Many happy owners of brand new brilliant iPads, having brought their purchase home, are horrified to find that in this device there is no way to connect a regular USB stick that is so familiar to us. "How so?" - immediately rushes through the head. After all, today we use USB sticks almost every day, they managed to replace inconvenient and large disks, often allowing us to record and erase information. So, how to connect a USB flash drive to the iPad? The owners of this modern device quite often ask such a question. There are countless answers to it, but we decided to find the most effective ones and present them in this short review article.
Is there a flash drive for the iPad?
At the moment, as you know, such a device has not yet been invented. Although if a flash drive for an iPad appeared, it would be very popular, since every year the number of owners of small convenient tablets increases. But for now, we can only hope for its appearance and use various “improvised” materials in order for our iPad to work (you can connect a flash drive using adapters).
We connect the USB flash drive to the iPad to transfer files
Many people buy tablets in order not to be bored on long trips. After all, how convenient is it on the road to get a small gadget and watch movies on it, listen to music or play games. But in order for the same films to appear on the tablet (if you do not have an Internet connection), you must transfer them using a USB flash drive. This is where the problems begin. Especially for those who do not know how to connect a USB flash drive to an iPad without an appropriate outlet. The solution is quite simple. You must purchase a special adapter called Camera Apple IPAD Connection Kit.
If you look closely at this adapter, you can see that on the one hand it can be connected to the iPad, and on the other there is a USB slot. And, it would seem, everything becomes simple and understandable, but here you should know a few important rules.
How to connect a USB flash drive to the iPad using the Camera Apple IPAD Connection Kit adapter?
- First of all, you need to format your USB-stick. This can only be done using a computer. Insert the USB flash drive into the appropriate slot in the computer (laptop, netbook), go to "My Computer", right-click on the USB flash drive and select "Format". Be sure to check the box next to the phrase "To FAT format." Wait for the formatting process to complete. Now the flash drive can be used to connect to the tablet.
- It should be remembered that a flash drive formatted in this way can only read two formats (JPG and MPEG AVI), but you do not need more to upload movies and photos to the tablet. Moreover, without formatting, it will not work with the device.
- Also on the flash drive, you must create a folder called DCIM. Otherwise, your device will not "see" it.
- The final step will be downloading to a USB flash drive movies or music in a readable format, which will later be played on the tablet. You can connect a USB flash drive, as already mentioned, via the Camera Apple IPAD Connection Kit adapter.
Also remember that it is best to use small flash drives (up to 8 Gb) to connect to the tablet. Of course, larger devices are also suitable for this purpose, but the iPad battery may not be enough to read them.
How to connect a USB-stick to iPad: method number 2
Another useful adapter in this case could be Lightning to USB Camera Adapter, which helps to connect a digital camera to your device.
The steps for creating files here will be the same as described above, because, of course, not only a camera, but also a USB flash drive can be connected to such an adapter. The main thing is that the device "thinks" that the cord from the digital video camera was connected to it, therefore, you need to create the DCIM folder.
By the way, you can connect a keyboard to the iPad in the same way. You just need to ignore the device’s message that “The connected device was not recognized” and just click the “OK” button. Most likely, the keyboard will work.
If you still do not know how to connect a USB flash drive to an iPad, you should read our short article in which we tried to briefly and clearly state all the necessary actions.