So will it show up in FB Pro when plugged in? It would not be powered except by the iPad USBC connection?
The SSDs I mentioned will show up in Apple’s Files automatically.
To use them with FileBrowserPro(FBP) you have to add them there first.
As I said earlier, I tried a WD SSD Portable I have but it does not show, so wondering if it has to be in a specific format like APFS or ExFAT ?
If you connected the WD SSD and fired up FBP, there wasn’t anything to see.
External devices or folders, well, specific folders in general, NAS etc.
will never automatically appear in FBP.
This is not how FBP works.
This is:
- You connect e.g. an external USB-C SSD to your iPad. The WD SSD for example.
- You should be able to see this drive in Apple’s Files (as long as it uses one of the file systems supported by iPadOS¹).
- Now you open FBP and switch to the home tab. In the lower right corner is a
(+)-sign labeled + Add Location:
- Click it and select from the next window
USB.
- Use
Select Location to map the SSD you connected to USB-C to FBP.
- Give it a name - the icon of the SSD - which btw. you are able to change -on the home screen of FBP will use this as label.
Above is a screenshot of the home tab in FBP.
See
Samsung_T5 and
T7 with the red USB drive symbols? Or the grey HD icons? - these are some of the spinning HDs; the yellow USB logos refer to USB-C sticks.
None of these appeared automatically.
I added them when I had that specific drive connected. Their mapped/linked symbol stays in the home tab of FBP.
To access for example the
T7 shown, I
have to connect it first to the iPad, then I click on its symbol in FBP… et voilà!… FBP opens the SSD in its own new tab and I can access it to copy, play videos from, move things around, etc.
Maybe the WD SSD (which model?) was actually totally¹ fine² (?)
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¹if the drive can be viewed by macOS, then typically it can be viewed by iPadOS 15. Apple says the Ex-FAT, FAT-32, HSF+, and APFS formats are supported as far as external storage is concerned, NTFS is read only. This means pulling a hard drive straight out of a Windows device and plugging it into your iPad may not work, but using storage devices that already work with both macOS and Windows will.
²Please be aware that some external storage media require more voltage than the iPad provides - in this case you’ll need an additional powered USB-C hub to use it. Many hubs allow not only to connect and power several devices but the iPad as well. Additionally with hub you can use FBP to copy files directly between connected devices, no temporary copy on the iPad is needed.
