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Files, Files Pro & Documents Pro FAQ

Built-in Help:

Files Pro, Files and Documents Pro include extensive help built in to the application. Just tap the help button at the top of the main window to view this information.

Connecting via USB:

USB File Sharing

With iTunes File Sharing you can copy documents to and from Files via USB.

File Sharing requirements:

  • Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later, or Windows XP SP3 or later.
  • iTunes 9.1 or later.
  • iOS 4 (iPhone/iPod touch) or iOS 3.2 (iPad) or later.
  • Files or Documents Pro v1.6.3 or later.

Connection instructions:

  1. Connect your device to your computer via the USB cable.
  2. Start iTunes and then select the device from the sidebar.
  3. Select the device's "Apps" tab.
  4. Scroll down to the File Sharing interface.
  5. Select "Files Pro" (or Documents Pro etc) from the list of File Sharing applications on the left.
  6. All documents stored in the app's Public folder will be visible in the right-hand panel.

iTunes File Sharing

  1. To upload documents click the "Add" button and choose items to upload, or drag and drop them onto the File Sharing area.
  2. To save files, select which files/folders you want to save, then click the "Save As" button. You can also drag and drop files from the File Sharing area onto the Finder or Windows Explorer.

Note: due to limitations in iTunes only files (not folders) can be uploaded using File Sharing. It is however possible to download folders, but not to browse within subfolders.

Connecting via Wi-Fi:

Connection Videos

You can view video tutorials walking through connection set up for Mac OS X, Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Server URL

To get the Files server URL start Files and click the round button in the lower left of the window. This will display information about the server, including the URL you need to connect to Files. If your device is not currently connected via Wi-Fi you can't connect to Files until you join a wireless network.

Check Your Connection

Your Mac/PC must be connected to the same local network as your iPhone/iPad to connect to Files. The iOS device must be connected via Wi-Fi.

You can check the connection by starting Files and then entering Files' URL in a web browser on your computer. If the browser loads a page showing the Files' web interface then you have a good connection.

If the browser fails to load the page then see the Network section below for some suggestions for resolving problems.

Bonjour

Files has always included Bonjour support.

If your WebDAV client supports Bonjour this means that on Mac OS X, or on Windows (with Safari or iTunes installed), you can use your device's name, rather than the IP address, as the WebDAV URL.

For example, if you phone is called "iPhone" in iTunes you can use the following WebDAV URL to connect to Files:

http://iPhone.local

Notes:

  • Apostrophes must be removed and spaces must be replaced with a hyphen e.g. "John's iPhone" becomes: http://Johns-iPhone.local
  • Windows users must install Safari or iTunes to enable Apple's Bonjour networking support.

Guest Access

If you have Guest Access enabled then users can connect to your Public folder without requiring authentication. Guests should append "Public" to the Files URL e.g.

http://iPhone.local/Public

Web Interface

Perhaps the easiest way to upload, download and manage your documents is to connect to Files using a web browser. Just enter Files' URL into the browser location field and you'll be connected and ready to go.

Web Interface

Cyberduck

On both Mac and Windows we recommend using the free WebDAV client Cyberduck http://cyberduck.ch to connect to Files.

Cyberduck is very simple to use and is often faster and more reliable than the Finder or Windows Explorer.

To connect, simply type the Files' URL into Cyberduck's quick-connect text field.

Cyberduck also supports Bonjour so it will automatically recognise Files, making connection very straightforward with no need to manually enter a URL. Note that Files must be the active application on your device otherwise it won't be listed as a Bonjour device.

Cyberduck

Mac OS X

  • Start Files.
  • Switch to the Finder and select "Connect to Server" from the "Go" menu.
  • Enter the Files URL into the Server Address text field and click "Connect".

Finder WebDAV Connection

Windows

Notes:

To connect from Windows XP

  1. Start Files
  2. Open "My Network Places"
  3. Run the "Add Network Place" wizard
  4. Select "Choose another network location"
  5. Enter the appropriate URL (you can find this by running Files on your device, tap the green button in the bottom-left hand corner, this will display the current URL for Files). e.g. http://192.168.0.5
  6. Enter a name for this connection
  7. Ensure "Open this network place when I click Finish" is checked and click Finish
  8. In future, assuming the Files URL has not changed, you can connect simply by opening "My Network Places" and double-clicking the network location you just created. You may need to select "Refresh" from the window's context-menu to ensure that Windows has an up-to-date view of your files and folders.

To connect from Windows Vista/Windows 7:

Vista/7 users have two options for connecting to Files. You can either map a network drive to the Files server, or create a network location. Both methods are described below.

Option 1: Map a Network Drive

  1. Start Files
  2. Open Computer from the Start Menu.
  3. Click on the Map Network Drive toolbar button.
  4. Enter the Files URL into the Folder field.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. If you set up Files to use remote authentication then you will be prompted for your username and password at this point.

