iPad Why does nearly every USB thumbdrive consume "too much power"?

[zorinlynx]

My iPad Pro 9.7 complains that nearly every thumbdrive I try consumes too much power. I measured the power consumption of some of these drives with a USB power meter and they all use under 50mA. How is it that the lightning port cannot supply a mere 50mA?

I did find a couple drives that work, but they're both old, slow, and small. Amusingly the ones that work consume a bit more power than the ones that don't. This makes me suspect this is a software problem and not hardware.

Has anyone had any luck getting more modern, faster and larger thumbdrives working on a lightning port with the camera adapter?

USB storage support isn't very useful if you can hardly use any device with it!

 

[Donfor39]

I think power drain was my initial thoughts from 64gb usb drive from iPad Pro
Haven't used it since-shall re try this weekend.
What are other users reporting.

 

[fezzzer]

I found that it's a software restriction. If you can plug a USB hub into your iPad (lightning iPads will need an additional adaptor), you can plus the USB drive into the hub and it will work just fine.

Hubs (and subsequently anything attached to them) are supported by iPad OS, USB drives are not (if they are plugged in directly). Let me know how you get on

Just to add that I tested this with iPad OS 13, I haven't tested on iOS 12.

 

[alien3dx]

My iPad Pro 9.7 complains that nearly every thumbdrive I try consumes too much power. I measured the power consumption of some of these drives with a USB power meter and they all use under 50mA. How is it that the lightning port cannot supply a mere 50mA?

I did find a couple drives that work, but they're both old, slow, and small. Amusingly the ones that work consume a bit more power than the ones that don't. This makes me suspect this is a software problem and not hardware.

Has anyone had any luck getting more modern, faster and larger thumbdrives working on a lightning port with the camera adapter?

USB storage support isn't very useful if you can hardly use any device with it!

beta 3 work fine .. after beta 8 ... till now not even work.. got another thread for it.

 

[EugW]

I’m upgrading to the 4th Gen iPad Pro when it arrives partially for this reason.

Currently on a 10.5” iPad Pro.

I found that it's a software restriction. If you can plug a USB hub into your iPad (lightning iPads will need an additional adaptor), you can plus the USB drive into the hub and it will work just fine.

Hubs (and subsequently anything attached to them) are supported by iPad OS, USB drives are not (if they are plugged in directly). Let me know how you get on

Just to add that I tested this with iPad OS 13, I haven't tested on iOS 12.

Still often doesn’t work thru hub, unless powered.

 

[Mabus51]

I found that it's a software restriction. If you can plug a USB hub into your iPad (lightning iPads will need an additional adaptor), you can plus the USB drive into the hub and it will work just fine.

Hubs (and subsequently anything attached to them) are supported by iPad OS, USB drives are not (if they are plugged in directly). Let me know how you get on

Just to add that I tested this with iPad OS 13, I haven't tested on iOS 12.

I used a 256gb usb-c drive on iPad OS without a hub, direct plug-in. Are you talking about platter Hard drives & SSD drives? Or is this just a limitation on lightening port and iPad OS?

 

[EugW]

I used a 256gb usb-c drive on iPad OS without a hub, direct plug-in. Are you talking about platter Hard drives & SSD drives? Or is this just a limitation on lightening port and iPad OS?

Lightning port.

Should work fine on a 3rd gen with USB-C.

 

[fezzzer]

I used a 256gb usb-c drive on iPad OS without a hub, direct plug-in. Are you talking about platter Hard drives & SSD drives? Or is this just a limitation on lightening port and iPad OS?

I’m talking about a USB (not USB-C) thumb (flash) drive. We found it only worked connecting via a hub and not directly using a lightning to USB adaptor.

So: iPad > Lightning to USB dongle > usb hub > USB flash drive

Without the hub it came up with the error

 

[alien3dx]

I’m talking about a USB (not USB-C) thumb (flash) drive. We found it only worked connecting via a hub and not directly using a lightning to USB adaptor.

So: iPad > Lightning to USB dongle > usb hub > USB flash drive

Without the hub it came up with the error

i'm using the camera adapter to usb.. even i put lightning camera to external power.. later i will try with latest update.

 

[alien3dx]

sorry a bit late testing...
step 1
1. connect your adapter
2. connect adapter to power lightning
3. put usb.. then okay

If you put usb only not work
if you put lighning and usb not work