Files Reviews

by Viperheadman

After using Files to backup photos and videos on external hand drive, my previous backups started to disappear from the hard drive. This happened multiple times, especially when using the multitasking feature with the split screen between this app app and Photos App. All of a sudden all the this app in a folder disappear. The folder is there but there are 0 riles. This issue has been there for a long time. Why hasn’t it been addressed? I lost close to 1TR of videos in a split second.

by Wags McDads

To preface, I have dedicated fiber internet with 1bps up and down, with a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system that gives me consistent 650mbps speed test results.

That being said, why is it an absolute nightmare to download ANYTHING from my iCloud Drive through the this app app? Just a vicious cycle of never-ending spinning circles and irretrievable this app. It’s taking me at least 5 minutes to download a 25MB file, which it totally unacceptable. Unless it exists on local storage, there’s no chance that I’m able to access them in a reasonable amount of time. The issue is on both my iPad Pro (2020) and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

I’m glad that Apple finally began allowing reviews on their native apps, because hopefully it’ll light a fire under them to work towards actually improving their services instead of doling out the same half-baked, not well-thought out apps year after year.

by Wetfrog

Love & hate relationship. Yes, finally Apple got their act together and created a file management app BUT it STILL is very limited. My biggest gripe is the backward way of doing things just because Apple must be different. Even though its weird, uncommon or just frustrating… like not show file extension! Oh sure you can click on file, bring up menu then click info…really! Several clicks just to find out what the file is? For work this is a huge pain and just plain idiotic. I tend to have folders with multiples of same file but different types, exp. Txt, docx,pdf. So clicy, colicky to just find one dang version. Like i have time to sit around clicking. this app is just to limited and idiotically frustrating to use….and don’t get me started with its frustrating lack of complete synergy with other cloud services like OneDrive, what a pain.

by Pember071

For the iPad Pro, a $1000 device, Apple seriously needs to step it up with the this app app. They've continuously chosen not to include basic features on the management app that Macs and all computers have. It was only on the latest major software update that we got the ability to view the progress status of a transfer, a most basic function.

A few of the highly-requested basic features needed on the this app app:
- Ability to eject external drives and format them
- Ability to edit documents (such as TextEdit or Pages) on iCloud Drive that were created on a Mac.
- Ability to view media (photos, videos) directly from an external drive on the this app app. And/or, let users directly transfer media from an external drive to a folder like iCloud Drive, to view on another device, and to the iPad's Photos app, to view there as a slide show for instance.
- Option to see file extensions and hidden this app
- A way to undo actions, such as moving a file, overwriting or replacing a file, etc.
- Support for all and older media this app, so we don't have to download other media-viewing apps like VLC to be able to view old media on external drives

by HondaBoy619

I use my iPhone for filming on filmic pro and dump my footage onto my external drive on both my iPhone and iPad. Every time I delete a video file (and yes it’s deleted out of recently deleted), it still takes the space! I have to uninstall and reinstall Files to literally clear the “cache”. This is throughout the entire OS. It will do the same thing to 3rd party apps that utilize the this app system. We’ve had this app since what iOS 13 and it Files STILL has not been fixed. This is embarrassing on apple’s part. Other than it literally not working like it should, I can’t see file transfer speeds, even how far along my transfers are, etc. It just doesn’t show. I don’t even rarely know when a video file is actually copying. Like seriously??

by Shortcourtc

For the iPad, I solely use the this app app for annotating documents, sometimes spending hours on a single one. I’m diligent about saving after each annotation (I have been burned in the past) to no avail. Every time I close Files , there’s no telling if my annotations will be there the next time it’s opened and it is incredibly frustrating. I even contacted Apple support about the issue who told me to delete Files and redownload it (didn’t work either!) Sadly, this isn’t Files for anyone who wants to annotate PDF or PPT docs and access their annotations 5 minutes later. Very disappointing Apple!

by 真有feel

It always deletes the this app that I’ve downloaded prepared for offline viewing. What’s worse, there’s no way to turn it off. TRASH! TRASH! TRASH! I did a lot of mark on my math assignment in the this app app, and it just doesn’t automatically save, which means I have to always tap that ‘done’ bottom to turn it off and enter again just to insure my work isn’t deleted by YOU Apple! this app is VERY buggy and way worse than Windows products. If we are still in 2017, I would say, emm, it’s a good app. However, it’s now already 2022 and this thing have just been upgraded a tiny little bit!

by GuyWithThePie

I set up Files to be connected to my Dropbox and Google Drive apps so I can easily select the direct this app from them when uploading images and the like. When it works, it works like a charm, but when it doesn't it's a nightmare.

