Markup on files stored on Google Drive doesn't work

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Markup on files stored on Google Drive doesn't work

Hi. I'm recently having trouble making annotations on pdf-files stored on Google Drive. I am able to open the file on my iPad on Files, but the markup icon in the upper right corner is not there. If I download the same file and store it on my iPad the icon shows up again. I would really like to be able to do the editing without downloading the file first. What is the problem? It seems to have started after some update, because in November it worked fine.

iPad Pro, iOS 13

Posted on Jan 20, 2020 12:27 AM

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LotusPilot

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Jan 20, 2020 2:00 AM in response to danskug

Not a fault - but instead is a limitation of Google Drive integration with your iPad.

Integration with Google Drive, as I’m sure you may be aware, requires presence of the Google Drive App on the device. The Google Drive App provides the bridgehead (i.e, in technical terms, the necessary APIs) to access files stored within your Google cloud storage.

The Google Drive app provides basic integration with native iPad functionality - but for reasons known only to Google, they don’t support the native iPadOS functions that you desire. Until Google add the necessary support, you must either:

use the Google Drive App - and features the App provides - to directly manipulate file stored within the Google cloud.
use native iPad functions - accepting that this functionality is deliberately limited by Google.
use the full suite of native iPad functions with files stored locally, or within iCloud, and copy/to from Google Drive.

I hope you find this helpful in clarifying current limitations and options.

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Markup on files stored on Google Drive doesn't work

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