Watch: Apple's new Files app for iOS 11

AppleInsider

Wondering how Apple's new Files app for iOS 11 works on iPad? AppleInsider takes an in-depth look at the upcoming file management system in this video.

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bloggerblog

This was very helpful, thanks!

melgross

It took some time to get working with the new file “system”. Some of it isn’t obvious, and you have to play with it to see the options. Overall, it’s a good start, but it’s not everything it could be.

rayz2016

Fast and informative. Good video 

mindwaves

Good overview, but missing one huge limitation -- the inability to any of those mentioned things in Dropbox and Google Drive. Selecting multiple files, etc are only limited (right now) to iCloud Drive, which is a huge limitation. If viewing Dropbox files, you are only limited to a panel browser with no sidebar.

sully54

mindwaves said:

Good overview, but missing one huge limitation -- the inability to any of those mentioned things in Dropbox and Google Drive. Selecting multiple files, etc are only limited (right now) to iCloud Drive, which is a huge limitation. If viewing Dropbox files, you are only limited to a panel browser with no sidebar.

I'm thinking the respective apps will have to be updated with the proper APIs and that this will be fixed with an update once iOS 11 is out of beta. 

melgross

It’s annoying that so far, I can’t find a way to move anything to my iPad itself. So I’ve got photos that I’ve edited in Affinity. To save them you go to iCloud, and save them in the Documents folder. You can move them to some other folders in iCloud. But I can’t find a way to directly move them to Photos on my iPad, which seems ridiculous!

maybe I’m missing something.

edited July 2017

bestkeptsecret

melgross said:

It’s annoying that so far, I can’t find a way to move anything to my iPad itself. So I’ve got photos that I’ve edited in Affinity. To save them you go to iCloud, and save them in the Documents folder. You can move them to some other folders in iCloud. But I can’t find a way to directly move them to Photos on my iPad, which seems ridiculous!

maybe I’m missing something.

If it is just to move the files to the Photos app, doesn't Affinity provide the option to save to Camera Roll?

macsandmoredh

CUT.
Let's get it down to 2:30.

tanjuakio

Dead quick question (And I know this is my first post, just created the account etc etc), has anyone seen any mention of whether the Files app will talk to Windows Server shares? I haven't been able to find anything (i do accept that could be my own ineptitude). 

rayz2016

bestkeptsecret said:

melgross said:

It’s annoying that so far, I can’t find a way to move anything to my iPad itself. So I’ve got photos that I’ve edited in Affinity. To save them you go to iCloud, and save them in the Documents folder. You can move them to some other folders in iCloud. But I can’t find a way to directly move them to Photos on my iPad, which seems ridiculous!

maybe I’m missing something.

If it is just to move the files to the Photos app, doesn't Affinity provide the option to save to Camera Roll?

Yes, that sounds like something Serif would need to do from their end. 

williamlondon

Tanjuakio said:

Dead quick question (And I know this is my first post, just created the account etc etc), has anyone seen any mention of whether the Files app will talk to Windows Server shares? I haven't been able to find anything (i do accept that could be my own ineptitude). 

Good question (and welcome to the forum, btw), I did notice (but didn't catch reference to it in the narration of the video) a "macOS Server" folder in the list - what would that be? What kind of a share would be default, I'd assume (though this is huge assumption) it'd be SMB? Haven't found any information about SMB shares supported, but that would be very nice indeed!

sully54 said:

mindwaves said:

Good overview, but missing one huge limitation -- the inability to any of those mentioned things in Dropbox and Google Drive. Selecting multiple files, etc are only limited (right now) to iCloud Drive, which is a huge limitation. If viewing Dropbox files, you are only limited to a panel browser with no sidebar.

I'm thinking the respective apps will have to be updated with the proper APIs and that this will be fixed with an update once iOS 11 is out of beta. 

Oh, but it's much better to assume the worst and report the HUGE limitation (2x!) a la Chicken Little style. ;-)

rogifan_new

melgross said:

It took some time to get working with the new file “system”. Some of it isn’t obvious, and you have to play with it to see the options. Overall, it’s a good start, but it’s not everything it could be.

Still can’t access media stored locally on device so it’s not a true file system to me. It’s basically a better version of iCloud Drive.

braynor3500

@rogifan_new : Agreed. This seems quite misleading. I was hoping for an Apple sanctioned version of iFunbox or iExplorer, where I could move documents between apps and to/from various cloud services and my desktop. this seems more like a glorified ICloud interface. Guess Apple isn't really after the pro market.

tanjuakio

williamlondon said:

Tanjuakio said:

Dead quick question (And I know this is my first post, just created the account etc etc), has anyone seen any mention of whether the Files app will talk to Windows Server shares? I haven't been able to find anything (i do accept that could be my own ineptitude). 

Good question (and welcome to the forum, btw), I did notice (but didn't catch reference to it in the narration of the video) a "macOS Server" folder in the list - what would that be? What kind of a share would be default, I'd assume (though this is huge assumption) it'd be SMB? Haven't found any information about SMB shares supported, but that would be very nice indeed!

Yeah I'd seen the macOS Server, but didn't like to assume that would be a Windows share (I'm fairly sure they both use SMB, but it never does to assume in IT I find!!!). It would be very nice! I keep mulling as to whether I could run my work IT from an iPad, one of the stumbling blocks is easy access to our data on the server!

rezwits

Reminds me of the old school days when learning windows, and you had to keep telling yourself "don't forget to right click everything..."

melgross

bestkeptsecret said:

melgross said:

It’s annoying that so far, I can’t find a way to move anything to my iPad itself. So I’ve got photos that I’ve edited in Affinity. To save them you go to iCloud, and save them in the Documents folder. You can move them to some other folders in iCloud. But I can’t find a way to directly move them to Photos on my iPad, which seems ridiculous!

maybe I’m missing something.

If it is just to move the files to the Photos app, doesn't Affinity provide the option to save to Camera Roll?

If so, I haven’t found that option yet, even with their video tutorials.

melgross

Rayz2016 said:

bestkeptsecret said:

melgross said:

It’s annoying that so far, I can’t find a way to move anything to my iPad itself. So I’ve got photos that I’ve edited in Affinity. To save them you go to iCloud, and save them in the Documents folder. You can move them to some other folders in iCloud. But I can’t find a way to directly move them to Photos on my iPad, which seems ridiculous!

maybe I’m missing something.

If it is just to move the files to the Photos app, doesn't Affinity provide the option to save to Camera Roll?

Yes, that sounds like something Serif would need to do from their end. 

That would be nice too. But the Files folder does list Mac OS X server. I’m presuming that’s my Mac Pro. But I can’t figure out what to do with that. It also has the On My iPad. But while there are folders for pages, numbers and a few third party apps, no folder for Photo or camera roll. That seems like a major oversight.

edited July 2017

sc_markt

Can you connect an external USB drive to your iPhone/iPad and transfer files using the Files app?

gm2

I currently use FileBrowser Pro to connect to servers and local systems on my network. I'm sure iOS will catch up, but for now it's the best I've used. 

edited July 2017

melgross

gm2 said:

I currently use FileBrowser Pro to connect to servers and local systems on my network. I'm sure iOS will catch up, but for now it's the best I've used. 

That works. But I’d rather Apple did it. You never know when Apple is going to change something that will render these third party work-arounds useless.