One second I'll be posting images from Dropbox, the next nothing will load anymore for no reason. I go back to the main screen and select the Dropbox option, and nothing happens. It just stays highlighted forever until I select something else. I enable and disable Dropbox but it doesn't work.

The only solution is to either restart my phone or delete the Dropbox app and reinstall it, both of which are tedious and annoying to do. This happens at least once every day, and every time it's extremely annoying. I just don't understand why.

by Kingofzombies

For all the far fetched claims from Apple that the iPad can replace a laptop you would think it would have a basic working finder/file system. Quicklook doesn't work with the apple keyboard. I can't go to the next image or file with the keyboard arrow keys. Basic info like pixel dimensions is available but needs to be drilled down to in a menu. Image thumbnails only have one size. You can have two open file windows next each other now. But on a laptop I can have three, I can have thirty open on the same screen. What wizardry that somehow eludes the ipad with the same cpu as a mac! I'm looking forward to the day the iPad has the basic functionalities of a real computer, hopefully that day will be not be in another five years!

by Alag145

As much as I love the interface of Files and its features and the new features added, as well as the ease of use, the problems that pop up, make me want to not use it. The biggest issue is with this app just not saving, same thing with annotations, it all looks fine, until I close out and they are missing, having for me to re-annotate. this app app also keeps duplicating this app as well. Things may take forever to load, even if they are small documents. I also really wish there was a save button or a progress text where it will say if the file saved and at what time. So i have now switched to OneDrive app as i need the reliability for my this app to save.

by Steventechno

This software is very temperamental and has been broken for awhile. Hangs too much, limited UI , makes file management a pain when hardly anything functions at the core level. Why is “Move” really just “Copy To” instead of actually moving this app to and from directories.

Too many issues makes this worth using. You’d think as a first party App, it’d be well rounded, but it’s oh, so jaggy. It was functional before it broke later in I OS14’s lifetime.

by GnomeRocks

I hate how the audio player only shows you the amount of time the song has played and how much is remaining when you touch or scroll the waveform. This information should always be shown. I’d like if you could tell it to just play through all the songs in a directory one after the other or use forward and back buttons to switch to the next or precious song. I also wish you could select multiple this app to move to another directory.

by Rtyh7895

I almost always use file app to annotate pdf. I wish there is option ‘go to page’ because I often read textbook pdf with more than 1,000 pages. At the moment I have to scroll down manually to the 800th page! Doing so cause Files to crash very often, maybe because the size of the file is big. Thanks!

by Slangshur

sometimes I click the wrong file to download from the cloud, and I don’t want to have one file taking 2 gb of space on my phone, but now the only way to remove it from my phone is to delete the file entirely. please change this? much appreciation.

by CaptainEffort

While Files is perfectly serviceable on an iphone, it’s far too barebones for an ipad. Considering that Apple has been trying to show off the ipad as a stand-in for a laptop, Files is too limiting to replace finder in any capacity. There are still tasks that are literally impossible to execute without an actual computer, which is a shame.

It’s close, but the iPad this app app desperately needs to be upgraded to be on par with finder. At least if Apple is going to continue pushing for the iPad to be a laptop substitute.

by MattMcAdams

I’d love to stick to the default file manager over some third party app, but in its current state its extremely limited.

On performance, it would be good to have a syncing indicator and a way to manually sync this app - especially for third party storage like google drive. File previews are touch and go, sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t or they take forever to load - even on good internet.

