A lot of people report that theirexternal hard drive not showing up on iPad.

Why is iPad not recognizing external hard drive?

How to fix the problem?

format an external drive using MiniTool

Now, this post fromMiniTooldiscusses these questions in detail.

External hard drives are mainly used on a computer or iPad via a USB cable.

So, its more convenient than internal hard drives.

run CHKDSK in CMD

Heres a true example from the Reddit forum who encountered the external hard drive not working with iPad issue.

Why Is My iPad Not Recognizing External Hard Drive?

What causes the external hard drive not showing up on iPad?

check file system using MiniTool

After analyzing lots of user reports, we find the problem can be sparked by different possible reasons.

Here are some common ones:

Dont worry.

Here we provide corresponding solutions to the external hard drive iPad not working in the following part.

you’re able to try the 5 methods below in order until the problem gets solved.

# 1. you’re free to fix it by restarting the iPad.

Press and hold thePowerbutton until theSlide to power offslider appears, and turn it off.

Then wait for several seconds to dump the glitch, and press thePowerbutton again to turn it back on.

# 3.

In this case, you better reformat the drive to a compatible file system.

How to reformat an external hard drive?

Step 3.snag the compatibleFile Systemfrom the drop-down menu and clickOKto save the change.

Here you might select exFAT and FAT32.

Also, you’re free to changeCluster SizeorPartition Labelfrom here.

Step 4.Click onApplyto execute the pending operation.

# 4.

So, try updating the iPad OS to the latest version.

you’ve got the option to open theSettingsapp on your iPad, tap onGeneral,and selectSoftware Update.

If there are any available updates, tap onDownload and installto get them.

# 5.

So, we recommend you check the external hard drive for issues.

Step 1.Typecmdin the search bar, right-click theCommand Promptapp and selectRun as administratorfrom the context menu.

Then click onYesin theUACwindow to confirm it.

Step 2.In the elevated Command Prompt window, pop in the following command and hitEnter.

Here you gotta replaceE:with the drive letter of the external drive.

It cannot only check bad sectors but also repair file system errors.

How to fix it if an external hard drive not recognized by iPad?

If you are still troubled by this problem, MiniTool Partition Wizard can fix it easily.

Besides, you’re free to leave your fixes about the problem in the following comment zone.