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Not spoken to Apple but Apple’s Website says, that only SSD with their own power supply work.
Connect external storage devices to iPad
On iPad, use files stored on USB storage devices and SD cards.
support.apple.com
Doesnt say anything about only using powered Drives.. sounds to me like a user issue
is it formated correctly :
Note: 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.
Is this a hypothetical question? If yes, there are plenty of SSDs which run perfectly fine powered from an iPP or newer Air.
Otherwise: what model of SSD? What iPP 12.9” model (year)?
I have two G-Drive SSD’s. One 500Gb, the other is 1 Terrabyte. The 500 works fine with the Apple adapter to my 2017 IPP lightning connector. The larger drive gives an error message on the iPad about “device not having sufficient power”. Using same cables in both cases. I have used a battery charger and one plugged into an outlet, so I don’t get it. The larger one is formatted the same as the small one. (Mac OS extended). The large one also works fine with my Mac Mini. Hopefully my 2024 IPP with M3 and USB-C will resolve the issue. Strange though, yes?
Not strange, really. I saw the same kind of behavior with my Lightning-based iPads; the Lightning port simply does not supply adequate power, unlike USB-C. My 1TB SSD works fine with my USB-C devices.
Yes. The lightning port provides almost no power at all, hence the Apple adapter to use an external power source. I can’t believe the 1TB drive needs that much more power than the 500Gig drive. I will be glad when the new iPads arrive. My 2017 IPP only gives me about 4 hours of use now, so the sooner Apple comes thru with the 2024 M3, the better. I did just find how to display all the drive info while in Files. Hidden feature I guess. Hopefully, iPadOS 18 will allow users to format a drive as well, which would be very handy and a big plus.
I had the same issue with Lightning as I also have both 500GB & 1TB SSDs. I'd be surprised if Apple provides a format capability given their problems supporting exFAT & NTFS formats, a basic, well-understood capability. I question their skills in dealing with external storage in iPadOS.
Hard drives (not SSD’s) need an external power supply even with USB-C. SSD’s do not. Your old spinning disk hard drive just needs a powered USB port from what I’ve read. I haven’t tried this yet, but I have 5 or 6 old 2.5” external drives I bought cases for. This will be great if it works.
No, they don't. I just connected a 4TB HDD to my M1 12.9 and it works fine.
Any USB-C device that works with iPhone 15 Pro will work on an iPad Pro, regardless of what Apple Support is telling you.
This is debatable. There's no good reason not to use APFS with an external SSD for sure.
If you need to use that device with a different non-Apple device, you can't use APFS; if you're using that storage with Windows machines, you'll want to be formatted exFAT for read/write or NTFS, read-only on the iPad.
Sorry. I meant for use with lightning ports. Nice to hear HDD’s work fine with USB-C. Cheers!
My response was a reply to the poster who said that HFS+ was the preferred format for external drives. For an SSD that’s only used with other Apple devices, APFS would certainly be preferable over HFS+.
Yeah, the iPad plays very well with APFS and is definitely the way to go if you don’t need the other compatibility.
That's the same with Sandisk drives, 500MB will work without plugging in lightning, 1TB and above won't, because it needs more than 5w (Samsung drives have no issues as they all need less than 5w at any capacity). Having said that non-pro lightning iPads won't work at all with more power hungry drives, even when plugged in (the only way is using a powered hub).
Lightning iPad pros (except the 9.7 pro) will all work even with power hungry HDDs as they have and can take more power thanks to USB 3.0 lightning, provided you plug in the lightinig cable (no powered hub needed)
USB C iPad can output 7.5w, which is enough even for the most power hungry HDDs (haven't tested the USB 2.0 iPad 10 though)
APFS is far superior. For sure for SSDs. For spinning HDs i’s debatable. 😃
In general this is not true. Besides what @sparksd already commented, depending on the type of SSD the peak power draw versus average power draw can actually be higher for an SSD vs. a HD.
Depending on SSD model, iPad model and use case, e.g. an external powered/pass through dock might be required.
Related question. My daughter has a 64GB Air 5 and does a lot of art in Procreate. If the storage becomes an issue, can she use a thumb drive to store her artwork? If not, what would she need for read/write? I’m clueless, please be nice haha. She’s only 11 and when I mentioned external storage to her she looked at me like I was speaking Klingon. I don’t anticipate it being an issue for a long while but I am hoping she gets into Procreate Dreams and I figured her files will grow in size as she gets older.
