That is pretty cool and I can see that being valuable in many circumstances. Thanks for answering my question.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What do you actually need an iOS File System for?
- Thread starter spac3duck
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That is pretty cool and I can see that being valuable in many circumstances. Thanks for answering my question.
I can access SMB, ftp, sftp, WebDAV, Dropbox, google drive, onedrive, box and some others on my iPad.
But even with all I can do on my iPad, I still have a displayless Mac mini running.
That looks like something I can't do on my iPad?!
On my Air 2, in lieu of the Android OTG cable & ES File Explorer I can use my wireless FileHub and FileBrowser (or other similar apps) to access external storage (SD, uSD, USB drive, etc.) attached to the hub.
I meant from a accessible file system for files that will likely be unsupported by iOS. My use case (and maybe this would be possible with iOS) would be if I'm on my tablet and find something on line I want. Download it targeting specific folders in my NAS.
For example the other day I was looking for service pack 3 for WinXP (don't ask). It would have been nice to just download it. Although the Apple solution I used wasn't difficult either, just opened safari on my iMac and used continuity to quickly bring up the URL.
You can do that in Android but it's a two-step process. Example - downloading a Windows executable file: first, download the file to the device internal storage using a browser, then move the file to the NAS using a file explorer app (e.g., ES File Explorer). The browser cannot see the NAS, just local storage.
Just tried something similar on Air 2 - using Chrome browser, I clicked a download link for a Windows executable image and a download commenced. When done, I had an "Open In" option and was able to select to save to Dropbox, which it did and the file was available in Dropbox across all my devices. Now here's the file mgmt. part about iOS that drives me nuts - is there a copy of that file on my iPad somewhere such as in the bowels of Chrome? I believe there is a copy in Chrome cache so I went into Chrome and cleared data and cache. I tried the same thing but opened in FileBrowser and a copy was made there; from FileBrowser I could copy it to any storage accessible on my LAN (or a device attached to my FileHub if I were using it. So things are possible in iOS, just a little more convoluted.
Yeah, good question. I think the deal is that if your use case leans towards consumption then you really dont benefit much from a file system as we know them. OTOH, if you are a power user or whatever ya call them now then direct file manipulation would come in handy. Ive been using my iPad for years now and can count on one hand how many times I truly wished I had a traditional file system. That being said, we DO have a modern windows laptop in the household for various activities which we do rely on for certain things.
If we had just iPads....hmmmm..... it'd be tough sometimes for sure.
If we had just iPads....hmmmm..... it'd be tough sometimes for sure.
To be fair, it's 50GB for like $1 a month. That's pretty inexpensive. What they need to do is offer more than a pathetic 5GB for free though. My iCloud backup of my iPad alone is more than that. Even if the price is low, they make it so that you have to pay something to actually have enough iCloud storage to do anything worthwhile.
In my opinion, the Pricing is not the problem. It's the data privacy.
Apple (or others) could read my data if they wanted.
Therefore I strongly suggest Apple to implement some kind of "encrypted" iCloud Drive.
End2End of course. The key is stored on the device itself. If the device is defective, you should be able to define a master key, which you print out and save elsewhere...
i find that something that takes a couple of steps on a mac is SO convoluted on the ipad it's just not worth the hassle..
ok , there's tons of apps that replicate the desktop experience ( supposedly ) but for anything like spreadsheets , wp with images , emails with more than 1 image etc the ipad in my experience is utterly useless and very frustrating to use
just basic office stuff , not exactly brain surgery level stuff lol
simple games , web browsing - as long as you don't have to fill in forms , basic emails etc it's great
ok , there's tons of apps that replicate the desktop experience ( supposedly ) but for anything like spreadsheets , wp with images , emails with more than 1 image etc the ipad in my experience is utterly useless and very frustrating to use
just basic office stuff , not exactly brain surgery level stuff lol
simple games , web browsing - as long as you don't have to fill in forms , basic emails etc it's great
To solve 99.9% of the complaints here, all Apple really has to do is take the cues given by Microsoft iOS Office Apps and their integration with Dropbox. That is how iCloud Drive should work with ALL apps that implement iCloud support on the share sheet.
File management problem essentially solved completely.
File management problem essentially solved completely.
