Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
2,276
760
Rather than sync through a desktop, is it reliable for me to just move entire folders from Dropbox to Google Drive and OneDrive through the Files app directly on my iPhone? I heard stories of duplicated files or corrupt files carrying over.
 

gwhizkids

macrumors G4
Jun 21, 2013
11,831
18,683
At this point (assuming you are using the iOS 13 beta as you are posting in the iOS 13 section) I would not try anything like that. The Files app will be massively improved when fully released, but right now its kind of wonky. Searches aren't working right, it crashes from time to time, etc... I'd worry that it could mess up both ends of that transfer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StevenRCE0

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
I second ghwizkid's note of caution. I've been doing some neat things with Files (copying a video file straight of my NAS and into VLC's sandbox!) but it has been unreliable and there's one whole folder on my NAS it just refuses to read now after attempting to copy from it.
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2014
98
62
OneDrive from the files app and from 3rd party apps (I mean, every app except OneDrive itself) appears as read-only. Do you also have this issue?
 

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
OneDrive from the files app and from 3rd party apps (I mean, every app except OneDrive itself) appears as read-only. Do you also have this issue?

What do you mean by "appears as read-only"? How are you identifying whether a target is read only?

There are issues with copy and paste in as much as drag and drop and long press -> copy, long press -> paste are very unreliable.
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2014
98
62
What do you mean by "appears as read-only"? How are you identifying whether a target is read only?

There are issues with copy and paste in as much as drag and drop and long press -> copy, long press -> paste are very unreliable.

This, and this is what happens trying to modify a file
 

Attachments

  • 40A81FED-AE43-471A-951C-FD0083A17CBB.jpeg
    40A81FED-AE43-471A-951C-FD0083A17CBB.jpeg
    576.6 KB · Views: 180
  • CEAED0EF-B93B-4D1C-AFEF-4D4E90F64A97.jpeg
    CEAED0EF-B93B-4D1C-AFEF-4D4E90F64A97.jpeg
    926.3 KB · Views: 191
Last edited:

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
This, and this is what happens trying to modify a file

That's a bit clearer. I've definitely never seen that "Read-only" thing. Not on One-Drive (either my corporate account or my personal account). Can you describe the process you go through to get here? For instance what app you may be using to modify/save a file?
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2014
98
62
That's a bit clearer. I've definitely never seen that "Read-only" thing. Not on One-Drive (either my corporate account or my personal account). Can you describe the process you go through to get here? For instance what app you may be using to modify/save a file?

I’m testing so far PDF viewer and just the apple app (opening just the file through the files app). iCloud is the only one that successfully uploads and updates the changes between both apps with no issues. In dropbox, google drive and OneNote, the changes are not actually being saved in the pdf file, even if only OneDrive shows the “read-only” in the root of the filesystem (so maybe the read-only just means you can’t add new folders in the root). Mega is not even loading the files.
Tested in my iPhone and changes are sync with no issue.
Opening a pdf file through the OneDrive app and marking it there, it uploads correctly. So the apple files app is broken or just all the other apps need to be updated...
So weird i’m The only one reporting this issue.
 

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
I’m testing so far PDF viewer and just the apple app (opening just the file through the files app). iCloud is the only one that successfully uploads and updates the changes between both apps with no issues. In dropbox, google drive and OneNote, the changes are not actually being saved in the pdf file, even if only OneDrive shows the “read-only” in the root of the filesystem (so maybe the read-only just means you can’t add new folders in the root). Mega is not even loading the files.
Tested in my iPhone and changes are sync with no issue.
Opening a pdf file through the OneDrive app and marking it there, it uploads correctly. So the apple files app is broken or just all the other apps need to be updated...
So weird i’m The only one reporting this issue.

Ok. Lot of things going on this post. I'm still not sure what to test here. I am really happy to test and report an issue if I understand it though. Please lay it out like the following

- I open a file <in X app> from <Y source>
- I modify it by doing <Z action>
- I try to save it to <Gamma destination>

If you can form the simplest possible use case where you see bad behavior we can go from there.
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2014
98
62
Ok. Lot of things going on this post. I'm still not sure what to test here. I am really happy to test and report an issue if I understand it though. Please lay it out like the following

- I open a file <in X app> from <Y source>
- I modify it by doing <Z action>
- I try to save it to <Gamma destination>

If you can form the simplest possible use case where you see bad behavior we can go from there.

