This $8 adapter is all it takes to make USB sticks helpful within the iPhone age

After I bought my

Samsung Galaxy S9
again in 2018, the cellphone got here with a free accent within the field: a Samsung-branded USB-A to USB-C On-The-Go (OTG) adapter. The corporate had solely not too long ago begun switching its cell units over from USB Micro-B to USB-Sort-C, and this adapter was a considerate inclusion to assist

smooth over the transition process
.

The included adapter’s assist for OTG was (and nonetheless is) essential — as a USB specification, OTG permits the accent to facilitate communication between host and peripheral units with none compatibility points. For essentially the most half, I did not make a lot use of my adapter again after I was rocking the S9 every day. This all modified not too long ago, after I was spring-cleaning and stumbled upon my previous assortment of 2012-era

USB flash drives
.

I made a decision it could be a enjoyable alternative to look again in any respect my digital information and paperwork from after I was a junior highschool and senior highschool pupil. For context, although cloud storage options existed again then, it was commonplace to domestically retailer essays and slideshow displays on a USB stick, which is exactly how I operated on the time.

In fact, tech has come a great distance for the reason that early 2010s, and none of my private units embody a USB-A port anymore. That is the place my helpful USB OTG adapter is available in — with out a hitch, it lets me not solely entry my previous information on my trendy PC, but additionally on my USB-C-enabled

iPhone
and

Android tablet
. In different phrases, the identical USB stick that I beforehand plugged into the Home windows XP desktop tower at my old fashioned, can simply as simply be plugged into my state-of-the-art

iPhone 15 Pro
.

How do I join my previous USB flash drive to my cell system?

All it takes is a single, low-cost USA-A to USB-C adapter

Pocket-lint / Apple / Samsung

To attach an old-school USB flash drive to a contemporary cell system like an iPhone, an iPad, or an Android, comply with these steps:

1. Guarantee that you’ve got entry to an OTG-certified USB-A to USB-C adapter, and that your cell system has a minimum of one free USB-C port.
2. Plug the male finish of the USB stick into the feminine finish of the USB-A to USB-C adapter.
3. Subsequent, plug the male finish of the USB-A to USB-C adapter immediately into the USB-C port of your cellphone or pill.

When it comes to USB-A to USB-C adapters, there are many choices in the marketplace except for the Samsung mannequin that I highlighted. I would keep away from springing for a no-name model — regardless of the compelling costs, you are playing by way of high quality. Many of those choices lack OTG assist, make the most of the gradual USB 2.0 switch velocity normal, and do not characteristic security options or correct energy supply controllers.

Some adapter fashions I would personally advocate embody:

Associated

4 lesser-known things I do with old USB drives

USB drives can achieve this far more than simply retailer PDFs and Phrase docs.

USB stick ubiquity is within the rear-view mirror

Lately, USB flash drives have kind of fallen into obscurity. Positive, there are nonetheless

plenty of potentially clever use cases
to your previous thumb drives, however as a main storage medium, their days are all however numbered. The sheer comfort of cloud-based storage options like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and iCloud have evidently taken the wind out of the common-or-garden USB stick’s sail. On the similar time, wi-fi switch protocols like AirDrop and Fast Share have lowered the necessity to depend on native storage for cross-device entry as a complete.

For longer-term local storage
, exterior laborious disk drives (HDDs) stay one of the best bang-for-your-buck, whereas flash-based

solid state drives
(SSDs) are extra strong, dependable, and capacity-dense than their USB stick counterparts. Nonetheless, I’ve a nostalgic attachment to the thumb drive period, and there is one thing about plugging my previous USB stick into my trendy smartphone that tickles my nerdy heartstrings.

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