APPLE

Take Another Look at the iOS Files App

It’s come a long way since iOS 9

Ever notice this?

What Is the Files App?

You might not have ever noticed this on your Apple iPhone or iPad even though it has been available since iOS 9, when it was called iCloud Drive and had far weaker abilities.

Originally, the intent of this app was to give your iOS devices access to files stored on your MacOS computer. This was done by automatically putting the Desktop files from the computer(s) in iCloud, and then the iCloud Drive app could access them. Of course, you could also use it to transfer a file from your phone or iPad to your computer.

When iOS 11 arrived, the Files app replaced iCloud Drive (except on the Mac; it retains the old name there) and added the ability to access other services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and many others. That opened up a whole other world of possibilities, including easy copying from one service to another.

More recently, collaboration was added. You can now let other people work on a file you keep in your iCloud or just be able to always see it as you work on it. You can also give them the same access to an entire folder.

I use some of those capabilities now and then, but not very often. I do use the Files app every single day, but I mostly use it in a very different way.

Many cloud services are available.

How I Use the Files App

I use my iPad much more than I use my computer. I can almost hear the cries, “An iPad is not a computer!” Yeah, I get that; I won’t argue.

I also won’t argue that the things an iPad can do might seem clumsy if you are accustomed to using a computer. I’ll even agree that some things are clumsy.

But I use my iPad almost exclusively because it does the things I need to do very nicely, is lightweight, and I am so accustomed to using it that very often, the computer feels clumsy to me.