iPadOS 18 Adds Support for Formatting External Drives

Nice find by Kaleb Cadle in the first beta of iPadOS 18:

Now in the Files app on iPadOS 18, when we right click or hold press on an external drive and select “Erase”, new options appear for reformatting the drive. Currently, the format options here are APFS, ExFAT, and MS-DOS (FAT), the same format options available in Disc Utility. This is a major improvement for iPad power users and it will be interesting to keep an eye out for new improvements to this functionality and others within the Files app over the course of the iPadOS 18 beta cycle. It seems Apple may be taking a similar tact to the way they incorporated much of the functionality of the Preview app into the Files app via Quick Look, but now with functionality from Disc Utility.

Check out the blog post for a screenshot of what the feature looks like. Given the growing number of handhelds that store their games (or OS) on SD cards that I have to manage for NPC now, I’m very glad I no longer have to use my Mac to reformat those drives.