iPad Pro and iCloud Drive

[queshy]

Hi everyone,

I have a bunch of files on iCloud Drive which I can access via the files app on the iPad Pro. The iPad has a massive storage and I would like to just download the entire contents of my iCloud Drive for offline use within the files app. Is there a better way to do this than to manually open each file individually in the Files app to download it? For example, on the Mac, the iCloud Drive files automatically download. Is there a way to just batch download all the files on the iPad Pro within the files app?

Thanks so much!

 

[rhyzome]

I want to know this too.

Also, is there a way to just edit the documents in files without having to copy the file to pages or whatever app and then resave it with the same name? I judt want to be able to seamlessly edit files in icloud drive and have it apply across all the devices.

 

[Starfia]

queshy – I don't think there is yet. I believe we're still within the first year of Apple's mobile devices even having 256GB of onboard storage, so elective file downloads is still the default on iOS.

As you've noted, automatic downloads of all files stored in iCloud Drive is the default on macOS, so I'm inclined to interpret the current trend toward larger hard drives on mobile devices as a hint that this might become a future behaviour on iOS as well.

 

[queshy]

queshy – I don't think there is yet. I believe we're still within the first year of Apple's mobile devices even having 256GB of onboard storage, so elective file downloads is still the default on iOS.

As you've noted, automatic downloads of all files stored in iCloud Drive is the default on macOS, so I'm inclined to interpret the current trend toward larger hard drives on mobile devices as a hint that this might become a future behaviour on iOS as well.

Thanks for the reply!
I hope this will come in a software update. It’s not only about having a lot of storage, but even if you have a folder with many small files inside it on iCloud Drive, having to download each one separately is tedious!
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I want to know this too.

Also, is there a way to just edit the documents in files without having to copy the file to pages or whatever app and then resave it with the same name? I judt want to be able to seamlessly edit files in icloud drive and have it apply across all the devices.

That would be great! Would be interested in this as well.

 

[Starfia]

I think that one is possible (internally it's called "edit in place," but I believe developers have to do some extra work to support it). Of course, when files are contained within an app's container – i.e. once you've opened a document in Pages for the first time – automatically updating it across all your devices is already what you're doing; that's the point iCloud to begin with.

I think that was Steve's original intention in introducing iCloud – this idea that the future of using computers would just involve opening the app and seeing your files rather than ever having to mess around with a file system.