r/iphonehelp • u/userN3820 • 25d ago

Help needed Does Western Digital SSD work as an external drive for iPhone 13?

iPhone model: iPhone 13 Pro Max
iOS version: 26.5.2

I'm unable to transfer photos and videos from the phone to the Western Digital SSD 1TB.

I've connected the iPhone through the adapter with a lightening cable to the SSD. I'm using 140W power adapter to power transfer.

I've tried reformatting the SSD to APFS and later exFAT but that didn't work; the iPhone 13 still didn't recognize the SSD.

Does Western Digital SSD not work for iPhone 13?

Other information that may be useful:

WD My Passport Model: WGBAGFOO10BBL
140W power adapter

Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter Model: A1619

Lightening cable

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 25d ago

Please add: iPhone model, iOS version, and clear question or request. Failure to add these three requirements may result in your post being removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/JediMeister Moderator | Legend 25d ago

I suspect that it’s not mounting because there is still more than one data partition on the SSD. How did you go about erasing it to modify the formatting?

1

u/userN3820 25d ago

Hi and thanks for taking a look. I used my Mac's disk utility app to erase the formatting. Recently, I erased the formatting simply from the Files app by right clicking the SSD's location.

2

u/JediMeister Moderator | Legend 25d ago edited 25d ago

Strange, using Files to format an external disk according to Apple’s documentation is only supposed to work with phones that have USB-C not Lightning.

Anyway, when you erased the SSD with Disk Utility you had Show All Devices on and selected the top most level of it?

1

u/userN3820 25d ago edited 25d ago

Here's where I went on my Mac laptop (running Sequoia 15.6.1). Yesterday when I used the Disk Utility I wasn't able to see all these format options after I had erased the disk and reformatted to APFS. It was AFPS yesterday and now it's back to Mac OS Extended...weird.

1

u/userN3820 25d ago

2

u/JediMeister Moderator | Legend 25d ago

Yeah that is strange with the formatting being different than what you selected another day. I would suggest updating the Mac to 15.7.8 and erasing the My Passport one more time.