Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iOS 14 Files app is still garbage

Beligerent

Beligerent

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
218
66
Concord, NH
More of a rant than anything but I feel Apple missed the boat on the Files App. Copying files is a bear with no indication of transfer speed or duration. I end up with invisible files on UBC Thumbdrives and painfully slow file transfers making any workflow painful.
 
I remember the keynote of the first iPhone when Steve Jobs talked about a « baby internet »... now it’s the opposit, we have a baby File app on iOS until Apple figure out we need a real file browser.

Wait a few years and we’ll have a real file manager on iOS
 
I think it is Apples own doing by positioning the iPad as the only computer you will need. Sorry, but some users will have the need to copy 20Gig of photos to a thumb drive and the Files app is not designed for that. Also working from external drives is not supported. Just spend a extra 600$ to stock up internal storage while you buy the device and having no clue what your workflow in 6 mo will be. Easy, right?
 
BATman.Berlin said:
I think it is Apples own doing by positioning the iPad as the only computer you will need. Sorry, but some users will have the need to copy 20Gig of photos to a thumb drive and the Files app is not designed for that. Also working from external drives is not supported. Just spend a extra 600$ to stock up internal storage while you buy the device and having no clue what your workflow in 6 mo will be. Easy, right?
Click to expand...

yeah it’s maddening. I have a 6 Gig file I wanna move from photos to a thumb drive and have been trying all day
 
I have to wait 12 years to be able to download things off internet using safari on iOS. Now we probably have to wait at least another 5 years to get a real file manager on iOS. lol.
 
BasicGreatGuy said:
The app “FileBrowser” has the features you are expecting with the stock Files app.
Click to expand...

Yep. Because of file corruption issues I have quit using the Files app altogether on 13.6 and use FileBrowser for Business for on-board storage, attached external storage, cloud services interface, and working with my NAS and other network devices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple_Robert
This is one of the major reasons iPad CANNOT be a laptop replacement to many people (not most, just many), especially you want to transfer anything that is larger than 10MB and more than 2 files. Coupled by iPadOS severe software limitations and iOS locked down nature, iPad replacing a real computer still has a very long way to go.
And no, Apple will probably NEVER release a functional file manage app similar to those we see on desktop operating system on iOS unless they change how iOS fundamentally works. Kinda funny is Google is trying to lockdown Google Android to let it function more like iOS while iOS is trying to open it up. Good luck with that?
 
  • Like
Reactions: calstanford and sparksd
BATman.Berlin said:
I think it is Apples own doing by positioning the iPad as the only computer you will need. Sorry, but some users will have the need to copy 20Gig of photos to a thumb drive and the Files app is not designed for that. Also working from external drives is not supported. Just spend a extra 600$ to stock up internal storage while you buy the device and having no clue what your workflow in 6 mo will be. Easy, right?
Click to expand...

I don’t think Apple is referring to the type of users who would “need” to copy 20 GB of photos as those for whom an iPad would be the ideal only computer. That’s why they still make Macs.

That said, the Files app is quite deficient and needs a lot of work.
 
gwhizkids said:
I don’t think Apple is referring to the type of users who would “need” to copy 20 GB of photos as those for whom an iPad would be the ideal only computer. That’s why they still make Macs.

That said, the Files app is quite deficient and needs a lot of work.
Click to expand...

What's frustrating is that I see consistent file corruption (5-8% of the files) when copying just 2GB of photos to external storage formatted as exFAT. This isn't rocket science functionality and Apple needs to get its act together.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/file-corruption-on-copy-to-external-storage.2235171/
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shirasaki and gwhizkids
d5aqoëp said:
It’s meant to frustrate you into buying their iCloud storage subscription.
Click to expand...

I know you're saying that somewhat facetiously, but the thing is that wouldn't really fix anything. No one is going to sync 20 GB up to iCloud on their iPad, then 20 GB back down from iCloud on their PC. Heck, even 1 GB would be annoying.
 
d5aqoëp said:
The Files App is working as intended. It’s meant to frustrate you into buying their iCloud storage subscription.
Click to expand...

icloud is pretty terrible too. I had a 500 mb PDF file on there and i was using 30-80 GB bandwidth daily as icloud decided it needed to sync that file over and over again for the entire day. As soon as i disabled icloud, bandwidth dropped to 5-10 gb
 
Sorry, would anybody recommended an alternative that is free ? I have been testing some but they are overcomplicated. Documents has too many features and I am just looking for a simple file browser with Cloud support for Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. I dont need an embedded web browser, or PDF editor, or anything like that. Many thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tenkaykev and gwhizkids
Files app doesn't update files reliably with OneDrive. Actually I noticed that OneDrive no longer appears to work with Files App.. maybe is the 14.5 beta. I Use OneDrive app anyways as it works better when I want to access OneDrive.

EDIT... fixed by going into iPhone settings and toggling the "clear account settings" in OneDrive. Then have to add my personal and business OneDrive using OneDrive app... both now work in Files App.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: gwhizkids
Files app is failing all the times for me when I try to copy files from Google Drive to my local space in iPhone. The most annoying is the there is no way to stop the application unless you turn off/turn on the phone. I have an iPhone 12 Mini with iOS 14.4.
 
This is why I don’t get excited by additions of power user features by apple. They almost always screw it up by implementing a hokey crappy implementation when there are far better third party applications available for years prior. World’s richest company lmao
 
Suckfest 9001 said:
This is why I don’t get excited by additions of power user features by apple. They almost always screw it up by implementing a hokey crappy implementation when there are far better third party applications available for years prior. World’s richest company lmao
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call Files a power user feature by any stretch - it's functionality I would expect of any OS (since '71 I've used at least 30 and even built some).
 
requiem2es said:
Sorry, would anybody recommended an alternative that is free ? I have been testing some but they are overcomplicated. Documents has too many features and I am just looking for a simple file browser with Cloud support for Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. I dont need an embedded web browser, or PDF editor, or anything like that. Many thanks.
Click to expand...
FileBrowserGo allows you to test it 3 days... I than bought the Business-Version and never looked back. 😎
 
sparksd said:
I wouldn't call Files a power user feature by any stretch - it's functionality I would expect of any OS (since '71 I've used at least 30 and even built some).
Click to expand...
That’s how starved we are of actual features on these phones. That I’m getting this excited over a file manager speaks volumes to the fact these are really pretty dumbphones
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back