Ios 11 files app and external drives

The Files app brings all of your files together in iOS 11. You can easily browse, search, and organize all your files in one place. Not just the ones on the device you're using, but also those in apps, on your other iOS devices, in iCloud Drive, and across other cloud services.

Hi Carlos66ba. Have you looked at the SanDisk iXpand drive? It's a simple Flash drive with a Lightning connector. It comes with its own app, and you can share files to/from it. Don't hope for much from the Files app, though. It's basically just an update to the iCloud Drive app. There are other file managers with much wider capabilities.

AG007 wrote:

Why should file management .. the most fundamental aspect of an os be so convoluted and incoherent in ios.? Supposedly the most modern os.

Because iOS was designed from the ground up NOT to have any centralized and accessible file system. It is a tightly sandboxed operating system and file system. Not allowing access to a centralized file management system is a keystone of the whole iOS security model. No app can modify another app's file space. And since that was and is an explicit and fundamental cornerstone of the entire iOS security model, it is not likely to change any time.

For reference see https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Concept ual/FileSystemProgrammingGuide/FileSyste…

and https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

I think you don't understand how "sandboxed" the iOS apps are. In MacOS, which is a Unix system, files are stored in directories, which can be browsed. In iOS, apps store objects in file space obtained from the system. There is no reason for these stored objects to be intelligible outside the app. The filenames may be meaningless database keys, linked to an internal database. That's why the Files app needs assistance from the apps to view and manage the "files".

You should take this opportunity to suggest this to Apple by posting at this link: Feedback - iPad - Apple. They obviously went to a lot of trouble to implement the Files app (not iFile, by the way), and they'd be glad to know there's a much simpler solution.

Apple says that an iPad Pro can replace a computer, but I need a computer (with iTunes) as intermediate to be able to copy files from an external HD to the iOS 11 Files app and vice versa. Apple could put two USB-C ports on the iPad Pro.

fbr$ wrote:

Apple says that an iPad Pro can replace a computer, but I need a computer (with iTunes) as intermediate to be able to copy files from an external HD to the iOS 11 Files app and vice versa. Apple could put two USB-C ports on the iPad Pro.

Submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Sure. Buy one, try it. Don't wait for Apple to support 3rd-party hardware, because you'll wait forever.

Looking forward to your response and thoughts.

Debating Apple decisions is not allowed here and you will not get answers to any of your "why" questions.

Your only option is feedback for Apple which goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Why is it left to the app developer to expose the files before they can be seen by Files... Hence creating an incomplete picture of local documents and files..

By noting this, you are acknowledging that the app developer will provide file access for their content if they choose to. If you can't store or move files as you wish, it's on the app developer.

Apple has created a very secure OS and file storage and movement is a key element of this.

It is a clear but VERY DISSAPOINTING response. It is also making me deeply regret my purchase of the iPad Pro 10. I can create beautiful presentations and documents but sharing them with colleagues is cumbersome and time consuming. NOTHING beats the convenience and bandwidth of a simple flash drive. Apple is making my life harder for nothing.

Thank you for the reply Diana. Does this iXpand drive work in the sense of being able to copy any file from any app (PowerPoint, pdf, keynote, etc.) from the ipad to the ixpand drive? Then I’d be OK (thogh it is still annoying to have to use yet another app to do something that would be as easy as copying files in ifile).

I understand what you say bit this is merely an excuse for a behavior that is not convenient.

I understand that the apps should be sandboxed, but the OS is not, and one could conceive that the iFile, being made by apple could be excluded from this (though staying within the limits of not accessing system files). That is how already a majority of MacOS works, in fact. Apps are sandboxed (not traditional applications, but apps are), and yet Finder can access everything. Could be the same with iFile for iOS.

Carlos66ba wrote:

I understand what you say bit this is merely an excuse for a behavior that is not convenient.

I understand that the apps should be sandboxed, but the OS is not, and one could conceive that the iFile, being made by apple could be excluded from this (though staying within the limits of not accessing system files). That is how already a majority of MacOS works, in fact. Apps are sandboxed (not traditional applications, but apps are), and yet Finder can access everything. Could be the same with iFile for iOS.

Comparing Mac OS X and iOS is irrelevant. They are very different operating systems. There is no finder or any equivalent in iOS. The iOS file system is encrypted by default, while OS X is not. OS X is not at all a sandboxed file system, as anyone with admin rights can su to root and do anything they want to any file they want. That is not possible with iOS. OS X uses quite standard UNIX file control limits and other open source tools and resources to manage file security and control what apps and users can do. But root in OS X is no different than root on any other Unix system. In iOS file access limitations are baked into the OS itself with no user control of them.

The comparison of OS X and iOS in regard to these things is an apples and oranges contrast. They are very, very different about those things, and that is explicit in the very design of iOS. iOS is never going to behave or function the same as OS X in regard to the file system and user or app access to files and file space. Again, that’s the way it’s been built from day one.

You are not entirely correct. As anyone with a jailbroken ios device can attest, there IS a filesystem, it is just hidden. In any case, obviously the OS can access the entirety of the system, and iFile could do that (access the non-privileged parts of the filesystem/database/whatever you want to call it).

Carlos66ba wrote:

You are not entirely correct. As anyone with a jailbroken ios device can attest, there IS a filesystem, it is just hidden. In any case, obviously the OS can access the entirety of the system, and iFile could do that (access the non-privileged parts of the filesystem/database/whatever you want to call it).

No, that is precisely the point. You have to hack the device, and remove all the built in security features in order to access that file system. That is the very point. Outside of hacking the operating system, there is no user accessible file system.

A jail broken device is not running a native iOS installation.