The Files app, what’s wrong with it?

[ian87w]

Since many here keep complaining about how Apple should allow users access to the file system, and the Files app is not what it’s supposed to be, I decided to play with it.

And I am confused, what’s wrong with Files on iOS? It literally gives what people are complaining about, at least from what I see. I can create my own folders in my iPhone local storage, copy files around, neat integration with iCloud and other cloud storage, ability to access and do file management on external drives. What else do people want? This is no different than what I can and usually do in my user folder in Windows and macOS. What gives? I’m starting to wonder what do people really want?

The only downside is probably the inability to unmount external drives, which can lead to corruptions.

 

[casperes1996]

Having more access to the file system isn't really a thing I necessarily want on iOS so I'll ignore that part, but the Files app cannot let you start at /. You have a limited view of the file system.

But in terms of broader issues:
1)
There aren't really progress bars. If you try and transfer a huge folder from or to an external drive you won't have any good indication of how much of the process is done. Closing the files app while it's ongoing can in some cases abort the process and a lot of times, if there's a *lot* of data to move it just won't work at all

2)
You cannot manage storage mediums. If you plug in an external drive in an unsupported file format, you will need to take the drive to a Mac or PC to format it into an appropriate file system.

3)
Sure, cloud service integration is possible, but beyond that certain other integration options are missing. Like the ability for a compression/decompression program to integrated with files so instead of just creating zip archives you can also create 7z, rar, or gz archives. Or QuickLook providers so OS unsupported file types can instantly be quicklook opened within the Files app without taking the document to its full app to just check it's the right one you're about to drag to a sharing program, or whatever.

4) (not a huuuuuge issue, but to me would make it immensely more useful)
It would make the app significantly more useful if it could work similarly to QuickNotes. File management is rarely an isolated task, but something you do for the benefit of a larger workflow. Opening the app in full screen or even split view on iPad honestly still takes up too much space for what it is.

5)
More keyboard shortcuts, please



That's my quick off the top of my head list at least

 

[LogicalApex]

Go read people's complaints and you'll see what they feel is missing... Your usage of File Management seems to be simple enough to be covered by the existing functionality in iOS, but for more than the most basic users it is far from enough.

Two that impact my amateur photography workflow:

You can't format external storage
You can't see how much free or total space external storage has connected

The only downside is probably the inability to unmount external drives, which can lead to corruptions.

This shouldn't be a problem on iOS devices. You have to "unmount" external storage on macOS or Windows due to buffered writes. Meaning the OS will buffer writes to memory and then later write those out to storage. This speeds up the device... iOS doesn't do this so there is no in memory pending writes to flush out and save.

 

[sparksd]

It's problematic to use with exFAT-formatted external storage -

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/file-corruption-on-copy-to-external-storage.2235171/

 

[ian87w]

Having more access to the file system isn't really a thing I necessarily want on iOS so I'll ignore that part, but the Files app cannot let you start at /. You have a limited view of the file system.

But in terms of broader issues:
1)
There aren't really progress bars. If you try and transfer a huge folder from or to an external drive you won't have any good indication of how much of the process is done. Closing the files app while it's ongoing can in some cases abort the process and a lot of times, if there's a *lot* of data to move it just won't work at all

2)
You cannot manage storage mediums. If you plug in an external drive in an unsupported file format, you will need to take the drive to a Mac or PC to format it into an appropriate file system.

3)
Sure, cloud service integration is possible, but beyond that certain other integration options are missing. Like the ability for a compression/decompression program to integrated with files so instead of just creating zip archives you can also create 7z, rar, or gz archives. Or QuickLook providers so OS unsupported file types can instantly be quicklook opened within the Files app without taking the document to its full app to just check it's the right one you're about to drag to a sharing program, or whatever.

4) (not a huuuuuge issue, but to me would make it immensely more useful)
It would make the app significantly more useful if it could work similarly to QuickNotes. File management is rarely an isolated task, but something you do for the benefit of a larger workflow. Opening the app in full screen or even split view on iPad honestly still takes up too much space for what it is.

5)
More keyboard shortcuts, please



That's my quick off the top of my head list at least

1. Agree on progress bars. Imo this and inability to unmount drives create too high risk for corruptions.

2. Imo this is more of iOS issue and not the Files app per se. iOS has limited support of file systems, although I believe iOS15 will add NTFS read only support. Thus less issues of needing to reformat drives. I mean the likelihood of a drive being formatted other than the FAT flavors or NTFS is very slim, unless you are linux user.

3. Even Windows cannot compress to RAR on its own, requiring a 3rd party app, so it's not fair expecting a iOS to have that built-in. The fact it can compress to zip natively is already neat imo.

4 & 5. I don't actually use the Files app to be my main workflow. The sharing concept works better imo as it doesn't take me out of the app, although some consistencies of apps in the share list would be nice. As for keyboard, I don't have iPad+keyboard so cannot comment on it.

 

[ian87w]

This shouldn't be a problem on iOS devices. You have to "unmount" external storage on macOS or Windows due to buffered writes. Meaning the OS will buffer writes to memory and then later write those out to storage. This speeds up the device... iOS doesn't do this so there is no in memory pending writes to flush out and save.

It's a problem on iOS because there's no progress bar, so no clear indicator when a write/read activities are done. Having at least mount/unmount option can introduce opportunity to warn user if a read/write activity is still going on. I'll take this feature anytime over needing to reformat drives. With iOS15 adding NTFS reading support, compatibility of reading most drives are there.