Watch: Apple's new Files app for iOS 11

AppleInsider · July 20, 2017 12:26AM

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 · July 20, 2017 12:41AM

This was very helpful, thanks!

melgross · July 20, 2017 2:36AM

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 · July 20, 2017 2:54AM

Fast and informative. Good video

mindwaves · July 20, 2017 3:12AM

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 · July 20, 2017 3:52AM

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 · July 20, 2017 4:11AM

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.

bestkeptsecret · July 20, 2017 5:42AM

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 · July 20, 2017 6:41AM

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

Tanjuakio · July 20, 2017 7:15AM

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 · July 20, 2017 7:46AM

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 · July 20, 2017 11:10AM

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 · July 20, 2017 11:43AM

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 · July 20, 2017 12:41PM

@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 · July 20, 2017 1:49PM

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 · July 20, 2017 2:46PM

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 · July 20, 2017 3:18PM

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 · July 20, 2017 3:22PM

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.

sc_markt · July 20, 2017 8:56PM

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

gm2 · July 21, 2017 1:31AM

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.

melgross · July 22, 2017 1:52AM

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.

Watch: Apple's new Files app for iOS 11

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