9 Best External Hard Drives for iPad in 2024

It’s no secret that Apple charges customers premium prices for additional storage space. Unsurprisingly, many customers opt for the least amount of storage space and completely run out of it after only a few weeks of use. The solution? An external hard drives for iPad. With it, you can free your iPad from everything but the essential files and comfortably carry with you far more songs, movies, and pictures than you could otherwise.


At A Glance: 9 Best External Hard Drives for iPad in 2020


ProductBrandNamePrice
21nNp8AFhGL. SL500Western DigitalWD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon
31lESl6I58L. SL500ToshibaToshiba Canvio Advance 1TB Portable External Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon
31hjVVjVQ1L. SL500LeefLeef iBridge 3 - iPhone Flash Drive 128GB (Black) - Expanded Memory for iPhone and iPadCheck Price on Amazon
31A9hEWCvfL. SL500SeagateSeagate Wireless Plus 2TB Portable Hard Drive with Built-in WiFi (STCV2000100)Check Price on Amazon
31Z4ajQX3cL. SL500LaCieLaCie Rugged 2TB USB-C and USB 3.0 Portable Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon

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Not sure what external hard drive to pick up for your iPad? Follow along with us below, and we’ll show you some of the top picks available today.

Best External Hard Drives for iPad

1. WD 2TB Elements

Western Digital is a household name in all sorts of hard drive projects. The Element is a reliable option that you can easily lug around with you, well, anywhere.

Western Digital’s Elements external hard drive has a hard case that keeps the drive safe. It’s of the traditional mechanical sort; however, you still get tons of space — a whopping 2TB in this model. Other models can go all the way up to 4TB.

You’ll have plenty of room for, well, anything in this external hard drive — videos, photos, documents, apps, and more. You can easily format this for any device that you need to use it with — iPad, Mac, Android, Windows, etc.

Buy it now: here

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2. Toshiba Canvio Advanced

If you’re looking for something on the portable side of things — i.e., something that you could take with you to a conference –, the Toshiba Canvio Advanced will be right up your alley. This one is a standard, external mechanical hard drive, so you get plenty of storage space at little cost.

This particular model is 1TB in size, but you can pick models up to 4TB.

Buy it now: here

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3. LaCie Rugged 2TB Hard Drive

LaCie might not be a super well known hard drive brand, but they offer one of the best in terms of protection. You get a rugged and extremely safe shock-proof enclosure that keeps the hard drive protected from drops, or simple rusting around in a backpack.

The base model itself brings you 2TB of hard drive space. That’s more than plenty for anything you might need in your iPad; however, some models go all the way up to 5TB.

It uses USB 3.0 technology, so data transfer rates are quite fast.

Buy it now: here

4. LEEF iBridge

The iBridge from LEEF is a USB flash drive but with a twist. Unlike a regular flash drive, iBridge has two connectors: one regular USB connector and one Lightning connector. Thanks to the Lightning connector, you can plug the iBridge into your iPad or iPhone and use the companion app to transfer your files to or from the iBridge. The companion app is easy to navigate, and it supports thumbnails and instant media preview.

The iBridge flash drive is available with 16, 32, 64, or 128 GB of storage space, and you can protect it either with a passcode or Touch ID to ensure that nobody but you can access your data.

Buy it now: here

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5. Seagate Wireless Plus

If you need to carry with you significant amounts of data and access the data in the most convenient manner possible, the Seagate Wireless Plus external hard drives for iPad is the right product for you. Available in 500 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB, this elegant yet durable wireless hard drive can wirelessly stream digital media to all kinds of devices, including the iPad. It also synchronizes with Dropbox and Google Drive, and it even communicates with DLNA devices, such as Samsung Smart TVs.

The Seagate Wireless Plus saves you from going from coffee shop to coffee shop in search of a free Wi-Fi network because it can create its network, allowing you to access your content on-the-go without messing with wires conveniently. To copy files to or from the hard drive, download the Seagate Media app to your iPad to navigate your data library familiarly.

