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sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
Experienced a failed copy process from an sd card (exFat). The folder was 50+ GB, contained raw images about 30-50MB each, so this bug is not limited to big files. Files App showed an empty folder on the iPad Pro 11. It also would not load the contents when viewd on the SD card.

Clean install of iPad OS, apparently, helps with that - a bit...
So, after a clean install, the folder indeed copies with its contents (yay! a truly innovative feature), but if one tries to go to a different directory during that process, the visual representation of the folder vanishes. However, the copy process continues, without any indication other than the steadily shrinking "X GB available" info at the bottom of the Files app window. The folder shows up after the copying is finished.
There's another bug here - if one disconnects the SD card during the copy process, the folder never shows up, but apparenty it is there and takes up disk space. Copying the folder again will bring up a dialogue asking what to do with a folder name conflict (choices: replace/keep both/stop)...

in this state, the iPad os is practically useless for anyone who relies on storing and copying large amounts data using iPad and external devices via Files app (like images or video files)

It appears that the major issues occur with exFAT-formatted media. Bizarre in that I have two Lightning-based uSD card readers whose associated apps have no issues with the same cards & files that Files can't handle. This isn't rocket science or new technology and Apple should have the skill base to deal with it.
 

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,185
17,723
Florida, USA
I suspect iOS may be using user-mode filesystem access for security reasons, rather than the normal (and far more tested and mature) kernel drivers that it uses for its internal storage, and that Macs use.

It's possible that this is new code and has bugs they need to work out.
 

b83

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2018
12
1
I’ve been having the same issue with copying a near full 64gb SD card of raw files to my iPad Pro 10.5 and also my IPhone 11pro. Both devices would say the folder had copied across but when you open the folder, it says the folder is empty. Even when I copied in 4gb worth of raw files at a time, when I went to look back into the folder, nothing. Same goes when then copying the folder onto my Samsung T5’s.

files is super clunky and was not ready for release. Even not having a simple reading of how much space you have left on your external SSD’s is ridiculous.

I’m just lucky I brought my old FileHub Plus with me. Which unfortunately handbrakes me to USB 2 speeds.. which you can imagine how long that takes for a 64gb card.. and to be copied to two separate SSD’s for redundancy. Ouch. But at least it isn’t as flaky as Apple..
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
I’ve been having the same issue with copying a near full 64gb SD card of raw files to my iPad Pro 10.5 and also my IPhone 11pro. Both devices would say the folder had copied across but when you open the folder, it says the folder is empty. Even when I copied in 4gb worth of raw files at a time, when I went to look back into the folder, nothing. Same goes when then copying the folder onto my Samsung T5’s.

files is super clunky and was not ready for release. Even not having a simple reading of how much space you have left on your external SSD’s is ridiculous.

I’m just lucky I brought my old FileHub Plus with me. Which unfortunately handbrakes me to USB 2 speeds.. which you can imagine how long that takes for a 64gb card.. and to be copied to two separate SSD’s for redundancy. Ouch. But at least it isn’t as flaky as Apple..

Yeah, I've gone gone back to using the FileHub - slow but reliable and great at streaming movies. Support for external storage was the functionality in iOSPad I was looking forward to the most - what a disappointment.
 
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shm

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2017
24
14
Poland
Yeah, I've gone gone back to using the FileHub - slow but reliable and great at streaming movies. Support for external storage was the functionality in iOSPad I was looking forward to the most - what a disappointment.

Hey - didn't Craig Federichi mention sth about going back to the 1990 in terms of external drives?

I honestly thought this was only a joke...

But now I'm actually considering switching to an android device for file management and image review - or a Surface. Whatever you gain with iPad Pro's processing power (which is overrated in benchmarks, but still better than most super portables), you will lose waiting for files to transfer....
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
Hey - didn't Craig Federichi mention sth about going back to the 1990 in terms of external drives?

I honestly thought this was only a joke...

But now I'm actually considering switching to an android device for file management and image review - or a Surface. Whatever you gain with iPad Pro's processing power (which is overrated in benchmarks, but still better than most super portables), you will lose waiting for files to transfer....

His comment "people still use them sometimes" is really absurd. I wonder if he travels much where Internet service is poor or non-existent and he really needs that data he left in the clouds.
 

hekkihek

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2019
1
1
Did some testing by writing a custom app. Attached a USB disk to the iPad with a 8 GB random file on it. Instructed the OS to retrieve a byte beyond the 4 GB mark (let's call it position x), the OS returned the byte at position (x minus 4 GB). Triple checked my few lines of code on 32/64 bit issues which are not there, so it looks like there is a 32-bit limit in the exFAT implementation on iPad.
 
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sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
Did some testing by writing a custom app. Attached a USB disk to the iPad with a 8 GB random file on it. Instructed the OS to retrieve a byte beyond the 4 GB mark (let's call it position x), the OS returned the byte at position (x minus 4 GB). Triple checked my few lines of code on 32/64 bit issues which are not there, so it looks like there is a 32-bit limit in the exFAT implementation on iPad.

Thanks for the confirmation - excellent test.
 

moonwalk

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2009
124
91
The inability of the iPad Pro to copy large video files isn’t just an issue of the SSD or it’s format (exFAT vs. whatever). I can’t copy large Sony A7 video files from the SD card to my iPro’s own file system (using Apple’s own USB-C SD card reader plugged directly into my 2018 1tb iPad Pro). The Files app corrupts any file above 4.3gb no matter WHERE you want to copy it: the IPad or my SSD...
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
The inability of the iPad Pro to copy large video files isn’t just an issue of the SSD or it’s format (exFAT vs. whatever). I can’t copy large Sony A7 video files from the SD card to my iPro’s own file system (using Apple’s own USB-C SD card reader plugged directly into my 2018 1tb iPad Pro). The Files app corrupts any file above 4.3gb no matter WHERE you want to copy it: the IPad or my SSD...

There have been some indications that this may be fixed in recent Beta. I'm no longer doing the Beta's so I can't confirm.
 
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sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
Yes! Appears fixed in 13.2 Public Release!

Strange - on initial install, I could select a video on external storage and go to share it hwere there were "Open in" options for my installed video players (e.g., nPlayer, VLC) and the option worked. After restarting the iPad (2018 12.9 Pro), "Open in" was not available under Share for the same video players, only "Copy to".
 

haruhiko

macrumors 604
Sep 29, 2009
6,535
5,882
The latest update of Infuse supports reading files directly from Files app. I tried some video files larger than 4.5GB on an USB-C SSD from my iPad Pro and it worked.
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jun 7, 2015
9,174
29,120
Seattle WA
The latest update of Infuse supports reading files directly from Files app. I tried some video files larger than 4.5GB on an USB-C SSD from my iPad Pro and it worked.

Thanks, I found that. But now the “Open in” option is available again for the same drive (Samsung T5 SSD) that earlier showed “Copy to” for video apps - nothing changed other than unplugging and plugging back in. I think Files still has issues.
 
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