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User profile for user: kalougri
kalougri Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

iOS and flash drives

I have an old 16gb iPad mini 2 so can’t fit much on it once I have all the apps etc I use on it. I’ve been looking at the lighting connecter compatible flash drives but am wondering if I can actually use the content I’ve bought via iTunes on them.

The Sandisk ixpand ones say you can stream content directly from the drive to the device but does that include content from the Apple store? If so, how easy is it to transfer content to the the drive? Sorry for all the questions, never used any of these drives before but all the places where I’d like to use these have limited internet connections so it would be good to have some content predownloaded onto something to watch and I’m trying to avoid buying a new iPad as mine works fine apart from the low amount of space.

iPad mini, iOS 12

Posted on Jan 13, 2020 3:36 AM

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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
289,858 points

Posted on Jan 13, 2020 3:44 AM

Unfortunately the iPad mini 2 cannot be updated from iOS12 to iPadOS13.x. As such, the mini2 cannot benefit from the improvements in iOS that facilitate simple file transfer between the iPad and USB storage devices.


As such, you are limited to using proprietary storage solutions - such as the iXpand drive you mention. Features and capability of these devices are entirely at the behest of the manuafacturer.


However, it is worth noting that most media content, derived from iTunes (either online using the iTunes App - or transferred to the device from a PC/Mac using the iTunes Application) cannot be transferred from the iPad to external storage. This is due to enforcement of Digital Rights Management (DRM) - intended to prevent copying of copyrighted media/materials.


I hope this is helpful in answering your question - and providing some insight into restrictions that you will encounter.

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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
289,858 points

Jan 13, 2020 3:44 AM in response to kalougri

Unfortunately the iPad mini 2 cannot be updated from iOS12 to iPadOS13.x. As such, the mini2 cannot benefit from the improvements in iOS that facilitate simple file transfer between the iPad and USB storage devices.


As such, you are limited to using proprietary storage solutions - such as the iXpand drive you mention. Features and capability of these devices are entirely at the behest of the manuafacturer.


However, it is worth noting that most media content, derived from iTunes (either online using the iTunes App - or transferred to the device from a PC/Mac using the iTunes Application) cannot be transferred from the iPad to external storage. This is due to enforcement of Digital Rights Management (DRM) - intended to prevent copying of copyrighted media/materials.


I hope this is helpful in answering your question - and providing some insight into restrictions that you will encounter.

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iOS and flash drives

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