Buy it now: here

6. Seagate Backups Plus Slim

Seagate is another excellent name in external hard drives for iPad. You have a beautiful enclosure that keeps the drive safe, which makes it easy to throw in a backpack and go where you need to go.

They have a base model, which starts at 1TB of space. That’s plenty of room for almost anything you might need on an iPad; however, different models offer up to 4TB.

Seagate has some high-speed data transfer rates in this hard drive. It uses USB 3.0 technology, so moving around, say, large photo libraries should be no problem here.

7. LaCie FUEL

The LaCie FUEL is a external hard drives for iPad and other Apple devices. The FUEL has 1 TB storage capacity, which is enough for more than 500 movies and thousands of high-resolution photos and high-quality songs, not to mention millions of documents and text files. To connect the FUEL to your iPad, you don’t have to be near a wireless network; the FUEL can create one just like your home router and stream data to up to 3 devices simultaneously. And you don’t even have to be near an outlet because the FUEL has a built-in battery that can power it for up to 10 hours.

To access the FUEL from your iPad, you need to install the LaCie Media app from the App Store. The app serves as a file browser, allowing you to instantly access every movie, song, photo, or document on the hard drive. With a simple tap, you can push files to the FUEL, copy files from the FUEL to your iPad, or create a folder to keep your data organized. Because the FUEL is compatible with Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast, it works just as well with the iPad as it does with the Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, or Roku.

8. Seagate Personal Cloud

The Seagate Personal Cloud is a non-portable alternative to the Seagate Wireless Plus hard drive. Just like the name of this product suggests, its purpose is to give consumers the ability to store data in a personal cloud, with no recurring fees but with all the convenience that we’ve come to associate with services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

The Seagate Personal Cloud plugs into the wall for power and your home Wi-Fi router for Internet access. Once connected, you finish the setup by opening your web browser and creating a user account. With your Personal Cloud configured and ready, you can use it to back up all your data, securely access your content from anywhere you have an Internet connection. synchronize the content to your favorite public cloud services, or take advantage of the integrated Plex media server to stream your movies, music, and photos straight to your big screen TV.

9. RAVPower 3-In-1

The RAVPower 3-in-1 may not offer too much storage space right out of the box (only 64 GB), but it does provide two extra features that other hard drives for the iPad don’t have: charging and support for SD cards.

Built into the RAVPower 3-in-1 hard drive is a 5000 mAh polymer battery, which can significantly extend the battery life of any iPad or iPhone. The RAVPower 3-in-1 can transfer data and charge your iPad at the same time, so there’s no reason to tap the pause button just because the battery indicator has reached single digits. Also built into the RAVPower 3-in-1 is an SD card slot with support for up to 256 GB card. Thanks to this slot, you can extend the total storage capacity to over 300 GB, which will come in handy because the hard drive has a one-click backup feature that helps you keep your data securely protected from loss.

Best External Hard Drives for iPad Verdict

As you can see, there are a lot of excellent hard drives for your iPad. Any one of these will work, so long as you have a USB-A to Lightning cable to make the data transfer work.

What’s your favorite external hard drive?

ProductBrandNamePrice
21nNp8AFhGL. SL500Western DigitalWD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon
31lESl6I58L. SL500ToshibaToshiba Canvio Advance 1TB Portable External Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon
31hjVVjVQ1L. SL500LeefLeef iBridge 3 - iPhone Flash Drive 128GB (Black) - Expanded Memory for iPhone and iPadCheck Price on Amazon
31A9hEWCvfL. SL500SeagateSeagate Wireless Plus 2TB Portable Hard Drive with Built-in WiFi (STCV2000100)Check Price on Amazon
31Z4ajQX3cL. SL500LaCieLaCie Rugged 2TB USB-C and USB 3.0 Portable Hard DriveCheck Price on Amazon

* If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more details, please visit our Privacy policy page.

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