Here’s how you can connect and use USB flash drive on iPadOS 13 and iOS 13 running on an iPad or iPhone device.
Apple added plenty of new features to iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, but one of the biggest moments came in the form of being able to plug in external storage devices and have them appear in the Files app.
If you’re an iPad Pro owner that’s even more of a big deal, because with Apple believing the tablet is a viable replacement for a notebook it needs to give people access to their files. And now it does, along with the iPhone.
Making it all work is as simple as you’d expect, too. Depending on whether you need the usual array of dongles that we’ve become accustomed to, getting storage to appear might just be a case of plugging it in. If you do need a dongle, then you place that between the two devices. Ultimately, you just need to connect the storage to your iPhone or iPad.
Once it’s connected just open the Files app and the new storage will appear in the left-hand pane. Tap it to see all of your files. And that’s all there is to it.
During our testing we’ve had great success connecting just about anything to our iPad Pro, regardless of storage capacity. The iPhone can be a little more picky with only USB sticks and things like microSD cards seeming to work. If you’re an iPad Pro user you can even use something like a USB-C hub and plug things into that, too.
Support for external storage devices in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 is a huge game changer, especially for the iPad Pro. If you’ve been put of using one because of storage limitations, now is the time to take it for a spin.
Tested & recommended USB flash drive and hubs for iPhone and Lightning-based iPads:
- Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter: $32 (required for Lightning-based iPhones and iPads for connecting USB-A flash drives to them as well as providing external power as most drives won’t work on Lightning based devices until and unless external power is provided to them)
- SanDisk Ultra CZ48 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive: $34
- Samsung Duo Plus 256GB – 300MB/s USB 3.1 Flash Drive: $54
- Samsung Duo Plus 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive: $30
- SanDisk 128GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C: $22.99
- SanDisk 256GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C: $39
Tested & recommended USB flash drive and hubs for USB-C based iPad Pros:
- SanDisk 128GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C: $22.99
- SanDisk 256GB Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C: $39
- SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable External SSD Type-C: $89
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