iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 support external drive formatting
The first developer betas for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 revealed an interesting under-the-radar addition – a native external drive format function within the Files app. Apple is bringing the feature with support for APFS (case sensitive or encrypted), ExFAT, and MS-DOS (FAT) formats.
The external drive formatting feature will allow iOS and iPad users to format flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, and hard drives directly from their iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 devices. Users will see the Erase Disk prompt after connecting their external drive device and long pressing on the drive volume.
For more details on Apple's latest mobile operating systems, check out our iOS 18 coverage and our iPadOS 18 breakdown.
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Reader comments
- David
- 26 Jun 2024
- HCY
The Files app has so many limitations, problems and bugs and THIS is what they added?!
- regs
- 26 Jun 2024
- swN
No, Android can do that since at very least 2.0. And for external drives since 3.1, when support for USB devices was added. Windows can do that since Windows 1.0 in 1985 and even earlier as DOS, as it was just a GUI shell for DOS. NT can do th...
- Stuart
- 25 Jun 2024
- 3dq
You are mistaken. Format a USB Drive or Memory Card on Android: Find and Tap Settings. Tap Storage. Tap Format SD card or Format USB OTG Storage. It's been an option for at least 2 years.
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