iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 support external drive formatting

The first developer betas for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 revealed an interesting under-the-radar addition – a native external drive format function within the Files app. Apple is bringing the feature with support for APFS (case sensitive or encrypted), ExFAT, and MS-DOS (FAT) formats.

The external drive formatting feature will allow iOS and iPad users to format flash drives, SD cards, SSDs, and hard drives directly from their iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 devices. Users will see the Erase Disk prompt after connecting their external drive device and long pressing on the drive volume.

For more details on Apple’s latest mobile operating systems, check out our iOS 18 coverage and our iPadOS 18 breakdown.

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