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How to Use Encrypted Thumb Drives with USB-C Connector on Both PC and iPad?

I’ve been using an iPad with a Lightning connector for many years, partly for personal and partly for work. For work, I have been using an encrypted Lightning Sandisk memory key holding about 300 GB of PowerPoints, PDFs, MP3s, MP4s, and so on. It has to be encrypted (company rule). Now I have my new iPad Mini 6 (iOS15) which has a USB-C for the first time. I still need to have an encrypted memory key full of work files, so how do I do this? Needs to work on my PC and iPad, and must be encrypted. Is APFS the way? Note I don’t have a Mac. Thanks!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Sherry Song

Sherry Song

Answered on Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Hello, according to your description, you would need to have a USB-C external storage device to connect to the iPad. 

As for the file format, you would need to choose one that works with both the PC and the iPad. APFS might not be able to, because the USB drive must have only a single data partition, and it must be formatted as FAT, FAT32, exFAT (FAT64), or APFS. To change the formatting of a USB drive, use a Mac or PC.

So you can try:

  1. Buy a USB-C to Lightning Adapter. It can use your lightning drive as normal on your new iPad.
  2. Copy all your files with some cloud storage(you can encrypt the files with them).
  3. Buy a new USB-C connector drive and encrypt the files on your PC.

If your iPad can't read the files, you can format them to the suggested file format mentioned above.

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