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

Once I bought my

Samsung Galaxy S9
again in 2018, the telephone 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 just lately begun switching its cell gadgets over from USB Micro-B to USB-Kind-C, and this adapter was a considerate inclusion to assist

smooth over the transition process
.

The included adapter’s help for OTG was (and nonetheless is) essential — as a USB specification, OTG permits the accent to facilitate communication between host and peripheral gadgets with none compatibility points. For probably 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 This all modified just lately, after I was spring-cleaning and stumbled upon my outdated assortment of 2012-era

USB flash drives
.

I made a decision it will be a enjoyable alternative to look again in any respect my digital recordsdata and paperwork from after I was a junior highschool and senior highschool scholar. For context, despite the fact that 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.

After all, tech has come a great distance for the reason that early 2010s, and none of my private gadgets embrace a USB-A port anymore. That is the place my helpful USB OTG adapter is available in — and not using a hitch, it lets me not solely entry my outdated recordsdata on my fashionable PC, but in addition on my USB-C-enabled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 style, can simply as simply be plugged into my state-of-the-art

iPhone 15 Pro
.

How do I join my outdated USB flash drive to my cell machine?

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 machine like an iPhone, an iPad, or an Android, comply with these steps:

1. Guarantee that you’ve entry to an OTG-certified USB-A to USB-C adapter, and that your cell machine has no less than 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 telephone 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 help, make the most of the sluggish USB 2.0 switch velocity customary, and do not characteristic security options or correct energy supply controllers.

Some adapter fashions I would personally advocate embrace:

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

USB stick ubiquity is within the rear-view mirror

Nowadays, USB flash drives have kind of fallen into obscurity. Certain, there are nonetheless

plenty of potentially clever use cases
on your outdated 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 standard USB stick’s sail. On the similar time, wi-fi switch protocols like AirDrop and Fast Share have diminished the necessity to depend on native storage for cross-device entry as an entire.

For longer-term local storage
, exterior onerous disk drives (HDDs) stay the most effective 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 outdated USB stick into my fashionable smartphone that tickles my nerdy heartstrings.

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