Yeah, I was going to recommend this as an option, until I discovered that it’s basically impossible to find now. Seems to be a common theme with these sort of devices at the moment!

From their web site, “When you need to back up, review, and manage content in the field—without a laptop—there’s a special Rugged for that—Rugged BOSS SSD. Short for Backup On Set Solution, our BOSS drives let you directly back up files from SD cards and other USB devices and monitor transfer progress, capacity, and battery life via the built-in status screen. But the real game changer? The LaCie BOSS app. To view and organize footage on set, simply plug your iOS or Android mobile device into the drive, pull up the app, and get to work.”

Thanks James — yep, the addition of proper file management support for USB devices on iOS 13 has made a big difference. I’ve added a mention of this approach to the article. 🙂

You don’t say whether you’re traveling with a phone or not. If not, I’d suggest looking at the WD MyPassport Wireless mentioned in the article — it lets you back up an SD card without needing a laptop or phone.

If you have a phone or tablet with you, just pick the iOS or Android camera-to-phone option I mention in the article — as long as you have enough space on your phone to back up your photos, it’ll be a cheaper alternative. If you don’t have enough space, the Gnarbox is an alternative option, which also lets you plug in a USB CF reader, so you can back up both SD and CF cards.

If it was me, I’d try to use the Macbook as the central place where I back everything else up to (the SD cards from the phone and camera, plus the MP3 player if that’s possible), and then send everything from there to external drive. You’re least likely to run into file format concerns that way.