Out of box won't work with my Macs or my iOS Devices. Junk at best.

This product isn’t worth the paper it is packaged in. I received mine with the idea of using it to move data between my iPad Pro and my MacBook Pro. No luck…

  1. As it comes the unit needs to have it’s firmware upgraded - you can only use a PC or an iOS device running iOS 8. My iPad came with iOS 9 and I have no iOS devices with iOS 8. I have no access to a PC computer. I am up the creek without a paddle.

  2. When I plug the USB side into my Mac I found I could not write to it. Why? Because the unit comes formatted with NTFS which Macs can’t write to - even though on the box it says it is compatible with Os X 10.6. Talk about false advertising!!!

So I can’t write to the unit from a Mac, I can’t update the firmware from a Mac, and I don’t have access to an iOS device running iOS 8. Sandisk just effectively shrugged it’s shoulders in online chat.  

Don’t waste your money on a company that really doesn’t support OS X and really doesn’t support iOS. I have a useless piece of junk that wasn’t cheap.

DON"T BUY!!!

abusbey wrote:

  1. As it comes the unit needs to have it’s firmware upgraded - you can only use a PC or an iOS device running iOS 8. My iPad came with iOS 9 and I have no iOS devices with iOS 8. I have no access to a PC computer. I am up the creek without a paddle.

Apple made changes in iOS between iOS 8 and iOS 9. These changes made the iXpand not work with the original FW so a FW update was released. This was done prior to the iOS 9 release. Newly produced iXpand devices come from the factory with the iOS 9 compatible FW. It seems the place you purchased from had older stock of the iXpand drive so yes a FW update will be required. 

  1. When I plug the USB side into my Mac I found I could not write to it. Why? Because the unit comes formatted with NTFS which Macs can’t write to - even though on the box it says it is compatible with Os X 10.6. Talk about false advertising!!!

No the iXpand does not come formatted in NTFS. The iXpand come formatted in FAT32 (called MS DOS file type on Mac) which is compatible with Windows as well as Mac. 

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I’ve just spent over an hour on a customer “support” live chat for the same exact reason!  I just took this out of the falsely advertised “Compatible with Mac OS X v 10.6+”  box today to use for a trip we’re taking in 4 days and it won’t work.  Their “solution” of getting my hands on a Windows PC to do the FW update versus SanDisk supplying an update is ludicrous!  

The fact that I can Google “iXpand updates” and see mention of this necessary update as far back as June 4, 2015 makes it just plain pathetic that they haven’t released a Mac OS update available for download.  The retailer must’ve “had older stock” is their responsibility to get those products off of the shelves.

Their “solution” was for me to send the “faulty” one to them and they would replace it. 

Adrian S.: Once your replacement request (RMA) gets approved you will receive two emails. The first email will have the Return Instructions with the RMA# mentioned in it. The second email will have a link for a prepaid USPS Shipping label. Please print the label within 10 days as it will expire after that. (so hurry up and jump through hoops or you’re screwed)

Adrian S.: SanDisk requires the product to be returned prior to shipping a replacement. Please allow up to 7-10 business days for the processing and shipping after receipt by SanDisk. You can reference our http://kb.sandisk.com/app/rmalookup for more information and status.

blah, blah, blah blah.  It’s easier for me to go purchase a newer unit off the shelf at a retailer and turn around and return this “outdated but recently purchased” unit in the new box THEN I might have what I need before our trip.  Of course there’s no way to know if a newly purchased one would have the “updated FW” that works with iOS 9 unless they have changed the packaging to specifically say that because this box led me to believe it would work

. Box

Very disappointed and frustrated with the time I’ve wasted trying to get a resolution where I was the only one who was going to spend more time and effort all becasue they didn’t get with the program and release an update for Apple products sometime in the last 8 months!