iOS 8 iWork and Dropbox

Question

Level 1

14 points

iOS 8 iWork and Dropbox

Many of us are noticing that you cannot use Dropbox as a storage provider in any of the iWork apps. Even when it is enabled, Dropbox will not show up when you click on the "+' to open a file. Other third-party storage providers, such as Box, work as expected. This problem has been reported to Dropbox and their answer, provided below, indicates that they do not regard this as a bug but might consider redoing their implementation. Until then, the only option is to store your files on a different storage provider or to use Dropbox's complicated work-around. If you want to read the entire thread, go to the mobile apps forum at Dropbox and search for storage provider and iOS 8.

>>Wanted to clarify here - Apple's Document Picker extension allows apps the option to import/export or open/move documents. The Dropbox app currently supports the import/export functionality. As a result, Dropbox will not appear in apps that only support the open/move functionality.

For those apps, you should be able to still use the "Open In" functionality to open files into Dropbox, and back into the third party app using the sharing menu.

Hope this helps - and please feel free to submit a ticket at https://www.dropbox.com/support if you have additional feedback. This integration is new, so we'll be sure to pass along this feedback to our development team.<<

iPad Mini, iOS 8.1

Posted on Oct 25, 2014 1:30 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2014 12:58 PM in response to Sue Holloway

We have this "open in another app" problem on many ipads in our managed devices. From within Pages, Keynote, you cannot open a file into any other app except iTunes U. From Keynote, the send a copy to Email is also not an option.

This is not cool.

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Answer 2

maplavi

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2014 2:41 PM in response to Sue Holloway

The Google Drive app for iOS was updated today. It works now as storage provider however it has the same problem as Dropbox in the iWork apps.

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Answer 3

thanxal

Level 1

37 points

Dec 9, 2014 5:25 AM in response to Sue Holloway

I switched to iWork back in 09, but sadly this is seriously making me switch back to Office, at least on my iPad. Is this Apple or Dropbox being stubborn?

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Answer 4

Apr 22, 2015 3:09 PM in response to thanxal

This is all about Apple. They need to integrate DropBox into their iOS apps.

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Answer 5

Apr 24, 2015 11:54 AM in response to AaronSchacht

AaronSchacht wrote:

This is all about Apple. They need to integrate DropBox into their iOS apps.

Since both Box and Documents (by Readdle) work just fine with iWorks app on iOS, no, I suspect the issue is with Drop box.

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 24, 2015 11:55 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Indeed.

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Answer 7

Apr 24, 2015 12:01 PM in response to Kilgore-Trout

I guess I was a little vague in my response. I simply mean Apple needs to add additional cloud service options and build them into their iWork apps on iOS. In other words, open Word or Excel for iPad and you get an option to use DropBox as a cloud storage option, in addition to OneDrive. Pages and Numbers for iOS have no such option BUILT IN to their apps, so this is absolutely on Apple to implement. Right now they only have iCloud as an external storage option.

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Answer 8

Apr 24, 2015 12:48 PM in response to AaronSchacht

No true at all. You can send iWorks files to any number of apps, supporting cloud storage other than iCloud, and retrieve files from them. Apple offers an in-house cloud solution - iCloud - and permits additional cloud services to work with iworks apps. Why do they need to offer another? The only requirement for using a service is that the service's app support it. If you use an app such as Documents, you have access to several in the same interface.

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Answer 9

Apr 24, 2015 1:15 PM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Of course you can "send" iWorks files to apps. And I know that you can use other apps such as Documents for retrieval. I'm just referring to the fact that it's not as seamless and as easy to use as it should be. I'd recommend installing Word for iOS to see what I'm talking about. Right from within the app (Word), I can browse my DropBox folders, open files, and save them. No "sending" or using other apps to accomplish my simple task.

Maybe I'm crazy though! If you can tell me, step by step, all without ever leaving Pages, how to open a file from DropBox and save it with ONE step, I'd love to know. It's just so EASY using Word and Excel for iOS.

Thanks for your help, you are the best!

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