(This is going to turn out to be one of those conversations where I have concerns due to the way I operate and another user insists they're not problems and that I'm just using it wrong, sorry, no time for that. But to answer your question - most art apps I use on my iPad Pro with Pencil. Procreate has a duplicate option and that's pretty much it for the apps I use. My final word on this is iCloud Drive is a visible heirachy of files and folders, apps have their own higglty pigglty folder options that varies way too much. When all they need to do is arrange 'internal' files on the iPad as they do on iCloud Drive. Cheerio. I just don't have time for people that refuse vehemently to understand people have preferences different to their own)
One thing I imagine everyone can agree on - when the iCloud Drive dialogue is visible for saving, the way it's only view is every folder & subfolder expanded makes usability a nightmare if you have more than a handful of folders. One of those things I'm hoping they have a nice update for in iOS 11.
Absolutly agree on that. What a major pain is that.
Now i need to just safe a file to pdf expert folder, open pdf ezpert, move the file and be done. Cant tell you how many times that has made me grumble.
[doublepost=1496432861][/doublepost]
Sorry, was really trying to understand your trouble as I have hardly any when it comes to filemanagement.
Exposing file system of iPad - yes or not?
I just need one shared sandbox for all apps.
Currently, every app got it's own sandbox and files are in these sandboxes. For power users which use Resilio Sync (or other sync software) it's pain. I use Documents by Readdle, where are stored most of my files, but my webpages projects are in Resilio Sync's sandbox.
It would be good to have one shared sandbox and to choose some folders to sync via Resilio Sync and these synced files would be available for all apps.
I just need one shared sandbox for all apps.
Currently, every app got it's own sandbox and files are in these sandboxes. For power users which use Resilio Sync (or other sync software) it's pain. I use Documents by Readdle, where are stored most of my files, but my webpages projects are in Resilio Sync's sandbox.
It would be good to have one shared sandbox and to choose some folders to sync via Resilio Sync and these synced files would be available for all apps.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a "mistake" from resilio sync? I can collect, copy, move and open files outside of documents folder with documents 5. Also can I open and store files in word that aren't in the word folder as well.
resilio might have good reasons for sticking just to their own folder, but it looks like they have chosen to do so?
Resilio Sync cannot be integrated in Readdle's Documents 6 sandbox/storage, because of iOS limitation. I can't choose, for example, three folders in Documents 6 and sync them via Resilio Sync. Files stored in Documents 6 sandbox and files stored in Resilio sync sandbox are separated.
Someone may say that I should store all files in Resilio Sync. Yea, that's true, but Resilio Sync for iPad is just storage for files. I need to work with SFTP, NAS, Dropbox, OneDrive and local computers and Resilio's Sync file management is much worse then File Explorer in Windows 95 (I used it, even I'm young).
Resilio Sync cannot be integrated into Documents 6 and Documents 6 got many features I miss in Resilio Sync.
So I have most files in Documents 6 and webpage files in Resilio sync.
Imagine one shared sandbox - I would have all my files in one sandbox (and for all apps) and some folders I would set to sync with my iMac and NAS through Resilio Sync. That's it.
[doublepost=1496578959][/doublepost]And that Word - since iOS 8 we have Document Provider feature and Document Picker feature. With Document Picker enabled app (like Word) I can edit DOCX files stored in Document Provider enabled app (like Documents 6) without copying DOCX file into Word's sandbox. That's all.
Someone may say that I should store all files in Resilio Sync. Yea, that's true, but Resilio Sync for iPad is just storage for files. I need to work with SFTP, NAS, Dropbox, OneDrive and local computers and Resilio's Sync file management is much worse then File Explorer in Windows 95 (I used it, even I'm young).
Resilio Sync cannot be integrated into Documents 6 and Documents 6 got many features I miss in Resilio Sync.
So I have most files in Documents 6 and webpage files in Resilio sync.
Imagine one shared sandbox - I would have all my files in one sandbox (and for all apps) and some folders I would set to sync with my iMac and NAS through Resilio Sync. That's it.
[doublepost=1496578959][/doublepost]And that Word - since iOS 8 we have Document Provider feature and Document Picker feature. With Document Picker enabled app (like Word) I can edit DOCX files stored in Document Provider enabled app (like Documents 6) without copying DOCX file into Word's sandbox. That's all.
Thanks, this helped me understanding your problem a lot better!
