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How to use iPhone as portable hard drive

S

sepandee

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
173
0
I was about to buy a USB flash drive when I thought that perhaps I can use my jailbroken iPhone as one instead. I have a MAC but need to access the files that I put on my iPhone on public computers (library), both PC and MAC (if it has to be only one, that's fine). And the files are mostly documents (.pdf, .rtf, .docx, stuff like that).

Thanks.
 
I may be wrong, but the only apps I've seen that do that work over wifi, not USB. Which is great at home, but then you're out of luck at the library computer if you're trying to get the files back off the phone!

Here's a better idea. Get Dropbox (2 GB is free, you can pay for more.)

http://www.getdropbox.com

You have several ways to use it:

1) When you instal it on your Mac it creates a folder on your Mac that syncs with your online folder. Put something in that folder and it's suddenly online.

2) Make a home-screen bookmark to the website on your iPhone. It's formated for the iPhone so it's kind of like having an app. You can view your files on your phone that way.

3) Go to their website on public computers, log in, and download or upload any files you need, then log out.


You can also put files in the 'Public' folder, right-click them on your Mac, and select the "Dropbox" menu option to get the URL for sharing the file with people that way.

I've been very happy with it.
 
Reclaim3r said:
I second Dropbox...

If do end up getting Dropbox... use this link. We both get extra space if you do.
Click to expand...

Done! But I still want to use my iPhone like a USB flash drive on any computer. Looks like it's too difficult. Guess I'll just buy a cheap USB flash drive.
 
sepandee said:
Nah. It's not free. And I probably need to install the program on any computer I want to transfer data to or from my iPhone. I just want a simple drag and drop solution (like SSHing into your iPhone, but even simpler since a public computer won't have a FTP/SFTP client installed on it).
Click to expand...

FileAid is the closest thing I've found, but it only gets the files onto your iPhone via USB. I don't think you could get them to another computer easily.
 
QCassidy352 said:
Many of us would love this. It's been possible with ipods since day one, but apple doesn't allow it on the iphone. I really can't figure out why.
Click to expand...

Because other ipods effectively shut down when they dock, to let the pc entirely control the flash. Iphone/touch keep OS running and processing, largely probably because of it being designed as a phone first, has to be able to deal with incoming calls etc whilst connected still, so they can't do that, and communcation is via teh iphone os, not direct to flash.
 
Use i-Funbox (http://www.i-funbox.com/) or iphonebrowser to quickly transfer files to and from iphone via USB. Both are free. and you don't even need to JB (but if you do, you get lot more flexibility)
 
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