix for my case was (my drive is a Kingston Fury Renegade NVMe M.2 inside an ORICO M.2 NVMe Enclosure and formatted as exFAT) always removing the SSD from the enclosure and putting it back again. I was kind of afraid at first when this happened to me but reformatting my drive is arguably my very last option. I even tried plugging it on a Windows machine and got the 'Format disk' popping up. Even today, whenever my external drive would just become undetectable on my Mac after plugging it into my iPad I just unplugged it from the enclosure and plug it again - and it kind of a hassle 'cause I need a screwdriver to open the enclosure..

 

[BhaveshUK]

I still use Files app… to transfer stuff between apps. But what I do wish FilesBrowser had some progress bar… if I’m not mistaken they had it before (gave percentage number).


I agree, it’s a waste of money. My subscription ends next year in May, I’ll switch then… I just purchased Affinity v2 Photo & Designer.

Instantly purchased Affinity v2 Universal License as I use these apps on Mac/ iPad almost everyday in my design business. An excellent example of the professional apps which can exist on iPad!

Pay the apple tax and get an iPad with bigger internal storage.

Not in the market for a new iPad. Next time I’ll opt for bigger storage, but video editing wasn’t something I’d even started when I purchased my device in 2020.

Even so, I imagine many video editors and creative professionals work from (or would like to work from) external hard drives often. This makes your solution less clear cut than it initially appears.

I've encountered this problem numerous times but the fix for my case was (my drive is a Kingston Fury Renegade NVMe M.2 inside an ORICO M.2 NVMe Enclosure and formatted as exFAT) always removing the SSD from the enclosure and putting it back again. I was kind of afraid at first when this happened to me but reformatting my drive is arguably my very last option. I even tried plugging it on a Windows machine and got the 'Format disk' popping up. Even today, whenever my external drive would just become undetectable on my Mac after plugging it into my iPad I just unplugged it from the enclosure and plug it again - and it kind of a hassle 'cause I need a screwdriver to open the enclosure..

It seems this problem I’ve experienced is actually a big issue for many people. Very inconvenient if you have to open the enclosure so often. Hopefully this is something that is amended soon.