Faster download for Offline use on iPad

[PinkElephant 8,116]

OK, an excuse first: „Faster“ does still not mean „fast“. It still is sort of a PITA, but the fastest I could ever manage.

My setup: iPad Air 5, yes, the one running on a M1. An USB-C hub with charge through and an Ethernet port. A rainy slow Saturday. A large pot of coffee, some rhubarb cake. I am not sure how much effect the USB-C hub had, probably the same strategy works with Wi-Fi as well. Don‘t try without coffee !

The night before I tried the download with the iPad on WiFi and charger, autolockscreen off, EN active app and „All notebooks“ selected. Sometime during the night it chocked on something, and stopped downloading at all.

So I set up the iPad as described above. Again autolockscreen off, EN active, but now I selected 2-3 notebooks only at a time. Once they got close to be downloaded, I picked the next ones.

Last time my full download took me 3 nightly sessions. This time I managed it in one day. The app size says 54GB. I would say it could still be faster, but at least it works with an acceptable speed now.

Although I can’t quantify it, I think the stable network connection plays a role. Since the download is creating network traffic in both directions, it probably puts a significant load on any Wi-Fi network. Each USB-C hub should work. Because the iPad has only one port, the hub should have a charge through option to keep the iPad alive while downloading. I used one that I normally use with my MacBook Pro. There are similar adapters available for lightning devices - just make sure they allow for charge through.