[doublepost=1496581493][/doublepost]What do you sync to/with? An iMac?
Could you sync through smb with the iMac?
That's what I ( very rarely) do to my macmini.
Only locally of course.
I hope it gets vastly better on the iPad.
Apple has added so much on top of the iOS platform already, such as the share sheet that lets you perform a range of tasks. Same with the holding between text and the little black buttons that appear. They've added TOO MUCH. They will add more, naturally. Be it tomorrow or in future releases. And it WILL require a significant UI reform. Which can only be a good thing. I have faith in Apple to deliver on this as they've always done.
To anyone moving to Windows... yeah, far off fields look Green. Windows 10 might be the best version of Windows yet. And it IS in my opinion. But will Mac users be happy? No. From first hand experience, despite the OSX like capabilities and greater compatibility of Windows, it's a bit like saying 'I'll buy an Android tablet instead of an iPad". Ticks the boxes yeah, but you know it's not the same.
A true Apple fan will never be happy on Windows. Not after what you're used to from Apple be it on the iPhone, iPad or Mac. Regardless of what Apple are doing today and how it's in decline etc. Let me stress, using Windows at work or owning Windows AND a Mac is different. Because you have the choice.
If you're like me and many others who can't afford both, and you're stuck with Windows it's utterly pathetic feeling trying to accept it as 'as good' as the Mac. After a month I've pretty much went back to the iPad. I'll use Windows when I have to but I won't enjoy it.
I for one will live with iOS and it's limitations out of my confidence in Apple to slowly make it better. Someday it won't be a compromise anymore.
Apple has added so much on top of the iOS platform already, such as the share sheet that lets you perform a range of tasks. Same with the holding between text and the little black buttons that appear. They've added TOO MUCH. They will add more, naturally. Be it tomorrow or in future releases. And it WILL require a significant UI reform. Which can only be a good thing. I have faith in Apple to deliver on this as they've always done.
To anyone moving to Windows... yeah, far off fields look Green. Windows 10 might be the best version of Windows yet. And it IS in my opinion. But will Mac users be happy? No. From first hand experience, despite the OSX like capabilities and greater compatibility of Windows, it's a bit like saying 'I'll buy an Android tablet instead of an iPad". Ticks the boxes yeah, but you know it's not the same.
A true Apple fan will never be happy on Windows. Not after what you're used to from Apple be it on the iPhone, iPad or Mac. Regardless of what Apple are doing today and how it's in decline etc. Let me stress, using Windows at work or owning Windows AND a Mac is different. Because you have the choice.
If you're like me and many others who can't afford both, and you're stuck with Windows it's utterly pathetic feeling trying to accept it as 'as good' as the Mac. After a month I've pretty much went back to the iPad. I'll use Windows when I have to but I won't enjoy it.
I for one will live with iOS and it's limitations out of my confidence in Apple to slowly make it better. Someday it won't be a compromise anymore.
This exactly. Like I wrote above, How MS Office for iOS has seamless file management integration with DropBox and OneDrive. Apple's iCloud solution should work exactly the same across all of iOS - ALL apps should be Document Picker enabled by default by the OS, so that wherever you choose to save to, or wherever you opened the doc from in the first place, should be the default for that particular file. No copies of files in different app sandboxes, just your files wherever they were when you opened them, or wherever you chose to save them the first time.
Well it looks like some form of File System access will soon be available - although I think a File system app itself is less important than providing an SDK to iOS developers to access files.
I'm hoping Apple has a more elegant solution than trawling through the actual file system though. Although I regularly use terminal as a software engineer, there is nothing pleasant about trying to navigate through the nested hierarchy. Unlocking file system access is a minimum to encourage serious Pro app development though.
I'm hoping Apple has a more elegant solution than trawling through the actual file system though. Although I regularly use terminal as a software engineer, there is nothing pleasant about trying to navigate through the nested hierarchy. Unlocking file system access is a minimum to encourage serious Pro app development though.
I think this system app will certainly have APIs and some classes dedicated to it are hiding under those funny unannounced names on the WWDC schedule for later in the week.
How Apple approach this major critical point in iPad functionality and whether it'll be boring and box checking or innovative and better than we've ever seen will be a good indicator of whether or not Apple really has ran out of steam or still has the light in its eyes.