When you plug a USB-C hub into your new iPad Pro, you will see a new icon appear in the iOS status bar, up on the right by the battery, Wi-Fi, and LTE status icons. It’s a little blue lozenge with an icon of an old-style Camera Connection Kit in it, and it appears for just a short moment.
The new icon is handy to let you know that your hub has been recognized, but it doesn’t always work as expected.
USB-C hub indicator icon
The top right spot in the menu bar is where iOS now shows persistent status warnings. For instance, it will show a red lozenge whenever you are making a screen recording. Now, when you plug in a USB-C hub to the iPad Pro’s USB-C port, the new icon will fade in, stick around for a few seconds, and then fade out.
Photo: I’m making you look at another picture of the same icon.
But, if there is already another icon up in that spot, the new USB-C icon won’t show up. I discovered this when I was trying to record the screen while plugging and unplugging a hub. Nothing happened. I only saw the red screen-recording icon.
So, while this is currently a handy indication that you’ve successfully connected a hub, it can’t be relied upon as an absolute confirmation of success. Which is lame, as there’s plenty of space up there for more than one status icon.
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
