4 ms·

What's going on with the file system though? If you work like to work with files (opposed to having everything isolated in apps expect for the share functionali

What's going on with the file system though? If you work like to work with files (opposed to having everything isolated in apps expect for the share functionality) you'll be lost. It's as if most apps are sandboxed in to their own folder or something.

fctorial 7y ago
> It's as if most apps are sandboxed in to their own folder or something Isn't that a good thing?
- Macha 7y ago
  I dislike the way it discourages data portability. e.g. * I want to be able to have syncthing pull down my keepass database and have keepass2android open the current version in launch without having to navigate a file picker every time. * I want to use my browser to download rpg rulebooks from drivethrurpg then open them in my PDF viewer without either of those two having to specifically integrate with each other. It would then be nice if that pdf reader could display a list of recent files on launch rather than reopen a picker. They're mostly my gripes with Android 10's lockdown but iOS doesn't even want the filesystem exposed. I won't deny there's security advantages to this model, but it should have an out as it just encourages your app to own your data and only use it in ways they foresaw rather than giving control to users.
  - blitmap 7y ago
    I like that each app has its own filesystem, but i do wish i could 'get at' anything from the Files app. I want to plug in my iPhone and see the filesystem for the Files app. I want to be able to "share" any file from any app into Files. This would either be "Save to Files" or simply exposing it to files. I wish Apple made this easy, and just stopped doing whatever they're doing with iTunes. I hate needing it to upload photos.
    - ascagnel_ 7y ago
      > I like that each app has its own filesystem, but i do wish i could 'get at' anything from the Files app. If the developer takes the time to set it up, this is exactly how the Files app works -- each app will appear either as a folder or as a provider. > I want to plug in my iPhone and see the filesystem for the Files app. This is how it works currently on macOS; word is that this will be coming to Windows once they finish splitting up that version of iTunes. > I want to be able to "share" any file from any app into Files. This would either be "Save to Files" or simply exposing it to files. Again, this is up to the app developer to implement. On apps that support it, there's literally a "Save to Files" option on the share sheet.
      - Macha 7y ago
        The thing is that the developer has the choice to implement it or not. On the other hand, Microsoft didn't get a say about LibreOffice being able to read it's files.
  - culturestate 7y ago
    Unless I'm missing something obvious, all of the functionality you described is totally doable in iOS today using shared Documents folders. None of the apps need to know about each other for it to work.
  - Tagbert 7y ago
    I use a password manager app on IOS and MacOS. It stores the pw file in a Dropbox folder and is synced between the devices. If never had to manually open files or copy file between them. I might be able to use iClouds shared files, too, but I started using Dropbox for the syncing years ago and am not ready to switch that,yet.
- anotheryou 7y ago
  security wise: yes. otherwise no
willis936 7y ago
My solution to this has been to simply not use my phone for anything reasonable. I browse the internet, play games, capture media that get sync’d to dropbox, and I use VPN/VNC + ssh to do work on other machines. iPhone has potential to be more, but it isn’t. By Apple’s design, the most powerful thing it can do is be an access point to more capable machines.
aikinai 7y ago
They are sandboxed. That’s the point. But if you want to share files, you can now with the Files app.
ajconway 7y ago
Everything is going great, actually. Apps are able to expose exactly the files and folders they want to. Those don’t even have to be real files, they can be downloaded as needed.

fctorial 7y ago

> It's as if most apps are sandboxed in to their own folder or something Isn't that a good thing?

Macha 7y ago
I dislike the way it discourages data portability. e.g. * I want to be able to have syncthing pull down my keepass database and have keepass2android open the current version in launch without having to navigate a file picker every time. * I want to use my browser to download rpg rulebooks from drivethrurpg then open them in my PDF viewer without either of those two having to specifically integrate with each other. It would then be nice if that pdf reader could display a list of recent files on launch rather than reopen a picker. They're mostly my gripes with Android 10's lockdown but iOS doesn't even want the filesystem exposed. I won't deny there's security advantages to this model, but it should have an out as it just encourages your app to own your data and only use it in ways they foresaw rather than giving control to users.
- blitmap 7y ago
  I like that each app has its own filesystem, but i do wish i could 'get at' anything from the Files app. I want to plug in my iPhone and see the filesystem for the Files app. I want to be able to "share" any file from any app into Files. This would either be "Save to Files" or simply exposing it to files. I wish Apple made this easy, and just stopped doing whatever they're doing with iTunes. I hate needing it to upload photos.
  - ascagnel_ 7y ago
    > I like that each app has its own filesystem, but i do wish i could 'get at' anything from the Files app. If the developer takes the time to set it up, this is exactly how the Files app works -- each app will appear either as a folder or as a provider. > I want to plug in my iPhone and see the filesystem for the Files app. This is how it works currently on macOS; word is that this will be coming to Windows once they finish splitting up that version of iTunes. > I want to be able to "share" any file from any app into Files. This would either be "Save to Files" or simply exposing it to files. Again, this is up to the app developer to implement. On apps that support it, there's literally a "Save to Files" option on the share sheet.
    - Macha 7y ago
      The thing is that the developer has the choice to implement it or not. On the other hand, Microsoft didn't get a say about LibreOffice being able to read it's files.
- culturestate 7y ago
  Unless I'm missing something obvious, all of the functionality you described is totally doable in iOS today using shared Documents folders. None of the apps need to know about each other for it to work.
- Tagbert 7y ago
  I use a password manager app on IOS and MacOS. It stores the pw file in a Dropbox folder and is synced between the devices. If never had to manually open files or copy file between them. I might be able to use iClouds shared files, too, but I started using Dropbox for the syncing years ago and am not ready to switch that,yet.
anotheryou 7y ago
security wise: yes. otherwise no

willis936 7y ago

My solution to this has been to simply not use my phone for anything reasonable. I browse the internet, play games, capture media that get sync’d to dropbox, and I use VPN/VNC + ssh to do work on other machines. iPhone has potential to be more, but it isn’t. By Apple’s design, the most powerful thing it can do is be an access point to more capable machines.

aikinai 7y ago

They are sandboxed. That’s the point. But if you want to share files, you can now with the Files app.

ajconway 7y ago

Everything is going great, actually. Apps are able to expose exactly the files and folders they want to. Those don’t even have to be real files, they can be downloaded as needed.