Transfer file over cable from PC (no wifi)

[TimothyB]

A reporter needs to type a story on a laptop, and send it out from there, but there is no wifi or network available. She'll have her iPhone 3GS, and the sync cable.

Is there an app that will let her transfer a simple doc file to the iPhone so she can e-mail it using the cell network?

I've seen some apps mention mount the phone as a drive, but unclear if that means when over wifi.

 

[-aggie-]

There are apps to do this (I think docs2go might work), but another way might be just to change the extension of the document to a jpg and sync it from iTunes to your iPhone. From there just email it and then have the recipient change the extension back to the document one (i.e., .doc or whatever).

Edit: I was trying to think outside the box for a solution for you. Since I wasn't near my computer at the time, I wasn't able to test this on my PC. Anyway, you can't just drag it to the iPhone. You'd need to sync it with itunes. I think that'll work, but for me to test it, I'd have to do all my pics again. Try that. I tried changing it to an mp3, but iTunes seems to know it's not actually an mp3 and won't let it sync. Of course, if anyone has a better idea, feel free to chime in.

 

[TimothyB]

There are apps to do this (I think docs2go might work), but another way is just to change the extension of the document to a jpg and drag it to the camera roll. From there just email it and then have the recipient change the extension back to the documentt one.

Thanks. I just came across FileAid, free, which has a shareware DiskAid, that lets you transfer files over USB with its 14-day trial ($10), but not sure if FileAid, on the iPhone, lets you e-mail documents after that.

I'll look at docs2go. And I just went to try the camera roll thing, but the laptop she is using is Win XP, and that OS detects the iPhone as a digital camera, which opens straight to the photos from My Computer, and doesn't let you transfer or copy photos to it, only from it or delete. Very annoying. I know on Vista at home, it shows up as a drive, where I can browse to the photo folder. Maybe there is a better driver for XP so it doesn't install it as a camera?

 

[Kyeris]

You could always try to create an adhoc network with the laptop and iPhone and use one of the apps that allows sharing of files over wifi.

Haven't tried this however, not sure if it's possible or not.

 

[-aggie-]

Thanks. I just came across FileAid, free, which has a shareware DiskAid, that lets you transfer files over USB with its 14-day trial ($10), but not sure if FileAid, on the iPhone, lets you e-mail documents after that.

I'll look at docs2go. And I just went to try the camera roll thing, but the laptop she is using is Win XP, and that OS detects the iPhone as a digital camera, which opens straight to the photos from My Computer, and doesn't let you transfer or copy photos to it, only from it or delete. Very annoying. I know on Vista at home, it shows up as a drive, where I can browse to the photo folder. Maybe there is a better driver for XP so it doesn't install it as a camera?

See my edit above. Try that.

 

[TimothyB]

Thanks again. She did install iTunes on the work laptop, as it was needed for the DiskAid/FileAid she said. Though, she tested that software and it did the job. So I don't think I'll look into syncing her iPhone with a work computer. Last time I did that myself, with a new computer at home, even after I moved all my apps from the old PC to the new, authorized, then when syncing the iPhone and authorizing anything that popped up, it still ended up uninstalling all the apps without asking.

 

[-aggie-]

Thanks again. She did install iTunes on the work laptop, as it was needed for the DiskAid/FileAid she said. Though, she tested that software and it did the job. So I don't think I'll look into syncing her iPhone with a work computer. Last time I did that myself, with a new computer at home, even after I moved all my apps from the old PC to the new, authorized, then when syncing the iPhone and authorizing anything that popped up, it still ended up uninstalling all the apps without asking.

Nevermind trying what I proposed. I got it onto the camera roll using iphonebrowser (freeware program that allows you to access the sandbox), but once there, the iPhone doesn't recognize it, since it's not actually a jpg file. It said I had 56 camera roll pics, but when I went to the camera roll, there were only 55 pics. I also had looked on here for any posts on this, and it had been discussed, but no one ever figured out how to do it. So, docs2go or quickoffice are probably your routes to do this or some other app that was proposed above.

 

[-aggie-]

Thanks. I just came across FileAid, free, which has a shareware DiskAid, that lets you transfer files over USB with its 14-day trial ($10), but not sure if FileAid, on the iPhone, lets you e-mail documents after that.

I'll look at docs2go. And I just went to try the camera roll thing, but the laptop she is using is Win XP, and that OS detects the iPhone as a digital camera, which opens straight to the photos from My Computer, and doesn't let you transfer or copy photos to it, only from it or delete. Very annoying. I know on Vista at home, it shows up as a drive, where I can browse to the photo folder. Maybe there is a better driver for XP so it doesn't install it as a camera?

I looked into FileAid for you. I downloaded DiskAid and FileAid, and all it seems to let you do is look at the files on your iPhone. There's no way I can see to get them to your email app.

Since you brought all this up, I decided to see what needed to be done. I'm definitely seeing how much a PITA they've made the iPhone for business use. They need to give us more flexibility.

Edit: I also remembered talking about this issue some time back, so I looked for posts from me and found this. We talked about Docs 2 Go, which looks like the one that may work for you. I also don't have MobileMe, but that might have something, not sure.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/740500/