Bidirectional Transfer of Files with PC or Mac

[olfab]

Hi forum,

I'm considering buying an iPad Pro 12.9 mainly for the following purpose: Transferring pdfs from a PC or Mac to the iPad, reading and commenting the pdfs on the iPad and transferring them back from the iPad to the PC or Mac. It has to be a direct transfer between PC/Mac and iPad. Using servers in between like iCloud is no option. My understanding is that I can transfer pdfs via iTunes running on a PC/Mac to an iPad, e.g. to iBooks, but not from an iPad back to the PC/Mac. How can I do this?

Are there any changes regarding this problem coming with iOS 11?

Best regards,
Oliver

 

[bensisko]

Hi forum,

I'm considering buying an iPad Pro 12.9 mainly for the following purpose: Transferring pdfs from a PC or Mac to the iPad, reading and commenting the pdfs on the iPad and transferring them back from the iPad to the PC or Mac. It has to be a direct transfer between PC/Mac and iPad. Using servers in between like iCloud is no option. My understanding is that I can transfer pdfs via iTunes running on a PC/Mac to an iPad, e.g. to iBooks, but not from an iPad back to the PC/Mac. How can I do this?

Are there any changes regarding this problem coming with iOS 11?

Best regards,
Oliver

You can absolutely transfer files back to your Mac/PC using the same method described (using iTunes).

 

[olfab]

You can absolutely transfer files back to your Mac/PC using the same method described (using iTunes).

I just managed to transfer a pdf from my laptop using iTunes to iBook on an iPhone by using drag an drop. But I didn't manage to get it back on the Laptop using drag an drop. How do you do this?

 

[bensisko]

I just managed to transfer a pdf from my laptop using iTunes to iBook on an iPhone by using drag an drop. But I didn't manage to get it back on the Laptop using drag an drop. How do you do this?

I don't have the details off-hand, but if you click on a file from the iTunes Browser window, there should be a "Save As" button in the lower-right allowing you to save it to your computer.

Check out the iTunes support article: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12318?locale=en_US

 

[olfab]

You are right. I can move files using iTunes back and forth to apps. But these files are exclusive accessible to these apps. But pdfs may only be moved to iBooks but not back. That is annoying. Especially, taking into account the pdf had no DRM.

Thanks for your help.

Are there going to be any changes in iOS 11?

 

[bensisko]

You are right. I can move files using iTunes back and forth to apps. But these files are exclusive accessible to these apps. But pdfs may only be moved to iBooks but not back. That is annoying. Especially, taking into account the pdf had no DRM.

Thanks for your help.

Are there going to be any changes in iOS 11?

Could you use another app? I use the Adobe Acrobat app to annotate PDFs.

I'm not positive, but I think iBooks adds DRM once you add it.

 

[Ledgem]

Use another app. I use a free (and fantastic) app called Documents, made by Readdle. It has annotation features for PDFs built-in. If you need more features, they also make PDF Expert. Purchasing that unlocks features within Documents related to PDF editing.

Where Documents is special for transferring files is that it has a mode in which it acts like a wireless drive. You can mount your iPad to your computer and drag and drop files around. I've never tried it with a Windows computer, but I'd imagine that it should work just as well. It will require that both your iPad and computer be on the same wireless network (I'm not sure if there's a wired option for this), but it works flawlessly.

If you don't want to use Documents' wireless drive feature, then you can use Airdrop to easily transfer files between your Mac and iPad. Unless your Mac is incredibly old and doesn't support Airdrop, this is generally the method I use for transferring files between my iPad and Mac. Unfortunately, Airdrop can't be used with a Windows computer.

 

[sorcery]

Other options being email or a lightning to USB flash drive such as:
https://www.amazon.com/Extended-Lig...502852885&sr=8-9&keywords=usb+lightning+drive

 

[ahostmadsen]

You can also use Goodreader. It's excellent for reading and marking up pdfs. It also has the ability to transfer back and forth directly with a computer. I don't know how well it works, since I do all my transfer using Dropbox.

 

[olfab]

Thank you for your great help!
I had a few deadlines this week and thus was not able to try out our your suggestions. Will do this soon.

But I am still wondering if iOS 11 will affect transferring pdfs between a PC/Mac and an iPad. Any thoughts on this?

Best regards,
Oliver

 

[Gav2k]

Thank you for your great help!
I had a few deadlines this week and thus was not able to try out our your suggestions. Will do this soon.

But I am still wondering if iOS 11 will affect transferring pdfs between a PC/Mac and an iPad. Any thoughts on this?

Best regards,
Oliver

Most will use the files app and iCloud to move the file as you then have an open choice of what app to use.

 

[Ledgem]

iOS 11 will introduce a Finder-like application to iOS, but as far as we know, there's no new methods of transferring files. Your options would still be to transfer to iCloud, as @Gav2k mentioned, or use AirDrop. It's not expected to have that "Wifi Drive" feature that Documents does.

The keynote should be held some time in September, so if you're holding out for something new, you can find out then. Otherwise, Documents is free and doesn't cost anything; I'd start using it now, and you can always change over to using Files (new in iOS 11) if it turns out to have additional file transfer capabilities.