Note: If you have problems authenticating try entering your username/password by clicking on the "different user name" link, before clicking Finish. This will map Files to a network drive with a name such as: "DAVWWWRoot (\192.168.0.4) Y:"

To reconnect in future just open this network drive from Computer.

Note: If you change your username or password you may need to re-create the Network drive to gain access to Files.

Option 2: Create a Network Location

  1. Start Files
  2. Open Computer from the Start Menu.
  3. Click on the Map Network Drive toolbar item.
  4. In the Map Network Drive window, click Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures, click Next.
  5. Select Choose a custom network location, click Next.
  6. In the Internet or network address field, enter the Files URL e.g. http://192.168.0.5
  7. If you set up Files to use remote authentication then you will be prompted for your username and password at this point.
  8. Enter a name for the connection, click Next.
  9. Ensure that Open this network location when I click Finish is checked and click Finish.

In future, assuming the Files URL has not changed, you can connect to Files simply by opening Computer and double-clicking the network location you just created. You may need to select "Refresh" from the window's context-menu to ensure that Windows has an up-to-date view of your files and folders.

Note: If you change your username or password you may need to re-create the Network location to gain access to Files.

Vista 64 bit: Users of Vista 64 bit may find that connection to Files from Windows Explorer fails. There are two known solutions to this problem:

  1. Turn on Authentication under Remote Access by entering a username and password. Then try and re-connect to Files via the network wizard.
  2. Try one of the alternative WebDAV clients. Not all clients are 64 bit compatible, but DataFreeway is known to work.

Please contact support if you have any problems.

Linux

Only the fusedav WebDAV driver is fully compatible with Files on linux. To connect using fusedav:

  • Run: fusedav http:// /mnt/iPhone
  • Now you can use Konqueror or Nautilus on the mounted filesystem.
  • When done just kill the process.

iOS Auto-Lock

If you are finding that copy operations to or from Files are timing out then enable the Prevent Sleep option in Files' setttings.

Alternative WebDAV Clients

Another alternative is to connect to Files using a compatible 3rd party WebDAV client.

Cyberduck: Free for Mac and Windows

On both Windows and Mac we recommend using the free client Cyberduck to connect to Files.

Cyberduck has excellent support for WebDAV and also supports Bonjour so it will automatically recognise Files making connection very straightforward with no need to manually enter a URL.

Cyberduck

Windows Clients:

  • Cyberduck, cyberduck.ch Free. Cyberduck includes Bonjour support and will automatically discover Files on the network.
  • NetDrive, www.netdrive.net NetDrive will mount Files as a drive letter in Windows 7, Vista and XP. Users can then access Files via this drive letter using Windows Explorer. NetDrive is free for home use.
  • Allway Sync, allwaysync.com Sync files and folders between your PC and Files. Free.
  • Good Sync, www.goodsync.com Another file sync application. A "free" and "pro" version are available.
  • DataFreeway, www.enginsite.com Free (compatible with Vista/7 64bit).
  • WebDrive, www.webdrive.com Commercial, but available for free trial.

Mac OS X Clients:

  • Cyberduck, cyberduck.ch Free. Cyberduck includes Bonjour support and will automatically discover Files on the network.

Network Problems:

General Tips

If you cannot establish a connection to Files from a web browser then you may have a problem with your local network setup. In the first instance check that:

  • Your iPhone/iPod touch is connected to the local Wi-Fi network. Files will display a green indicator when it detects a Wi-Fi connection.
  • Your computer and iOS device must be connected to the same local network. The first 3 numbers in the Files URL (e.g. 192.168.0) must match the IP address of your computer (usually found in the system's Network settings). If the numbers don't match your computer probably can't connect to your iOS device.
  • Check that firewall or anti-virus software on your computer is not preventing the network connection to Files.

Some users have found that the following solutions have solved network connection problems:

Netgear Routers

One user reported that disabling the "Wireless isolation" setting on his Netgear router enabled connection to his iPhone.

Linksys Routers

Some Linsys routers (e.g. WAG160N) have a setting which blocks anonymous internet requests, this is found on the security page of the router's settings. Turning this setting off may solve connection problems.

Reboot your Router

Rebooting your router can sometimes help solve connection problems.

UPnP

Another user reported that enabling UPnP on his router fixed his connection problem.

F-Secure

A user reports:

My firewall was causing the problem. I allowed all internet access through F-Secure Internet security. Then made the network connection as directed by Files. It worked fine. I then set my Internet access back to normal and the network connection remained and worked normally.

Mac OS X Proxies

Users of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later should disable network proxies (System Preferences -> Network -> (choose the appropriate interface) -> Advanced... -> Proxies). It appears that the Finder's WebDAV is completely broken with proxies enabled. Or better still use Cyberduck.

