Format external drives on an iPad in iPadOS 18 [Video]

Digital artist and developer Kabel Cadle has spotted a handy new feature in iPadOS 18. For the first time, you can format external drives on an iPad, choosing between three different format options.

This brings the device closer in line with the Mac’s Disk Utility app, though it doesn’t yet offer the Restore and First Aid features …

Cadle says he’s been keeping an eye on the drive erase function since last year’s iPadOS 17 betas, to see whether formatting options were added. That has finally happened in iPadOS 18.

In Disc Utility on the Mac, in order to reformat an external drive, you first select the “Erase” option, and then additional options appear for selecting the new format you wish to reformat the drive with. When I saw the “Erase” option added in the Files app on iPadOS, I suspected that Apple might be moving towards adding these reformatting options into the Files app on iPadOS. And …