iPad using SSD for storing and working on photos.

[NWGuy]

I know a number of you are using iPads, hopefully you can advise me as the info from Apple hasn't been a lot of help. Want to use a SSD, eg Samsung T7, to store photos to view and process on the SSD rather than on the iPad itself. iPad doesn't have enough storage (looking at iPad Air 256gb) for all the photos. Can the iPad Photos or LR library be either on the SSD or pointed to the SSD? With the iPad Air or Pro, is an external power source for the SSD still needed? The iPad gen 8 with the lightning port can't access the T7. Thanks in advance.

 

[Patrick M]

There’s an adaptor that Apple sells to add the adaptor as well as power….though I have one, it doesn’t work on my iPad Pr… though I don’t need it.
I upload from my camera directly to photos...but I create a new album
then I plug in my Sandisc SSD and copy that folder in photo ditectly to the ssd .. and yiu can create a folder while you do it.
this is my wirkflow, as it gives me 2 copites (iPad and ssd), plus, I use AffiniTy Photo on the iPad, so I can edit while in the field should I need to.

 

[Patrick M]

Sorry for the typos. Champagne night!

 

[StefanSC]

Can the iPad Photos or LR library be either on the SSD or pointed to the SSD? With the iPad Air or Pro, is an external power source for the SSD still needed? The iPad gen 8 with the lightning port can't access the T7. Thanks in advance.

1) The library needs to be on the iPad. It will not work directly from SSD.
2) If it's an USB-C/ Thunderbolt device, it should not need an external power source for the SSD.

That being said, word of warning:

If your drives are formated as exFat or FAT32 (most SSDs, USB drives and cards use these formats by default) then iPad OS will corrupt files on write.

 

[NWGuy]

1) The library needs to be on the iPad. It will not work directly from SSD.
2) If it's an USB-C/ Thunderbolt device, it should not need an external power source for the SSD.

That being said, word of warning:

If your drives are formated as exFat or FAT32 (most SSDs, USB drives and cards use these formats by default) then iPad OS will corrupt files on write.

thanks for your response

Heard about the issues with the corrupted files, was hoping that that had been addressed by now.

So it seems that the only way to do work on an iPad with trip's worth of photo's is to get a iPad Pro with lots and lots of memory? $$ ugh.

 

[JAS]

If you are lookinng at an iPad Pro, why not look at the M1 Macbook Air. Costs can be similar and you may have an easier pathway to getting your photos into the Mac. Just a thought.

 

[BrianMM]

NWGuy - exFat and exFt 32 are MSWindows drive formats, but can also be read by MacOS (at least on older Intel processor machines. I'm not sure about with the newer M1 processors). SSD's have to be formatted APFS for use on iPads (which all run iOS). For what it is worth: APFS is also highly recommended for all SSD's used with MacOS.

 

[JAS]

Try Youtube. A quick search listed videos showing how to use an external drive (hard or SSD) with any iPad having a USB C connector like the new one all have. Take a look.

 

[Icarus]

13" 1M macbook air weighs about the same as iPad pro and for doing anything of substance, I far prefer it to my iPad pro. Am not a fan of IOS.