JD Drive vs ySky Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
JD Drive
Manage and transfer files between your Apple USB drive and iOS device. View media thumbnails, play photos in slideshows, and listen to music with artwork and playback controls. Supports various document formats for easy access and sharing.
- Media thumbnail display
- List/thumbnail view
- File sharing
- Copy/cut/delete/create/rename files
- Local/iStorage data transmission
- Photo slideshow
- Music playback with artwork
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“JD Drive” is an application software for Apple USB Drive. •The main interface displays Media thumbnails :video, photo, music • Supports list / thumbnail view, support sharing operation for photos, music and documents • Support copy/cut/delete/create/rename operation and support local/iStorage data transmission . • Support to play the photos by slideshow mode • Support music artwork shows, repeat mode setting, time line drag operation • Document: Support formats of .keynote、.numbers、.page、.xls/.xlsx, .doc/docx、pdf、txt、ppt/pptx
ySky Player
Easily back up, transfer, and manage photos, videos, and files between your iPhone, iPad, computers, and USB-C devices. Stream media directly from external storage and encrypt sensitive files for secure transfer.
- Backup photos and videos
- Transfer files between devices
- Manage files on external drives
- Stream media directly from storage
- Encrypt files for security
- Free up iPhone/iPad space
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When used with the ySky PhotoDrive, the ySky Player makes it easy to back up, transfer and manage photos, videos and files between iPhone ,iPad ,computers and USB-C devices. Easy to Use: Connect the PhotoDrive to your iPhone or iPad to download the ySky Player App. Once the App installed, you can set the App to backup photos and videos from your Album to the hard drive automatically. The App makes easy to watch videos or listen to music directly from the hard drive. The App lets you encrypt files for transfer and storage. Main Function: 1. MFi Certified Drive Built-in battery and three cables for portable using. 2. One touch backup photos and videos from your Album 3. Free up space for your iPhone and iPad 4. Connect to iPhone and iPad with lightning connector; it requires ySky Player App to manage your files, photos, videos, music and contacts. 5. Connect to Windows PC with USB 3.0 port, the photo drive works as a common Drive 6. Connect to USB-C devices with USB-C 3.0 port, the Photo Drive works as a common Drive 7. You can transfer files between the drive and the ySky Player app. 8. You can Transfer files among iPhone ,ipad,Mackbook, windows PC and USB-C Devices easily 9. Watch movies or listen music directly from the hard drive 10. You Can take photo or video by ySky Player App and save to the drive automatically
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ySky Player at 3.4 against JD Drive's 2.3. ySky Player also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (33% vs 10%). JD Drive's advantage is ratings volume (112 vs 8) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 12.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ySky Player holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: JD Drive has 112 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 10% of JD Drive's written reviews are positive against 33% of ySky Player's.
JD Drive ships an update every 4 months, ySky Player every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | JD Drive | ySky Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.3 (112 ratings) | 3.4 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 9.5% of reviews | 33.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 112 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 12.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 107 MB | 94 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 晓明 徐 | 海强 王 |
Customer experience
JD Drive
ySky Player
Bugs and requests
JD Drive
Reported bugs
45 issues- No option to allow access to photos in app settings
- Device does not transfer anything
- Device flashes 'disk has been deleted'
- App constantly deleting files from the drive
- App does not open photos on the memory stick
Show 40 moreShow fewer
- App requests excessive permissions (contacts, music, etc.)
- App crashes frequently on iPhone, iPad, MacBook
- App doesn't always copy images correctly
- Most pictures are not visible after backup
- Cannot export photos from JD Drive to phone
- App deletes files from the drive for no reason
- Cannot upload files to the drive
- Only a fraction of content is transferred
- Transferred files are corrupted or not viewable
- Device is suspected to be malware
- Software is buggy and unstable
- Device doubles phone storage by creating duplicates
- Cannot download from phone to drive
- Drive stopped working after a few uses
- Cannot access Files app to copy content to drive
- App is not working after latest version download
- App does not work
- App closes while viewing transferred photos
- Some photos did not transfer without notification
- Transfer fails or shows 'Transfer list empty'
- App transfers only a percentage of pictures, others fail
- Phone starts glitching when troubleshooting
- App does not work with iOS 16
- App cannot be opened with iOS 16
- No software updates to keep up with iOS updates
- App is not working on iOS 16
- App deletes saved pictures from the iPad's native Photos app
- Cannot format as NTFS for Xbox or PS4
- Cannot upload photos without phone seizure
- Cannot view uploaded photos
- Phone damaged by device, cannot delete photos
- Laptop and computer glitching after plugging in device
- Connection is not stable, keeps dropping
- Difficult to reconnect to resume data transfer
- Cannot download games
- Videos stock and cannot be seen on iPhone
- Edited videos fail to paste to iPhone
- Long videos (approx. 1GB) do not work
- File freezes when clicked, cannot go back without unplugging
- App version history is in another language
Requested features
6 requests- Allow access to photos in app settings
- Support for transferring music from Mac
- Ability to open files with third-party apps
- Update software to keep up with iOS updates
- Provide English version history for updates
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- Fix video stocking issue when trying to go back
ySky Player
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
JD Drive
No in-app purchases
ySky Player
No in-app purchases