Windows Copy Error

You receive a copy error message when trying to download a file larger than 50 MB using Windows Explorer on Windows XP SP2 or later.

The error message may be similar to one of the following:

Cannot Copy FileName: Cannot read from the source file or disk.

Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

This error is caused by a "security" feature in Windows. The only known work-around is to update a key in the Windows' registry (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900900 for instructions).

A better solution is probably to connect to Files using a web browser or Cyberduck.

Adhoc (peer to peer) Wi-Fi

If you don't have a local Wi-Fi network, but your computer is Wi-Fi enabled, then you can still connect to Files by setting up an adhoc (also known as "peer to peer") Wi-Fi network. To do this:

Mac OS X:

  1. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing.
  2. In Leopard (10.5) or later select Internet Sharing from the list, check Airport and then click the Internet Sharing checkbox to start sharing.
  3. Before you start sharing, you may want to set a name and password for the adhoc network in Airport Options.

Windows XP

See: http://www.home-network-help.com/ad-hoc-wireless-network.html

Or: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1077907

Windows Vista

See: http://www.home-network-help.com/ad-hoc-wireless.html

Windows 7

See: http://www.kombitz.com/2009/02/09/windows-7-how-to-create-an-ad-hoc-network

File Type Support:

Documents which can be displayed

  • Microsoft Office: Files supports most Office documents including XML documents (Office 2007). Note that password protected documents are not supported.
  • Plain text and HTML files.
  • PDF: Files is able to display most PDF documents, including password protected PDFs.
  • Images: limited to those formats supported by iOS. This means you should be able to display tiff, jpg, gif, png, bmp, ico, cur and xbm images.
  • Movie and Audio: limited to those formats supported by iOS. This includes mp3, aac and wav audio files. Movies must be QuickTime compatible and should use the H264 or MPEG-4 codecs.
  • RTF and RTFD documents are fully supported, including unicode.
  • Apple iWork documents are fully supported. Just drag any Pages, Keynote or Numbers document to Files and view as normal.
  • For full file format specifications, including detailed movie and audio information please see: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Office 2007 and 2003 XML files

Files relies on the iOS to read Office documents so support is as good (or bad) as it is when viewing these files in Mail or Safari.

General:

Where can I find Files' Settings?

Settings can be accessed by tapping the "gear" icon at the bottom of Files' main window.

Can I password protect files of folders on my iPhone?

Yes, you can set a Passcode lock in Files' settings to prevent casual access to Files on your iPhone.

Is there a size limit when viewing documents?

You can transfer documents of any size to Files. Most documents can also be viewed regardless of size, including large PDF documents.

However due to the limited memory available on iOS devices some documents may fail to load. The size limit in these cases depends on the document content and the free memory available on your device (newer devices have more memory).

If you find that a large document fails to display a work-around is to split the document into smaller sections before transfer. Or for images try resizing the image down to 3000x3000 pixels or less.

How do I "close" a document?

iPhone: To display the navigation bar in the document view just tap the screen and the navigation bar will appear. Then click the "back" button (top-left hand corner) to close the view and return to the previous list of files.

iPad: Tap the action button at the top-right of the document toolbar. Choose "Close" from the popup menu. Alterantively, just tap the selected document in the folder view.

Can I delete a file on the device?

You can delete files on the phone in three ways:

  • Tap the action button in the folder view, then tap the red indicator to delete a document. Finally tap the Delete button to confirm deletion.
  • Use a swipe gesture in the file list view and then tap the Delete button to confirm deletion.
  • Click the "trash" icon when viewing a file (iPhone only).

How do I zoom documents?

To zoom in most iOS apps you use two fingers and do a "pinch" gesture. e.g.

  • To zoom out: Place each finger at opposite corners of the screen and move them towards the middle
  • To zoom in: Place each finder near the middle and move out towards the edge in opposite directions.
  • Double-tap will return to the default zoom once you have zoomed in/out.

Text File Encoding

If characters are not displayed correctly when viewing text documents you may need to change the text encoding Files uses for the document. Files supports most common text encodings. To change the text encoding while viewing a text document:

  1. Tap the action menu button on the toolbar.
  2. From the action menu choose "Change Text Encoding".
  3. Choose a text encoding from the list. By default Files uses UTF-8. If your text document was created on Windows another common encoding to try is ISO-8859-1.
  4. Once you've selected an encoding Files will reload the text document using the new encoding.

Note that you can set an application-wide default text encoding in Files' settings. It is also possible to add custom text encoding names to the list.

Re-download Files from the App Store

You can re-download any purchase for free from the App Store. For more information please see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519

Disable Automatic iTunes Backup

By default iTunes will backup your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad each time you perform a sync. The backup includes all application data, including any data you copy to Files. However you can disable automatic iTunes backup of your device by changing a hidden setting in the iTunes preferences.

