iOS 11 Files app: unsupported file types with third-party integrations

[ManuCH]

So I've been playing around with the new Files app and noticed an unexpected behavior.

Files that have a non-standard extension are greyed out if they are coming from a third-party provider like Dropbox. I won't be able to select or use those files in any way.

However, if I store the same kind of file to iCloud Drive it will be usable.

I know my use case is a bit atypical. I basically need to download a file from a server via Safari, store it somewhere temporarily, then re-upload it again via Safari to a different server. If I store this temporary file (let's call it "myfile.bla") to Dropbox, I won't be able to re-upload it again as it's greyed out, and it will have a Microsoft Outlook icon in front. If I use iCloud Drive as a temporary storage, it will work.

I could change the extension of the file from "bla" to something more known, like "txt", but then the destination server won't parse it properly.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any solution or workaround?

 

[akash.nu]

Why don’t you just use iCloud Drive rather than looking for a workaround?

 

[ManuCH]

Because sometimes I save files to Dropbox directly from my Mac, and I pay a 1 TB subscription there. I hate using different platforms if I can have all in one.

Also, it would be interesting to understand, just out of technical curiosity, why this happens.

 

[akash.nu]

It could be down to the way Dropbox has integrated with the new file sync service. It’ll probably get fixed in the later versions. ‍♂️

Without knowing exactly how the integration has been done it’s difficult to come up with anything I guess.

 

[stulaw11]

It sounds like Dropbox's integration with Files is the issue if it works ok with iCloud; and not an Apple issue (you would think the other way around really being the iOS was built around supporting a limited number of file types)

May want to go into their forums or email them and report it. It is only the first version of the app with the integration and may have bugs still