Hello, I assume like many other people out there, I've been trying to move from a MacBook Air to an iPad Pro as my primary work machine for a couple years now.
With last years release of MacOS Catalina, iOS 13 and the Files app update, it brought me one step closer.
I don't do any high powered stuff like video editing, photoshop, number crunching etc. I primarily do email, web browser input, web research and web reading (sometimes with 100+ tabs in 3-4 browsers open,) and A LOT of file work: PDF importing / PDF manipulation / PDF exporting, Excel, Word, etc.
What appears to be the final issue with the iPad Pro becoming my MacBook replacement is MacOS to iPadOS (and vice versa) file management and file syncing.
I've been using a Mac so long that everything is like second nature to me. Keyboard commands, app switching, file manipulation.
All of my files (and all file types) are organized in client folders, much like you would store physical client papers in manila folders on your desktop and in a file cabinet. Each client I work with can create a folder with tens to hundreds of files. I use spotlight constantly to find files that could be one day to 10 years old and it works great.
Now the question.
When I want to move files from the Mac to the iPad, there is this very unwieldy method of file transfer, even after the MacOS Catalina and iPadOS 13 updates. I have to drop everything in some folder associated with an app, such as Microsoft Word. And then once on the iPad move them around in the Files app to make the iPad file system look like what I'm familiar with on my Mac.
Is there a better way to transfer, setup and manage files on my iPad, and then keep them synced with my Mac that I'm missing? Does an iPad backup/sync to the Mac save all iPad files somewhere that I don't know about?
Once on the iPad, how do I make sure the files stay synced with the Mac? Since I cannot see the iPad folders on the Mac (that I know of) how is this possible? I envision after using the iPad for a month as my primary work machine I will have a ton of files on the iPad and not know what is on the Mac, and I cannot spend hours manually moving files over. I foresee a big mess of unorganized and unsynced files which is the complete opposite of what I have on my Mac; a totally organized file system that I've had for years.
For years, I have chosen not to store any files on the web due to client privacy and security issues. All files are on one MacBook with a FileVault 2 encrypted hard drive and their associated FV2 encrypted backups.
Am I missing a golden opportunity to solve my problem here? Should I use (for example) Dropbox with HIPAA compliance to store everything and not worry about hackers or data breaches? Would having files on the web solve all these file issues? This is not the solution I want, I want to keep everything on my personal machines. But I'm looking for answers.
I know that iPadOS 14 may also solve these issues, but that wont be for 6+ months at the earliest.
Anyone have a similar problem or better yet a solution or suggestion?
Thanks for any replies.
With last years release of MacOS Catalina, iOS 13 and the Files app update, it brought me one step closer.
I don't do any high powered stuff like video editing, photoshop, number crunching etc. I primarily do email, web browser input, web research and web reading (sometimes with 100+ tabs in 3-4 browsers open,) and A LOT of file work: PDF importing / PDF manipulation / PDF exporting, Excel, Word, etc.
What appears to be the final issue with the iPad Pro becoming my MacBook replacement is MacOS to iPadOS (and vice versa) file management and file syncing.
I've been using a Mac so long that everything is like second nature to me. Keyboard commands, app switching, file manipulation.
All of my files (and all file types) are organized in client folders, much like you would store physical client papers in manila folders on your desktop and in a file cabinet. Each client I work with can create a folder with tens to hundreds of files. I use spotlight constantly to find files that could be one day to 10 years old and it works great.
Now the question.
When I want to move files from the Mac to the iPad, there is this very unwieldy method of file transfer, even after the MacOS Catalina and iPadOS 13 updates. I have to drop everything in some folder associated with an app, such as Microsoft Word. And then once on the iPad move them around in the Files app to make the iPad file system look like what I'm familiar with on my Mac.
Is there a better way to transfer, setup and manage files on my iPad, and then keep them synced with my Mac that I'm missing? Does an iPad backup/sync to the Mac save all iPad files somewhere that I don't know about?
Once on the iPad, how do I make sure the files stay synced with the Mac? Since I cannot see the iPad folders on the Mac (that I know of) how is this possible? I envision after using the iPad for a month as my primary work machine I will have a ton of files on the iPad and not know what is on the Mac, and I cannot spend hours manually moving files over. I foresee a big mess of unorganized and unsynced files which is the complete opposite of what I have on my Mac; a totally organized file system that I've had for years.
For years, I have chosen not to store any files on the web due to client privacy and security issues. All files are on one MacBook with a FileVault 2 encrypted hard drive and their associated FV2 encrypted backups.
Am I missing a golden opportunity to solve my problem here? Should I use (for example) Dropbox with HIPAA compliance to store everything and not worry about hackers or data breaches? Would having files on the web solve all these file issues? This is not the solution I want, I want to keep everything on my personal machines. But I'm looking for answers.
I know that iPadOS 14 may also solve these issues, but that wont be for 6+ months at the earliest.
Anyone have a similar problem or better yet a solution or suggestion?
Thanks for any replies.
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