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iPad USB hard drive access with 1st Gen iPad Pro 12.9

sregreb

sregreb

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2014
64
12
I am running the iPadOS public beta on my first Gen IPad Pro 12.9. If I purchase the lightning to USB3 camera adapter will I be able to read and write to the USB drives using the files app? The drives I have are small and powered by USB only. I have seen plenty of references to people accessing drives with the USB-C connector and the latest iPad pros but not on the previous generations. I just want to make sure this is possible before I buy the thing. Thanks!
 
I have the original iPad pro 9.7I and have a lightning to USB connector. I have to connect a power adapter into the lightning input in order work. Otherwise it says that the device takes too much power.
 
sregreb said:
I am running the iPadOS public beta on my first Gen IPad Pro 12.9. If I purchase the lightning to USB3 camera adapter will I be able to read and write to the USB drives using the files app? The drives I have are small and powered by USB only. I have seen plenty of references to people accessing drives with the USB-C connector and the latest iPad pros but not on the previous generations. I just want to make sure this is possible before I buy the thing. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Works for me. I am able to access my external hard drive.
 
dcmaccam said:
I have the original iPad pro 9.7I and have a lightning to USB connector. I have to connect a power adapter into the lightning input in order work. Otherwise it says that the device takes too much power.
Click to expand...

Great! Thanks for the responses. Plugging in power to the adapter is no big deal. Just to clarify are you both using the USB3 to lightning adapter or does the previous one work also?
 
sregreb said:
Great! Thanks for the responses. Plugging in power to the adapter is no big deal. Just to clarify are you both using the USB3 to lightning adapter or does the previous one work also?
Click to expand...
The previous one does not have a power input socket so will not work.
 
It's completely random whether USB drives will work without additional power.

There are two numbers associated with USB drive power consumption:

- The amount of power the drive tells the OS is required
- The amount of power that is actually required.

These two numbers don't have to be in any way similar, and they frequently aren't! iOS goes by the first number. The only way to find out what drives will work with iOS is to try them out.
 
I just tried a large pile of thumbdrives on my iPad Pro 9.7" using the lighting to USB camera adapter.

Interestingly, most of the ones that worked were no-name, non-branded generic thumbdrives. Name brand thumbdrives like Sandisk, Crucial, and so on all use too much power.
 
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zorinlynx said:
It's completely random whether USB drives will work without additional power.

There are two numbers associated with USB drive power consumption:

- The amount of power the drive tells the OS is required
- The amount of power that is actually required.

These two numbers don't have to be in any way similar, and they frequently aren't! iOS goes by the first number. The only way to find out what drives will work with iOS is to try them out.
Click to expand...
If you use any non-powered USB hub, it masks what the drive tells the iPad what it needs. I can use any flash drive with my lightning camera adapter that way without power. Don't have a hard drive to test out though.
I made a thread about it on here, but it seems people didn’t care much, maybe because it’s not a problem for most or something.
 
Sunshoopa said:
If you use any non-powered USB hub, it masks what the drive tells the iPad what it needs. I can use any flash drive with my lightning camera adapter that way without power. Don't have a hard drive to test out though.
I made a thread about it on here, but it seems people didn’t care much, maybe because it’s not a problem for most or something.
Click to expand...

Not all non-powered hubs mask it. For me, it stills says too much power with any drive
 
That's why the 2018 iPad Pros have a USB-C port.. I think they were designed with iOS 13 in mind but it was delayed for one year due to the terrible performance of iOS 11 which needed urgent fix that's iOS 12.
 
bradbomb said:
Not all non-powered hubs mask it. For me, it stills says too much power with any drive
Click to expand...
Ah, that sucks. Guess I got lucky with mine after all. Just an old Targus hub I got many years ago. Only way I could get it to say too much power was to have my USB fan on along with a usb mouse.
 

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dcmaccam said:
I have the original iPad pro 9.7I and have a lightning to USB connector. I have to connect a power adapter into the lightning input in order work. Otherwise it says that the device takes too much power.
Click to expand...
I get the same message, on every single item I've tried with the Lightning-to-USB adapter. Even a teeny tiny little micro SD card adapter is apparently drawing too much power. I don't believe it - we're talking a very tiny amount of current here.

Also, I'm not seeing a place to plug in a lightning plug that's attached to a charger, on the Lightning to USB camera adapter I have. Is there another adapter I should've bought instead?
 
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