Features seem lacking as well, especially for power users. I’d like a similar experience to finder on Mac. Being able to see file extensions, hidden this app, etc would be nice too. File management feels pretty clunky, but I suspect that’s a side effect of being on iOS rather than the this app app itself, but it would be helpful if it were a bit more intuitive and snappy.

by 1500ram98

I mean it’s a good app but the only thing I don’t like about it is say you go to a certain site and download things even if you delete it off your phone it’s still in the this app app it would make it a lot better if they made it to where you could lock Files so not just anyone can get in it and see things on your phone that you don’t want other ppl to see or have business seeing

by Mg5thAve

I enjoy using Files and it has a lot of great features (like document scanning), however, lately I have not been able to to view this app in my Samba shares which have previously always worked. My NAS servers are running fine and other devices are able to connect and view this app over SSH, SFTP, and SMB, though Files has stopped displaying this app after connecting to the share. This was a great feature to connect my iOS devices to my Linux machines, so please fix. Thanks!

by MelissaEMY

I really like Files, it’s great for quick viewing and handling different this app. Only problem i’ve been having is that in the recent updates there is a side bar added to the left showing a thumbnail for each page which is not only almost useless but also it takes too much space. I wish it’s either removed or hides when I tap the screen.

by Evan T. Bee

I love this app in association with finder on macOS but some features I’d like to see added would be editing scanned docs with text and sketching on them. Because these features are lacking I have to use OneDrive. I’d gladly pay for iCloud drives family plan if I could solely stick to it but it’s features are slightly lacking

by Techadopter

this app should be awesome but it’s not.

It should be available via the share menu 💯 of the time. It’s not but google drive is. Weak.

It should be easy for non Mac users to access. It’s not. Weaker than Dropbox, box, google drive. Weak.

It features the ability to tag documents. But you can’t see tags. Weak.

It hordes tons of indecipherable documents with no ability to identify or delete them. Weak.

It’s expensive and limited memory options. 2 TB of data is fine for a moderate user but definitely not enough for small business. Weak.

by Joshua Azu

‼️External Drive Users Beware‼️

The this app app is full of bugs, my biggest complaints: this app corrupting my this app that I transfer to an external drive, and on other occasions Files transfers the this app to the external drive but later nothing shows transferred. This is unacceptable, disappointing, and I will be looking for better software.

by LinoYeen

If you got a large file it will lock up your phone anything above 10GB it seems to do this. You’ll have to reboot to have everything working properly again. Especially the keyboard that just stops responding. I was only moving video this app from network to this device ( iPhone 13 ).

by John Dookie

I’ve been using Files to backup photos from an SD card to an external ssd. After copying everything to a folder, this app says the folder is empty. It makes the idea of using the iPad as a travel laptop useless.

by C'mon John!

It was a relief when Apple finally gave us a file explorer. Unfortunately years later it’s still buggy. Even copying a ~1GB file crashes Files even before pasting it. It’s one of the reasons the iPad has years to go before even being considered a computer replacement.

by M Icloud

The this app app doesn't offer a way to offload this app from iCloud Drive!!! They take a lot of storage from our devices or at least offer a way to download it once and offload after certain time.

by Aaaah0000

It’s okay and does give me ability to look at my Google drive. But it’s a mess of a UI. Also uploading this app to my Google drive through the this app app is a hassle

by Sher1264

I use to be able to move my this app but can no longer do so. It tells me to pick a different location other than my Seagate Portable Hard Drive to move my downloaded videos to. Is this an iOS incompatibility issue?

by ActionJacksonTheMainAttraction

Another poor application of the Grid View from Apple. It should not be the default view. Grid views are great for photos, but terrible for finding and browsing this app. Please make the list view the default and allow the ability to shrink the text size with reasonable defaults.

by IGarni

I can’t access my this app on my iMac on the same network from Files but I can do it from 3rd party app !!

by DoublyDoodads

Still needs a lot of work.

by Kpozan

I just don’t seem to get as many results. It doesn’t appear to search for results inside this app—only the titles.

by Amethy Rose Nelson

I’m so disappointed that sometimes, when I clicked an audio clip, (WAV) it loads, it gives me a Microsoft Sound text and my GarageBand stops working, (it doesn’t make a sound when I click any key!) Please, this app needs an update, NOW!! 😥

by Sporco Fantasma

Good enough for a phone app.

It’s not clear to me why should I be limited to copying this app (between phone storage/iCloud) when moving them should be easily possible.

Besides there is no option to copy this app to/from iTunes on a PC! It’s a file manager guys!!

Integrating this app more and more in menus would be a great improvement as well.

by Airic

Would love to see more widget options for favorites or app folders.

Needs Messages app for attachments and sharing.