Ok, i’ll Tell you the simplest case scenario, how it works in my iPhone X with the latest stable iOS 12 version, and how it works in my iPad 10.5 pro with the latest ios13 (IpadOS) beta 2 version:

- I open a pdf file in the files app in my iPhone X from OneDrive.
- I modify the file by using the mark up tool from the default app that apple files app uses to open the pdf
- i just press back and in the iPhone, the changes are automatically saved and uploaded to the cloud (in any cloud), but my iPad does not save the changes (except for iCloud).

The same happens if trying to modify the pdf with pdf viewer for example, the changes in the pdf are not saved back to the cloud, and from the iPhone there’s no issue.
However, i found that i can create new files (new pdf file from pdf viewer for example) and the new file shows up, but again you can’t modify it.

So the issue seems to be synchronising changes made to already existing files in other cloud other than iCloud in the beta. Right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Feenician

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
Ok, i’ll Tell you the simplest case scenario, how it works in my iPhone X with the latest stable iOS 12 version, and how it works in my iPad 10.5 pro with the latest ios13 (IpadOS) beta 2 version:

- I open a pdf file in the files app in my iPhone X from OneDrive.
- I modify the file by using the mark up tool from the default app that apple files app uses to open the pdf
- i just press back and in the iPhone, the changes are automatically saved and uploaded to the cloud (in any cloud), but my iPad does not save the changes (except for iCloud).

The same happens if trying to modify the pdf with pdf viewer for example, the changes in the pdf are not saved back to the cloud, and from the iPhone there’s no issue.
However, i found that i can create new files (new pdf file from pdf viewer for example) and the new file shows up, but again you can’t modify it.

So the issue seems to be synchronising changes made to already existing files in other cloud other than iCloud in the beta. Right?

Thank you so much for clarifying this. I've spent some time and been able to reproduce at least part of the issue, but only for OneDrive. On My iPad, iCloud Drive and WD MyCloud providers all this worked fine. I was able to save a PDF, go to Files and use Markup and it was reflected on all my devices. For OneDrive I saw that weird red dash icon for a few seconds then my markup changes were not saved. I'll write up a report for this now.

I still haven't been able to see/reproduce the "read-only" thing you see.
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2014
98
62
Thank you so much for clarifying this. I've spent some time and been able to reproduce at least part of the issue, but only for OneDrive. On My iPad, iCloud Drive and WD MyCloud providers all this worked fine. I was able to save a PDF, go to Files and use Markup and it was reflected on all my devices. For OneDrive I saw that weird red dash icon for a few seconds then my markup changes were not saved. I'll write up a report for this now.

I still haven't been able to see/reproduce the "read-only" thing you see.

The read-only message is just showing in the root of OneDrive and OneDrive for business, inside the directories it’s not showing anymore. But even in the root, in iOS 12 (iPhone) is not showing the message...

It’s very weird, i’m Further checking, and new documents created in pdfviewer do update in Dropbox, and the changes are saved, both from pdfviewer and from the apple markup in files (pdfviewer can’t see the markups and shows them as a black square though).
In Google drive, the pdf file is being created and the changes made in pdfviewer are visible from pdfviewer, but not from the files app.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Feenician

Feenician

macrumors 603
Jun 13, 2016
5,313
5,100
The read-only message is just showing in the root of OneDrive and OneDrive for business, inside the directories it’s not showing anymore. But even in the root, in iOS 12 (iPhone) is not showing the message...

It’s very weird, i’m Further checking, and new documents created in pdfviewer do update in Dropbox, and the changes are saved, both from pdfviewer and from the apple markup in files (pdfviewer can’t see the markups and shows them as a black square though).
In Google drive, the pdf file is being created and the changes made in pdfviewer are visible from pdfviewer, but not from the files app.

Try to specify a case for each individual issue and put it in Feedback. Try to reproduce the sequence a couple of times then report it. Real people read these and they want things to work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: juanmaasecas
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.