I can't be the first.

[Roomuz]

This discovery must surely have been made by lots of people by now, but I've only just made it and I think it's good enough to talk about.

As you all know, it's impossible to plug a plain old USB thumb drive directly into an iPad and expect it to be recognised. You get the "This device cannot be used, it requires too much power" message.

Well, turns out that's not always true. I was messing about with my powered hub, with a HDD attached, and trying to get iPad to see it. But it wouldn't, (although it has done before). So, to test if the cable or the lightning socket had been damaged, or something else was wrong, I plugged in my short "USB to lightning" adapter which I had lying around. Then, just to see if I got that dreaded message, (and prove that the socket was good), I plugged in a little USB thumb drive.

Lo and behold, the iPad saw it, and loaded its files!! I could hardly believe it! The stick I used was an "EMTEC" 64 G. I bought two of them years ago, and only used them to store videos. When iPad saw it, I played one of those videos direct from the stick. They played fine. The larger sized videos stuttered a bit at the start, but then settled down. Smaller files played perfectly.

So, I now have twice the storage on my iPad. How good is that!

This is the stick I have. And no, I don't work for Emtec. 🙂

 

[Roomuz]

So I went through all my USB sticks to see if any of them also worked without power on the iPad, and I found my Corsair Flash Voyager loaded up just fine. I've had that stick for years, so it's definitely not the latest thing.

Anyway, working on the principle that, if you're on a good thing stick to it, I raced out and bought two more Emtec sticks. Absolutely identical to the one I already had, even the colour..

But they don't load on the iPad... strange. I tried cloning the working one to one of the new ones, but it made no difference. Anyway, now I have to find out why the good one worked but the new ones didn't. I think it's going to be a bit of a search...

 

[Roomuz]

So does anybody have any comment about the stick being recognised? It's supposed to be impossible. I'm wondering what I need to do to my other sticks to get them to do the same.

 

[Roomuz]

So does anybody have any comment about the stick being recognised? It's supposed to be impossible. I'm wondering what I need to do to my other sticks to get them to do the same.

Anyone...........? 😶

 

[User #07242024]

Perhaps it’s not original?

How about this?

Note from Apple: An external storage device must have only a single data partition, and it must be formatted as APFS, APFS (encrypted), macOS Extended (HFS+), exFAT (FAT64), FAT32, or FAT. To change the formatting of a storage device, use a Mac or PC.

 

[Roomuz]

Thanks for that. 🙂

I'm pretty sure it's an original, unmodified stick. I bought it in its pack from Big W, as I recall.

But, having said that, I suppose I could possibly have altered it somehow, at some time in the past. It's an old stick I've had for years.

I'll check it, (and the new ones) out, and see if there's any difference.

Thanks again.
Cheers.

🙂

 

[Roomuz]

Well I checked out the new ones, (the sticks that aren't recognised by iPad), and formatted them as a single partition, and in exFAT. But they still weren't recognised.

One curious thing though. The new ones are packaged as a 64G stick, and apparently are exactly the same product as the other, recognised one. But when I go in and look at properties, their capacity is given as 62.01Gb. But with the other, recognised one, its capacity is given as 62.91Gb. Otherwise, the sticks are identical in every way.

I wonder why there is more usable space on the new ones than on the working one..

 

[User #07242024]

Let’s try closing all apps, and turn off the iPad. Clean the port (iPad and stick) a bit with alcohol wipe and let dry. Then turn on again.

If it still fails while the other works okay, I suspect the new sticks are defective or the internals are not built the same as before. It happens, sometimes them sticks look the same but the write/read speed of new ones is slower than old ones.

 

[Roomuz]

I'll do that, thanks.

I do think you're probably right, though, that the new ones are different in more ways than just storage capacity. But I'd love to know why they made that change. As I understand it, these things are mass-produced to a pattern. To make one small change in the production line seems to be a lot of trouble for no obvious purpose.

Anyway, I still have the other sticks that work, so it's not a problem, really.

 

[chown33]

I have only a couple of USB sticks that work on my iPad mini 5 via Apple's Lightning-to-USB adapter. I also have a fair number that don't.

The main thing I've seen that allows a USB stick to work is the USB "Current Required" that the stick declares. Sticks that need 100 mA work; ones that need more don't.

You can see the "Current Required) using the System Info app on a Mac, then selecting the USB line, and selecting the stick. The parameter is probably named "Current Required (mA)", but it may vary depending on OS and System Info version.

The value might vary depending on if it's using USB 3.0 or not, when plugged into the Mac. Some of my devices declare different "Current Required" depending on which bus System Info shows them on.

My sticks that work on the iPad mini:
Lexar 4GB - 100 mA.
Lexar 256MB - 100 mA.

Some sticks that don't work on the iPad mini:
SanDisk 64GB - 200 mA USB 2.0, 400 mA USB 3.0
SanDisk 32GB - 224 mA USB 2.0, 896 mA USB 3.0
SanDisk Cruzer mini 1GB - 200 mA
Silicon Motion uSD adapter - 500 mA
Transcend SD adapter - 500 mA

I don't know what the exact threshold is. It might be 110, or 150, or 180 mA. All I have are sticks that declare 100 mA, and others at 200 mA or more. So all I know for sure is the threshold is between 100 and 200 mA.

 

[Roomuz]

I tried that, and sure enough the sticks that work require either 100mA or under 100mA.

That's good to know. I'll be checking the specs on any USB stick I buy in future.

Thanks for the tips. 🙂

Cheers.

 

[blufrog]

What happens if you split the power off the iPad and use a different power connector? Is iPad interrogating the stick for declared power, or is it measuring power draw on the port and shutting down?

 

[Roomuz]

What happens if you split the power off the iPad and use a different power connector? Is iPad interrogating the stick for declared power, or is it measuring power draw on the port and shutting down?

That's a good question. But I think the iPad will only draw the power it requires, no matter what connector I use.

I may be wrong, though. I'm not very electrically informed, so to speak. What alternative kind of power source would you connect to the iPad?