More iPad File Handling

One of the most annoying things to get used to is the way the iPad handles files.  

A desktop machine does two things where file handling is concerned;

• There is a data base of file extensions mapped to applications so the file manager knows what to do with the file if you ask to open it.

• The file manager has access to all the files on your disk.  This behavior can be limited to avoid corrupting the operating system, through the use of elevated rights but fundamentally you have access to everything.

This is not the case with iOS.  Each application keeps a small data base of the files it knows about and that is all.  So for instance, when using Documents, I can open and read Google files (sheets etc) but I cannot edit them.  Documents knows what these files are and can read them but cannot launch the Google application to allow editing.

So this means that working from the file manager as I would on a full PC is not practical on an iOS tablet and I have to come up with a better way of operating.

Just last night I was trying to move some files around and ran into problems.  My wife and I have a joint space in Dropbox and we keep our photo album in there.  The photo album is structured as a a folder with each sub folder being an event, and each folder is named by date and the event name.

We had been for a hike and had taken some photos and I needed to move the pictures from Apple Photos to Dropbox, and put them into a folder with the appropriate date and name.  Doing this from the file manager is impossible.  What you have to do is go to the Dropbox application, create the folder, and then upload the pics from the Apple Photos application.  Apparently one does not need the file manager and this is an interesting approach to file management, at least it is for someone used to a desktop machine.

 

It really was a great day for a hike!

So as I get used to this new way of working, I think the take away here is that one doesn’t necessarily need the file manager, just the individual applications - so rather than looking for a file manager that works the same way a desktop file manager works, I have a group of applications that is labeled file management and consists of Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Apple Photots, Files and Documents. This is essentially my ‘file manager’.