TechLife Australia – September 2019

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HELP

STATI

ON

GET

M

ORE

FR

OM THE FILE

SAP

P

[ IOS]

Get more from the Files app

FIND THE IOS FILE MANAGER’S HIDDEN FEATURES AND EXTEND ITS POWERS.

[ ADAM BANKS ]

FILES IS IOS’S equivalent of Finder in macOS

and enables you to browse files stored on your

device or in iCloud Drive. You can add other

cloud services too and – with the help of a

third–party app – access files on Macs, PCs

and network–attached storage (NAS) drives.

By default, the only locations in Files’

sidebar are iCloud Drive (assuming you’ve

signed in to iCloud) and On My iPhone/iPad.

These two locations work a little differently

from each other – as folders on your device’s

storage are created and controlled by apps; you

can’t move or delete them yourself, or add new

ones. You can create folders in iCloud Drive.

The large pane on the right is where you

browse within storage locations. Simply tap to

open a folder or file. By default, this pane isn’t

scrolled all the way to the top. Swipe down on

it to reveal some extra options. Tap one of the

attributes listed there – name, date, size or tags

• to sort the pane’s contents by it. Tap the list
  icon to the right to switch between icon and
  list views, and the folder icon to the left
  to create a new folder (on iCloud Drive). Tap a
  folder to look inside it. The previous folder’s
  name appears top left. Tap it to go back there.
  You can add third–party cloud services,
  such as Google Drive and Dropbox, under

Locations in the sidebar. By default, you can’t

add non–cloud storage, such as shared folders

on your Mac or NAS, but we’ll show you a way

around that.

To reveal options for an individual file,

long–press it. A contextual menu will appear.

For multiple files, tap Select, then tap the files

you want to use. Options will appear at the

bottom of the screen.

When browsing your iCloud Drive, you

can delete folders created by apps, but you

can’t move them. All the other options

are similar.

THE FILES APP INTERFACE

A

LOCATIONS

As well as your

iCloud Drive and your

device’s own storage, you can

addothercloudserviceshere.

C

OPTIONS

You can sort the list

of files by different

criteria, and also switch

betweenlistandiconviews.

B

TAGS

Applying tags helps

you gather related

files, even if those files come

from different apps and/or

locations.

D

CONTE XTUAL

MENU

Hold a finger on a

file or folder for a

moment to see actions you

can take on it.

A

B

C

D

BY DEFAULT, THE ONLY LOCATIONS IN FILES’ SIDEBAR ARE ICLOUD

DRIVE (ASSUMING YOU’VE SIGNED IN TO ICLOUD) AND ON MY

IPHONE/IPAD.