Note: this will disable automatic backup of all data on your iPhone, but still leaves you the option to perform manual backups. To perform a manual backup right-click, or control-click, on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in iTunes under Devices and choose "Back Up".

To disable automatic iTunes backups enter the following command:

Mac: 1. Quit iTunes 2. Open Terminal.app 3. Copy and paste the following line, then hit return:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

To reverse the process just repeat but use "-bool false".

Windows: 1. Quit iTunes 2. Open a Windows Command Prompt (Press Win+R and type "cmd") 3. Type or copy the following command:

"%CommonProgramFiles%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\defaults.exe"
     write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

Also see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

Copying text in PDF Documents

This currently isn't supported by Files or by iOS.

Why doesn't Files appear in the Open In menu from other apps?

Unfortunately iOS has a fixed limit of 10 items which can appear in the "Open In" menu.

You will need to delete other apps which handle the file-type you are viewing until Files appears in the menu. We are as frustrated about this as you are - hopefully it is something Apple will address in the upcoming release of iOS 6 later this year.

Submitting Crash Reports

If you experience crashes with any of our apps you can submit a crash report via email. This will help us track down and fix the problem.

The crash reports are stored on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad at the time of the crash. When you sync your device with iTunes, the reports are copied to your computer to the following location:

If you are using a Mac:

  • ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/

Where ~ denotes your home folder.

In OS X Lion or later the "~/Library" folder is not visible by default. To view it use the Finder's "Go" -> "Go to Folder" menu and enter "~/Library".

If you are running Windows XP:

  • C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\<DEVICE NAME>

If you are running Windows Vista:

  • C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE NAME>

The crash report log files will start with the name of the application and contain a date stamp. Look for crash reports starting with "Files", "FilesPro" or "DocumentsPro". You can send crash reports to our support email address.

Web Browser:

How do I delete web browser history items?

To delete individual items when viewing the browser history use the swipe gesture, then tap the "Delete" button which appears.

To delete all items either:

  • When viewing the browser history tap the "Clear History" button to remove all history items.
  • In the Files' settings, scroll down to "Web Browser" and tap "Privacy". Then tap "Clear History".

In both cases you'll be asked to confirm the action.

How do I download images and other files displayed in the browser?

File types which are displayed by the browser (images, html etc) are by default opened in the browser when you tap the link. To download these types you must tap and hold on the link, after a moment or two a popup alert will appear giving you the option to "Open", "Copy" or "Download" the link. Tap "Download" and the file should start downloading.

How do I download email attachments from my Yahoo email account?

  1. Enter m.yahoo.com into the Files' web browser address bar.
  2. Tap the mail link in the top right hand corner.
  3. Log in if necessary.
  4. Tap the email containing the attachment to open. Scroll down to the "Attachments" section and tap on the attachment you want.
  5. Tap the "Download" button and after a moment or two you should be presented with a popup containing the two options "Open" and "Download".
  6. Tap Download!

If you get a download called "login_verify2" or somesuch it just means your login has timed out and you need to start again.]

Email:

How do I set up Files to send email attachments?

Files uses the standard Mail interface and accounts to send attachments. If necessary please set up your Mail account in the iPhone's Settings application.

How do I import attachments from the Mail application?

To import attachments from Mail you use iOS's document sharing menu:

  1. Open the email message containing the attachment.
  2. Scroll down to the attachment icon, then tap and hold the icon until a menu appears.
  3. The menu will contain two document sharing "Open" items. One uses the "default" application for this file-type, the other "Open In..." item allows you to choose any of the compatible applications. If Files is not the default application then use the "Open In..." item and choose Files from the list of compatible applications.

Open In Menu

  1. Your attachment will be copied to Files and will appear in the "Imports" folder.

Note: images attachments are handled differently. You must first save the image to your "Camera Roll", then import the image from your "Camera Roll" to Files using the "Import Media" edit action in Files.

Pro Features Upgrade:

How do I upgrade from Files to Files Pro?

You can upgrade to the Pro features using an In-App purchase. These purchases can be found in the Files' settings under "Upgrades".

Privacy:

Privacy Policy

Our iOS apps use the standard App Store EULA provided by Apple: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula/

This permits developers to collect anonymous usage information (see section b).

Our apps collect anonymous data so that we can track usage. However we do not track any personal information or any data related to your personal use of the app (for example file names etc).

This is the data we collect:

Device version; iOS version; App version; Current language.

This information helps us determine things like when the is time right to drop older iOS versions and devices; how many active users we have; how widely used translations are etc.

The only data iOS developers receive from Apple are sales numbers, so additional, anonymous, data from active users is very useful and helps us improve our products.