iPad Files App lost functionality

[jesterengland]

One of the original issues I had with the files app in IOS12 was that with iCloud Drive you could download files but you couldn’t then removed them from local storage.

I was really happy to see in the beta of iPad OS this had been resolved as you could pin folders and and also remove downloads without actually deleting the file itself. This meant I could force certain folders to remain offline always but if they started taking up too much space I could free it up or if I didn’t need them for a while.

I’m really dismayed to see this functionality has been removed from the later versions of the OS. Am I missing something here? Has it been moved? I can’t see a possible reason for Apple to do this. It was one of the biggest features which made the Files system more usable for me.

 

[canesalato]

It was super unstable and many people had serious data corruption/loss.
So they removed it for now.

 

[oldmacs]

iPad OS continues to disappoint me... in the betas you could also download whole folders instead of just files which made it actually usable, but the final release is back to near uselessness for me.

Even worse, for Christmas I got the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adaptor, was so excited to be able to access my external hard drives until I connected it up to find that none of them read... all my external HDDs are encrypted, for the safety of the data and iPadOS can’t read encrypted HDDs. What a bloody massive letdown.

 

[jesterengland]

I totally agree. I’m really disappointed. On the beta I was basically at the point where my iPad could replace my laptop. The ability to download whole folders made such a difference. Can’t even now see a way to remove files I have actually downloaded. It’s hardly file management at all! Just can’t understand how they can‘t implement something so basic. Surely there must be other people out there who want this too.

 

[4492865]

It might come back in the spring, together with folder sharing.

 

[oldmacs]

I totally agree. I’m really disappointed. On the beta I was basically at the point where my iPad could replace my laptop. The ability to download whole folders made such a difference. Can’t even now see a way to remove files I have actually downloaded. It’s hardly file management at all! Just can’t understand how they can‘t implement something so basic. Surely there must be other people out there who want this too.

It is such a disappointment :/

 

[cynics]

One of the original issues I had with the files app in IOS12 was that with iCloud Drive you could download files but you couldn’t then removed them from local storage.

I was really happy to see in the beta of iPad OS this had been resolved as you could pin folders and and also remove downloads without actually deleting the file itself. This meant I could force certain folders to remain offline always but if they started taking up too much space I could free it up or if I didn’t need them for a while.

I’m really dismayed to see this functionality has been removed from the later versions of the OS. Am I missing something here? Has it been moved? I can’t see a possible reason for Apple to do this. It was one of the biggest features which made the Files system more usable for me.

You are probably more educated in this topic than I am but can't you just move the file/folder to the "on my..." tab?

 

[jesterengland]

It might come back in the spring, together with folder sharing.

Ah really? What makes you think thats have you heard something?

 

[4492865]

Ah really? What makes you think thats have you heard something?

Yes, it was confirmed by Apple that folder sharing will come in the spring, and since this functionality was removed together with the offline feature in one of the betas, I think it might be possible that offline downloads will come back as well.

 

[jesterengland]

Yes, it was confirmed by Apple that folder sharing will come in the spring, and since this functionality was removed together with the offline feature in one of the betas, I think it might be possible that offline downloads will come back as well.

That’s really interesting. Thanks for the info. I really hope so!
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You are probably more educated in this topic than I am but can't you just move the file/folder to the "on my..." tab?

Your right you can do that. But it does mean that any changes you make within that folder are then not synced with icloud as well .