SanDisk 32GB iXpand USB Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

It took a little while and some experimentation, but having worked out how best to use the ixpand flash drive I am really pleased with how well it works. It was a present for my non technically minded friend, who, once I had set up everything, sent me an email saying - The flash disk gadget is amazing, I am absolutely delighted with it.The 64GB flash drive has solved all her storage and back up problems and provided me with an easy way to let her have copies of photographs taken during our outings together. We both find the flash drive very easy to use. It plugs in securely and neatly into the ipad and just three basic commands appear on the Home Page when using the APP. These are 'Copy Files', 'View Files' and 'Back up and restore'. There is also a little cog symbol in the top right hand side of the App's Home Page page that if clicked leads you to online help and support.Here are some things I discovered that others might find useful. When the flash drive is first plugged into your Apple ipad or iPhone you are given the option to use automatic backup to back up your photo library, music and contacts list. This seemed to us a good idea and, as my friend didn't have many photos and only seven videos everything was backed up very speedily, the end result though disappointed us. In hind sight it wasn't a good choice, choosing to manually copy the photos and videos we wanted to back up was, I discovered, a much better option.Automatically backing up our music files and contact list worked well. There were however two problems with using automatic back up for photos and videos. The first problem was that automatic backup doesn't copy your albums it copies your camera roll so when you come to look at your photos you will find they are split up into lots of different dated folders with names that mean very little. Strangely too, we found the photos themselves weren't visible until I had used the flash drive on my computer and chosen to view them as large icons. The other downside to automatic backup was that, so the backup process doesn't take too long, all the backed up photos were compressed slightly. This doesn't really matter when you view them on your ipad or iPhone as they will still look ok on those but it is not ideal if, for example, you decided to use them to create an A4 sized print.The best way to back up videos and photos is, I think, to use the Copy Files option. Doing this allows you to copy files from your ipad/iphone to the flash drive or from the flash drive to your ipad/iphone.If you choose to copy photos from your ipad/iphone, you can either click on 'photos' and tick the photos you want to copy or click on 'albums' and click 'select all' to copy all the photos in an album. It is then possible to create a folder on the flash drive, click 'copy here' and all the selected photos go in the created folder. They are not compressed and appear at full size. For this reason it is probably best not to try to copy too many photos at once and best to copy videos seperately from photos. The end result - Being able to view your files as albums in folders is, I believe, much better than viewing them in lots and lots of seperate folders, arranged according to the date when a photo was taken.Using the ixpand flash drive on a computer is very easy as, when plugged into a USB socket, the flash drive functions just like a normal USB memory stick. I chose to copy and paste albums of photos from my computer into the Photos folder of the flash drive and copy and paste videos into the videos folder of the flash drive. It was then just a matter of plugging the drive into the ipad and choosing View files to see them on that.The flash drive was purchased at a very good price as I was able to buy it via one of Amazon's special lightning deals.

This was one of my favourite 'mini' purchases of the year. My iPhone 5s and my Ipad were both 16gb of memory which as anyone owning one will tell you soon runs out of storage space. So I took a punt and went for the 64gb iExpand and found that the setup of the initial app was quick and very painless in order to set the iExpand up on both devices. Couple that with the ease of being able to transfer your mp3's to it with ease from your pc.. or any movies that you got too.Downside:The iExpand is formatted as FAT32 so the maximum filesize is 4gb as far as I can tell. I tested with a 5gb file and it did indeed error. Keep this in mine when transferring files to it from your PC/Laptop.Other than this, the iExpand has been a worthwhile purchase and i've already set it to automatically backup my photos etc from the iPhone when connected which is very useful indeed.Worth a purchase if you have a 16gb or less memory iphone or ipad.

All I wanted this device for was to store videos and play them back on my iPad and iPhone.Both of which do not have enough storage to hold the videos.I set up the device and software etc.Plugged the device into my PC and copied some videos in MP4 format to the video directory of the iXpandInserted the ixpand into my ipad and went to ixpand files. Sure enough the videos were there.Hit the play icon for one of them and it started to play - however playback was so breaking up and stuttering - it was not watchable.Next - Copied one of the videos using the ixpand option to the ipad.It copies the video into the PHOTO ROLL of the ipad; in seconds.I could play the video perfectly from the photo roll with its play option.So far - fairly happy.Next - I tried the above again but this time with a video with an AVI extension.Again it was choppy trying to play direct from the ixpand.So - tried copying to my ipad again. This time; it said it would copy to the ipad and not the photo roll.OK - Done.No way could I find that file on my ipad but the space had been used.Had to restore my ipad.Overall - it does all I ever need - as long as the videos are in MP4 format - which is no problem for me to convert them.I will use this device when on holiday.Copy all video in MP4 format to the ixpandSelect the one I want to watch and copy it to my ipad.Unplug ixpand and plug in battery pack to keep it charged.Watch filmWhen finished watching - delete film from camera roll and then start again.Takes seconds.When playing back from the camera roll - it seems to use what I believe is the ipad media player - anyway - it aint the best for control.PlayerXtreme from the app store is so much better (and free) and does so much more; and I really mean so much more. It even picked up my NAS - DLNA and Networked TVs - if you have the need. Just remember when looking for you videos copied over - they are stored on the ipad/iphone in PHOTOS when looking for themHAPPY HAPPY

Arrived intact and on time. This is my second San Disk Flash Drive. I have them labelled A (for all my ancestry research) and P (for photos). Most important is to install the iXpand Drive app before you connect the flash drive. Once app installed as soon as you plug in the flash drive to your phone or i-pad it will recognise it. From there it's very simple, following the prompts. It copies your selections very quickly and then offers to delete from the phone to free up space.The curved area where the lightening connector is bends easily to fit into phone, even though I have a case on the phone it fits perfectly. No need to remove case to connect. The simplicity of this little device makes it very user friendly and I would definitely recommend & buy again if need arose.