iPad Pro What external storage solution are you using for your iPad?

[FrozenDarkness]

I have the iPad Pro 2021 which has the thunderbolt port. I'm thinking of buying an external storage solution since I only bought a 256gb version.

I think my use case would be to carry movies, files for editing, photos, etc. I don't plan on using it all the time, mostly when I leave the house. I'm deciding between an external SSD, external HDD, or just a flash drive. Would love to hear other people's set ups.

Also can you move music / photos / apps off the iPad storage onto external storage?

 

[rgarjr]

I don’t need to store (hoard) a lot of photos, videos, music on it so I have the 128GB. I do stream content from my NAS when Im in the LAN.

 

[sparksd]

I have the iPad Pro 2021 which has the thunderbolt port. I'm thinking of buying an external storage solution since I only bought a 256gb version.

I think my use case would be to carry movies, files for editing, photos, etc. I don't plan on using it all the time, mostly when I leave the house. I'm deciding between an external SSD, external HDD, or just a flash drive. Would love to hear other people's set ups.

Also can you move music / photos / apps off the iPad storage onto external storage?

For big space, I have a few Western Digital 4TB My Passport HDDs, for smaller use I have a Samsung 500GB T5 SSD (T7 is the newer, faster model).

 

[circatee]

I would merely suggestion using a cloud solution (Box, Google Drive, DropBox, etcetera). However, if going with a physical drive, I do suggest an SSD in an enclosure. Alternatively, a LaCie Rugged drive…

 

[Shirasaki]

I don’t use external storage for my iPad simply because of the primitive handling of drives and extremely limited support of other file systems. I don’t want my data got corrupted by just connecting to iPad. (I lost 200GB back in iOS 13 when playing around the feature at that time)

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I don’t use external storage for my iPad simply because of the primitive handling of drives and extremely limited support of other file systems. I don’t want my data got corrupted by just connecting to iPad. (I lost 200GB back in iOS 13 when playing around the feature at that time)

can you epxlain this a bit more? like the iPad deleted your data?

 

[Digitalguy]

I mainly use SSDs (Samunug T5 and T7, Sandisk Extreme and a custom made NVME SSD). The issue is corruption when you open files on a exfat formatted SSDs. So the secret is generally not to open any file on the SSD, but only copy / move files, then disconnect.
Funny enough, there is an even more secure way to avoid corruption but it involves giving up write support on the SSD, it is to format the disk in NTFS (which now works on iPad but has only read support, just like on MacOS, so no risk of corruption)

 

[Momof9]

I have a flash drive and a 1 TB external - I have it mostly to transfer large amounts of files to my iPad. Then I don't have to be connected to my Mac to do it....

 

[sparksd]

can you epxlain this a bit more? like the iPad deleted your data?

exFAT storage has been problematic. I have a real long thread on it -

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

Having said that, since switching from the Files app to FileBrowser (Pro version in my case), I haven't had any corruption issues with my HDDs or SSD.

 

[Shirasaki]

can you epxlain this a bit more? like the iPad deleted your data?

Not really iPadOS actively delete my data, but the iPadOS did not handle the drive properly (data written operation ended prematurely for example), so data is not readable anymore, causing data loss. Think about you finish baking your bread before it is in the oven long enough, so the bread is not really edible.

 

[Richard8655]

Regular 32gb iPad 5 here and of course no external storage port. But nicely accessing files, music, movies, videos, etc. on a 2tb Mac Mini via WiFi. Also more files residing in iCloud.

 

[PrettyWings]

Is 256 not a lot? I was under the impression that 256 was a lot for an iPad for most people

 

[Shirasaki]

Is 256 not a lot? I was under the impression that 256 was a lot for an iPad for most people

Once you put 4K video, even 4TB is not a lot. For people who processes 4K or even 8K raw footage, 32TB is something they’d rather have. But then, they process video on Mac.

I store my music collection and some TV shows, which takes up more than 300GB easily, so 512GB is a bit tough, considering I store photos as well.

All in all, it really comes down to how much you value local storage vs streaming all day long.

 

[Zazoh]

All my data is safely stored and backed up on a few cloud providers for my iPad and laptop. This ensures I can access from any device anywhere I am, and I don’t have to worry about two site local backups, fire or theft.

