Best apps for file & media management...

Hello guys,

Bought an iPhone for the 1st time despite having reservations about the usability and compatibility with other platforms. Much of it was due to what I read on the web and in forums. While I liked the new experience (Android & Windows user for a long time), I was shocked to note that there was no access to the file system on iOS. I discovered that while iOS restricts users in many ways, there are 3rd party apps that allow you to do pretty much everything that you want to do, just like with Android (although with some restrictions and limitations). The good news, though, is you can do just about anything with an iPhone, as with Android.

My requirements were as follows:

1. Supports file operations like copy, move, share, rename, sub-folder creation, etc. 2. Supports compression (zip, rar, 7z, etc.) and decompression (unzip, unrar, etc.)
3. Supports a variety of formats for all types of files - documents (all office formats, pdf, etc) - compressed, password protected and encrypted files, pictures, music and videos.
4. Inbuilt web browser - with history and temp file management, private browsing switch
5. Inbuilt Download Manager with support for pause, resume, file name extraction, rename, etc. and support multiple downloads simultaneously - preferably using multi-threaded technology (like torrent downloading)
6. Ability to "Stream To"/ "Open In"/ "Export To" options to allow access to files by other apps - especially useful if a format is not supported by this app
7. Ability to EXCLUDE local files from iTunes & iCloud Backups to prevent duplication of data.
8. Network Access - ability to access shared files and folders on the same network, e.g. SMB, UPNP, FTP, WebDav, etc along with 2-way file transfer among devices on the same network.
9. Cloud Support - integration with Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, Box, Mega, etc.
10. Ability to play a file, complete the download etc. in the background
11. Ability to compress multiple files and folders into one archive/ file - this is extremely useful when we want to copy multiple files from one app to another.

Having explored various apps on the AppStore, I found/ shortlisted 3 apps that together make file and media management complete in all respects:

1. File Browser Pro (https://itunes.apple.com/app/filebrowser-access-files-on/id364738545?mt=8) - for file management, accessing files on the network & cloud

2. nPlayer (https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/nplayer-the-best-media-player/id1116905928?mt=8) - for playing media stored locally as well as streaming over the network - it plays just about every known format (including DTS)

3. eDL Pro (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edl-pro-web-browser-file-manager/id435965622?mt= 8) - for downloading (has inbuilt download manager)

These 3 apps together satisfy all of the points mentioned above. Other apps fail to meet many of the criteria, most importantly points 6, 7, 8 & 11. While all of these are paid apps (completely worth the money), they also have a free version supported by ads and/ or limited by features.

So those are my favourite apps. Let me know of any app that is better than the above set.

Thanks.

Sridhar