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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
Hi, the storage of my iPad Pro M1 12.9" is full. I want to move all the photos and videos to an external storage. What are the pros and cons doing it via direct connect to an external storage vs. via a Windows PC and iTunes?
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
I've had corruption issues in the past with copying data/images to exFAT external storage. My long thread on this with others experiences -

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

This may be behind us now but it has made me very wary of using this path with the native Files app (no issues when using the third party FileBrowser Pro).
It almost feel like apple is intentionally Making external drive support bad to incentivise more people to go for iCloud or higher capacity models.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
I've had corruption issues in the past with copying data/images to exFAT external storage. My long thread on this with others experiences -

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

This may be behind us now but it has made me very wary of using this path with the native Files app (no issues when using the third party FileBrowser Pro).

So better to just connect the M1 iPad Pro to a PC which is connected to an external storage. Then use iTunes to copy all the photos and videos there. Then, delete all the photos and videos from the iPad?
It almost feel like apple is intentionally Making external drive support bad to incentivise more people to go for iCloud or higher capacity models.

Yes, like many things, they intentionally do such and such to make people buy more of their products. it is Apple’s style under Tim.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
So better to just connect the M1 iPad Pro to a PC which is connected to an external storage. Then use iTunes to copy all the photos and videos there. Then, delete all the photos and videos from the iPad?


Yes, like many things, they intentionally do such and such to make people buy more of their products. it is Apple’s style under Tim.
You might as well just use iPad as an external storage Rather than trying to use external storage through iPad.
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,994
34,286
Seattle WA
So better to just connect the M1 iPad Pro to a PC which is connected to an external storage. Then use iTunes to copy all the photos and videos there. Then, delete all the photos and videos from the iPad?


Yes, like many things, they intentionally do such and such to make people buy more of their products. it is Apple’s style under Tim.
I use FileBrowser Pro to copy to external exFAT SSDs in lieu of Files and have never had a corruption problem with it. I do verify that the copy has been good before deleting anything, no matter the copy method. But iTunes is a trustworthy alternative.
 

Beefbowl

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2021
117
121
Hi, the storage of my iPad Pro M1 12.9" is full. I want to move all the photos and videos to an external storage. What are the pros and cons doing it via direct connect to an external storage vs. via a Windows PC and iTunes?

Connected to a PC/Mac, files will copy off it at USB 2 speeds.
Connected to an external SSD, files will copy off it at USB 3 speeds.

If you have a lot of data, it’d be faster to copy to a drive and then copy from that drive to the computer.
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
Connected to a PC/Mac, files will copy off it at USB 2 speeds.
Connected to an external SSD, files will copy off it at USB 3 speeds.

If you have a lot of data, it’d be faster to copy to a drive and then copy from that drive to the computer.

Good point. My iPad Pro is a 256 GB version. I took many photos and videos with it. I don’t need them to be on the machine all the time. Trying to move them somewhere else.

Given that I don’t need to do this often, I guess USB 2 speed may be OK.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
You might as well just use iPad as an external storage Rather than trying to use external storage through iPad.

I don’t quite understand. My iPad was full. I was not able to take any video with it until I deleted some files.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
I don’t quite understand. My iPad was full. I was not able to take any video with it until I deleted some files.
What I mean is since iPad external drive support is horrible and can corrupt Files plus not handing spinning HDD properly, it is a much safer bet to regularly transfer your data from iPad to a computer than trying to transfer data from iPad to an external drive.
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
What I mean is since iPad external drive support is horrible and can corrupt Files plus not handing spinning HDD properly, it is a much safer bet to regularly transfer your data from iPad to a computer than trying to transfer data from iPad to an external drive.

Thanks. Actually, I did not expect that I ran out of storage so soon.

Is connecting a HDD directly to an iPad the most dangerous thing to do especially iPad OS does not have a Reject button?
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
Why not move them to Google Drive or Google Photos? Or iCloud Photos. You can them download them elsewhere for a backup.

I don't want to give them more data to train their machines.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
Connected to a PC/Mac, files will copy off it at USB 2 speeds.
Connected to an external SSD, files will copy off it at USB 3 speeds.

If you have a lot of data, it’d be faster to copy to a drive and then copy from that drive to the computer.

I don't need to have those files in a compute. Any storage that is reliable is fine.
 

Beefbowl

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2021
117
121
I don't need to have those files in a compute. Any storage that is reliable is fine.

In that case, I’d suggest buying an external USB-C SSD, getting it formatted to apple file system on a Mac and then copying your files to it. As I understand it, while the Apple Files app is a little less than reliable when copying to ExFAT formatted drives, it’s quite safe copying to apfs.
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,994
34,286
Seattle WA
In that case, I’d suggest buying an external USB-C SSD, getting it formatted to apple file system on a Mac and then copying your files to it. As I understand it, while the Apple Files app is a little less than reliable when copying to ExFAT formatted drives, it’s quite safe copying to apfs.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work if you have a PC environment, not Mac, as I do and as I assumed the OP does from his initial post.
 

Beefbowl

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2021
117
121
Unfortunately, this doesn't work if you have a PC environment, not Mac, as I do and as I assumed the OP does from his initial post.
I snooped their post history a little before making that suggestion, they have an older 17" MBP that should be fine to format a drive with. Possibly not APFS depending on their OS version but certainly HFS+
 

bktpl

macrumors member
Sep 26, 2022
39
3
Ill ask btw if there is a nice extension to synology nas, to copy from iphone/ipad/mac? (not backup).
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,922
1,311
Unfortunately, this doesn't work if you have a PC environment, not Mac, as I do and as I assumed the OP does from his initial post.

That is right. If I have to go through a computer, that would be a Windows PC. I don't use my MacBook Pro 17" anymore.
 

fatTribble

macrumors 68000
Sep 21, 2018
1,795
4,645
Dayton
No desire to use iCloud and turn on Optimize Photo Storage? My photos are priceless to me so the cloud storage allows me to sleep at night.
 
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