How to Move Files from iPhone or iPad to External Storage – 2 easy ways

This article is about how to Move Files from iPhone or iPad to External Storage. iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 support hard drives and flash drives.

• Once connected to the drive, you can move files between drives on your iPhone or iPad.
• It’s a great way to free up space on your iPhone or iPad when your device doesn’t have enough storage space.

In addition, external drives are still a strong choice if you prefer a physical place to store, store and share your data (without cloud storage costs).

How to Move Files from iPhone or iPad to External Storage

Let’s see how to transfer files and photos from the pad or iPhone to external storage without using a computer.

Step 1: Connect external storage to your iPhone or iPad

Prepare the Apple Lightning to USB or Lightning to USB 3 camera adapter, depending on your drive.

Connect the external storage to your iPhone or iPad, either directly to the Lightning port or USB-C (for 2018 iPad Pros) or via a USB cable adapter.
Open the Files app on your iPhone or iPad.

Tap the Browse option at the bottom right of the screen.
Tap the name of your external drive in the list of locations.

Create all necessary folders to gather your valuable data properly.

Just click the “New folder” button at the top, and type the folder name.

Step 2: Move files from iPhone/iPad to external storage

Method 1: Use Save to File Extension

Apple allows third-party apps to save files directly to the external drive, so you don’t have to go through the File app.

For example, you can export photos to a USB drive.

1. Access the phone app, select an image, and click the Share button.

Tap the share button

2. Select “Save to file“. Save to file
3. Tap on your screen and select save and click save. Backup to your external storage device
4. After a second, your photos will be exported in full resolution to the folder you choose on your external storage device. To enable this, go to the file application and navigate to the folder.

You can also transfer PDFs, videos, images, etc. using this method. from any application to external storage.

Method 2: Use a file tool

And if the file is saved in a file application, you can use the drag and drop feature to move files around quickly.

1. In the Files app, tap the name of your folder in the Browse menu.
2. Click Select, then select the files you want to move.
3. Click Move.

Move files to external storage

4. Next, tap where you want to save. Here, we select the external drive and click on the folder where you want to save the object.
5. Click Copy once you reach the folder. The selected files will be copied to the external storage.

You can also move files to your external drive from iPhone or iPad in the same way.