iPad Can you move files saved in Photos App to External Drive using iOS13 (and vice versa)? Direct edit?

[Starfyre]

As the topic states, can you move photos that are taken with the iPad for example, into the external drive and vice versa? I see and watched a lot of videos about iOS 13, but they appear to focus only on copying files from external into iPad, and on apps that are not the photos app.

I'm thinking that if I have a 1TB external drive filled with photos and video, and only have a 256GB ipad....

1. I can copy files onto the 256GB ipad that I want to work with (which by default goes into photos app)
2. Open up those photos using lightroom
3. Edit/save back to photos app
4. Use Files to then copy it back to the external drive.

This way I won't be limited with my 256gb storage limit.

It would be really nice if...

• You can just edit directly from and save on the external drive attached without going through 'Files' app, but I assume this is not possible as Apple requires importing the file into the iPad using Files app first.
• Instead of using lightroom or some other non-Apple app, just edit using Apple's Photos app (which has access to all photos on the external hard drive and can directly edit and save without the need for using Files app to import to iPad prior to editing, and use Files app to transfer back to external drive post-editing/saving)

Can anyone confirm and/or correct/clarify my understanding?

 

[Shirasaki]

If you ask the same question this fall or a little while later than that, people are gonna able to give you a general idea. As of now, USB capability is broken in beta 3. And app support of direct edit may be absent. There is no guarantee that what you describe will work as of yet.

There are apps that provide “direct open” capability. Sadly one of which is a file manager, not photo editor. AFAIK no app supports direct edit and save. Apps need to update themselves for iOS 13 to potentially support direct edit.

 

[Feenician]

If you ask the same question this fall or a little while later than that, people are gonna able to give you a general idea. As of now, USB capability is broken in beta 3. And app support of direct edit may be absent. There is no guarantee that what you describe will work as of yet.

There are apps that provide “direct open” capability. Sadly one of which is a file manager, not photo editor. AFAIK no app supports direct edit and save. Apps need to update themselves for iOS 13 to potentially support direct edit.

Yep. The possibilities are merely tantalizing right now! For instance, now you can freely create folders locally in iCloud and on local storage and, say, put videos in there. You can open these videos from, say, Infuse or VLC but they make a copy and put them in their own sandbox. I actually think it should be possible for these apps to play these files in place even in iOS 12 (a user manually opening a file in an app is considered implied consent to operate outwith the apps sandbox) but given the beefed up local, network and USB management options in iOS 13 it makes even more sense for apps to allow a user to manage the location of their files as they see fit.