Local storage is just too dangerous, unless you have multiple back up solutions which again are a pain to synchronize.

 

[sparksd]

All my data is safely stored and backed up on a few cloud providers for my iPad and laptop. This ensures I can access from any device anywhere I am, and I don’t have to worry about two site local backups, fire or theft.

Local storage is just too dangerous, unless you have multiple back up solutions which again are a pain to synchronize.

‘The problem is when you travel to places with poor or no Internet access, which I do so I don’t use cloud storage.

 

[doboy]

Have T5 and 1 TB SanDisk Extreme that I picked up on clearance for ~$50.

 

[doboy]

I mainly use SSDs (Samunug T5 and T7, Sandisk Extreme and a custom made NVME SSD). The issue is corruption when you open files on a exfat formatted SSDs. So the secret is generally not to open any file on the SSD, but only copy / move files, then disconnect.
Funny enough, there is an even more secure way to avoid corruption but it involves giving up write support on the SSD, it is to format the disk in NTFS (which now works on iPad but has only read support, just like on MacOS, so no risk of corruption)

No need to go that extreme. Spend some money and get FileBrowser app. Maybe iOS 15 solves this issue.

 

[Artsketch]

Samsung T7, APFS formatted transfer rates are up to 400 MB/s without file corruption.

 

[secretk]

I have the iPad Pro 2021 which has the thunderbolt port. I'm thinking of buying an external storage solution since I only bought a 256gb version.

I think my use case would be to carry movies, files for editing, photos, etc. I don't plan on using it all the time, mostly when I leave the house. I'm deciding between an external SSD, external HDD, or just a flash drive. Would love to hear other people's set ups.

Also can you move music / photos / apps off the iPad storage onto external storage?

Can you elaborate a bit more on how you plan to use the external storage.

1. I assume you want to plug in the external drive and watch movies
2. I assume you mean to have the photos in the external drive to do what:
   1. Review photos
   2. Edit photos
3. What files do you want to edit?

I personally do not trust the Files app on an iPad that much. So I would not rely on it to edit files directly on the drive because well sometimes you could end up with corrupted files. You can however use a paid app called Filebrowser I believe. It is more stable I believe.

I use Sandisk SSD (465 GB) with my 2018 iPP but my usage is different. I don't actively access files from the SSD on the iPad. I use the SSD for media storage and archiving so I can't tell you whether it would work for your scenario.

 

[Ray2]

iPads get the old ssd's from my Mac. Now using 2TB, 1TB and 500GB Crucials in cheap usb 3 enclosures. Use APFS. Mostly image files. Never a hint of corruption.

 

[slplss]

Recently bought this SSD drive https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-1TB-...ds=sandisk+external+ssd&qid=1624116635&sr=8-3
It's still on sale (down by $100) in US and DE. It's not Thunderbolt, but it uses USB C with 1000MB/s transfer speeds. Don't think I'd ever need more than that. Came formatted to exFAT, so it's compatible with Windows, Mac and iPad out of the box.

 

[slplss]

iPads get the old ssd's from my Mac. Now using 2TB, 1TB and 500GB Crucials in cheap usb 3 enclosures. Use APFS. Mostly image files. Never a hint of corruption.

It kinda worries me iPad could corrupt files when moving them to non AFPS SSD. I hope they fix any doubts it could with iPadOS 15. So far it work well... I really don't want to partition it because my main device is Windows PC.

 

[AutomaticApple]

I have the iPad Pro 2021 which has the thunderbolt port. I'm thinking of buying an external storage solution since I only bought a 256gb version.

I think my use case would be to carry movies, files for editing, photos, etc. I don't plan on using it all the time, mostly when I leave the house. I'm deciding between an external SSD, external HDD, or just a flash drive. Would love to hear other people's set ups.

Also can you move music / photos / apps off the iPad storage onto external storage?

I'm using a Samsung T7 right now. Perfect for storing all of my MP3 files over the years...

 

[sparksd]

I'm using a Samsung T7 right now. Perfect for storing all of my MP3 files over the years...

What are you using to play them with?

 

[hovscorpion12]

For external storage, I use the Samsung T7 2TB SSD. Great transfer speeds.