iCloud Drive text files being opened with Numbers

Question

iCloud Drive text files being opened with Numbers

Before, everything worked fine with text files (.txt files) I have in iCloud Drive.

A tap on iCloud Drive, and another tap on a text file on my iPhone would open the file with Notes.

From some point on (I think I had the same text file opened at the same time on my Mac and my iPhone) iCloud Drive text files on my iPhone are being opened with Numbers.

From now on, when I tap an iCloud Drive text file on my iPhone I get Numbers opening that file.

When I tap the information icon next to the text file name, I get an info screen saying at the top right "Open in Numbers".

I the text file is a formatted file (.rtf) there is no problem; Notes opens that file; and the info screen, at the top right, for that file says nothing about the app that will open the file.

That happens only on my iPhone; I have a 5S, 64Gb, with the latest iOS 9.3.1

On my Mac everything is working fine.

I tried a "Reset All Settings" but that didn't work.

Any idea of what is going on and how to solve it?

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 7, 2016 4:29 AM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,590 points

May 25, 2016 7:38 AM in response to JoseGMonteiro2

Oh there is for sure.... I just don't think you and I can get in there...

From Apple's dev forum..

Perhaps the "open with" menu is driven by which app was installed first. I'd be curious to see what happens if you added a plain txt editor and the removed it.

What "default" app would iOS go back to for txt files?

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Answer 2

May 25, 2016 9:57 AM in response to JoseGMonteiro2

I'm not sure what you mean by "So if I tap Notes icon in the action menu, the .txt file is sent (as a Numbers file) to a new Notes file or added to an existing one."

How is the .txt file opened in Notes "as a Numbers file"?

When I try it, the .txt file is attached to a note as an attachment. (For me the same thing happens with .rtf files). I don't know why it does that as opposed to putting the text into a note. I did not discuss opening .txt file with Notes specifically. I wanted to be able to open the .txt file with a text editing app and I was able to do that. It might be worth going to support at apple.com and starting a chat.

There are definitely a lot of weird issues with opening files from iCloud Drive app on iOS. In the screenshot below, you "Add to Notes" and it adds the file as an attachment to a note in the Notes app. You "Open in Pages" but it really opens a copy in Pages making a Pages file and saves that file in the Pages folder in iCloud drive. Any changes are saved to that copy, not the original. So really the description is incorrect. It should be "Copy to Pages."

If you "Open in Byword" (a third party text editor) it opens in Byword and changes you make to the file are saved to the original in iCloud drive. (This is the behavior I want.) But it *also* makes an alias of the file in the Byword folder in iCloud Drive. Pretty strange. If you "Copy to iA Writer" (another 3rd party text editor) it opens a copy saved in the iA Writer folder on iCloud Drive. Changes are made to that copy. There is no option to "Open in iA Writer."

So Apple's own app Pages does not do what it says it's going to do. And I guess developers are able to choose how their apps handle file opening from iCloud Drive and they do different things.

Also, new .txt files I create on the Mac and then look at in iCloud Drive app on iOS say "Open in Numbers." If I open the file in Byword two times, that changes to "Open in Byword" as you see in the screen shot below.

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Answer 3

May 25, 2016 2:44 PM in response to gluten_free

I meant the file was attached as a Numbers file to the note.

I think iOS converted the .txt to a Numbers file and then attached that file to Notes.

Then tapping the attachment, Numbers would open the file.

After reading your message,

I'm not sure anymore of what really happened because I did not keep a copy of the note where that happened and meanwhile I upgraded to iOS 9.3.2, and then I tried the process again and now things happened just as you said - a .txt file was attached to the note (not a Numbers file).

Then I decided to buy Byword text editor and give it a try.

And I found that for any new .txt file I create on my Mac in iCloud on any folder:

1. I get an alias for that file on the Mac Text Editor Folder.

2. If I tap the file in iCloud on my 5S (iOS) the file is immediately opened by the Byword text editor (no need to go to the share icon to get the "Open With Byword")

3. On the iPhone you get two aliases of that file, one on Text Editor folder, and another on Byword folder.

As an experiment I removed Byword from my 5S and tapped the "i" information icon for the .txt file; the "Open with Numbers" was there again.

I reinstalled Byword again and I'll be using it whenever I need.

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 4

May 24, 2016 8:20 AM in response to JoseGMonteiro2

I chatted with Apple support and found an answer.

If you click on the "i" on iPad or long press and choose "info" on iPhone you get an "Open in Numbers" as the OP said. But you can click on the 'action icon' or 'open in' icon (the square with the arrow going up) and you can choose from all your apps to open the file. After doing that a few times the default for .txt files changes to "open in [name of app you used]"

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Answer 5

May 24, 2016 9:48 AM in response to gluten_free

I've tried what you suggested but it did not work.

When you tap the action icon (after tapping the "i" - information icon) you get the Action Menu with the apps where you can send to or copy to the .txt file.

There is only one "Open With" in the action menu, and that is Open With Numbers.

And if I tap "Open With Numbers" the .txt file is opened with Numbers.

There is no "Open With Notes" (nor Open with any other app).

So if I tap Notes icon in the action menu, the .txt file is sent (as a Numbers file) to a new Notes file or added to an existing one.

That is what happened when I tapped Notes.

If I press any other app I get the same result.

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Answer 6

LACAllen

Level 8

43,590 points

May 24, 2016 3:19 PM in response to JoseGMonteiro2

iCloud Drive files are only accessible to Apps that have "told" iOS that they can work with them. I have no idea how this is done or how to change it. I would guess there is a relationship with the "open in..." dialog. An App won;t appear in that dialog unless it has registered itself with iOS as capable of opening that file type.

No 2 iOS devices will likely deal with a .txt file the same as they may have apps on them that will happily open a .txt file.

My guess would be if you install a basic Text Editor app, it will open your .txt files going forward.

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Answer 7

May 25, 2016 3:29 AM in response to LACAllen

There must be some "place" where iOS keeps information about which file types are opened by which apps.

I Know, as you suggested, that if I install a text editor in my 5S I will be able to open and edit any text files.

Someone from Apple already told me that installing a text editor would "solve" the problem.

But he was not able to explain what was really happening.

And with the new release of iOS 9.3.2. the problem remains.

My use of text files is not that much and so I would be happy if I could get things working as they did before this problem came up: tapping a .txt file and getting Notes opening the file (instead of having to install a Text Editor for that purpose - I already have lots of apps in my 5S).

On another iPhone, a 6S, with another iCloud Account, tapping a .txt file (a not formatted one, just plain text) and then tapping the "i" information icon for that file, I get the info screen saying at the top right "Open with Pages".

Below there is some more information about the file, of the same kind that is shown on my 5S (that says "Open With Numbers"):

File Type: Text

Size: 43 bytes

etc.

Now taping on the 6S what we called before the Action Menu, I get the apps to where I can send the file; and now I get two "Open With" icons; one is "open with Pages", and the other is "Open with Numbers"!!!

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Answer 8

May 25, 2016 2:57 PM in response to LACAllen

I just bought Byword text editor and things are working fine; when I create a .txt file in iCloud on my Mac, and tap that file in iOS, Byword opens the file immediately.

Then just because of your curiosity I removed Byword from my iPhone and tapped the "i" information icon for the .txt file.

The top right of the information screen for the .txt file showed again "Open With Numbers".

From now on I'll be using Byword whenever I need it.

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 9

May 24, 2016 7:31 AM in response to JoseGMonteiro2

Same. .txt files open in Numbers on iOS from iCloud drive. Why is this and can it be changed?

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