Anyone has had success with some of these “dual tipped” flash drives I see sold online – USB on one end and Lightening on the other. Articles and testimonial mostly show people either (a) pulling photos off their phones to open up memory on their phone or (b) using the external drive to let you overcome some memory shortage on your phone (or iPad) and letting you play a movie on your mobile device that you loaded onto one of these external little flash drives via it’s Lightening tip.
My concern is – is it possible to get a file that is an email attachment and ‘move’ it to such a flash drive? The newer iOS has a “Files” feature but in my experiment I was only able to access items I stored in iCloud, and not an attachment to an email. Compared to my iMac with a trackpad and it’s distinctive operating system, I find my iPhone and iPad don’t seem as flexible when it comes to access and moving files.
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Andrew Teton
I don't have one of these devices, but I don't believe they will do what you want. The problem is that iOS keeps a much tighter rein on apps and files. This is part of what makes it so secure and why malware for iOS is pretty much non-existent.
I think those devices you are talking about rely on companion apps that allow you to transfer photos or play movies that are stored on the device. But you need to be using the app to do that. Alternatively, the Photos app has always had the ability to access attached devices (cameras, SD cards) so it can import photos. But it only works for that purpose.
However, with iOS 11 and the new share features, I would think that these device makes could improve their apps to allow you to "share" a file from the Files app to the device. Perhaps they can, but they are slow at updating their apps.
On the other hand, using things like AirDrop, iCloud Drive and even third-party cloud services like Dropbox that are available in the Files app too, makes external physical devices less needed. They certainly aren't needed for transfers except in maybe some security circumstances.
Thanks so much.
I certainly like Dropbox and iCloud but I was in a very difficult situation - about to start a 6 hour class from PowerPoint on my flash drive... and the PC in the rented room would not read the flash drive... (!)
And the PC was not on the net... And we did not have a lightening to USB cable to couple my iPhone which just received an email with the Power Point attached... and couldn't get the PC onto the web via a Hot Spot from my iPhone!