Files is a file management app developed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

for devices that run iOS 11 and later releases of

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and devices that run

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product l ...

. Discovered as a placeholder title in the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

just prior to the company's 2017,

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...

, the app was officially announced at the conference shortly thereafter. Files allows users to browse local files stored within apps, as well as files stored in cloud storage services, including

iCloud iCloud is a cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016. iCloud enables users to sync their data to the cloud, inclu ...

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...

Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In add ...

, and

OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft. First launched in August 2007, it enables registered users to share and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web vers ...

. It allows for the saving, opening and organization of files, including placement into structured folders and sub-folders.

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

s are able to drag-and-drop files between Files and other apps, while iPhone users are limited to drag-and-drop inside Files itself. Further organization can be done through the use of color-coded or custom-named tags, and a persistent search bar allows for finding files inside folders, though not inside other apps. A list view enables different sorting options. The app offers the exclusive playback of high-quality

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...

audio files, and also offers support for viewing

text file A text file (sometimes spelled textfile; an old alternative name is flatfile) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system. In operating ...

s, images, "Music Memos", and Zip archives, as well as limited support for video.

History

Hours before Apple's June 5, 2017

, developer Steve Troughton-Smith discovered a placeholder title in the

for a "Files" app, requiring iOS 11. Apple officially announced the app at its conference shortly thereafter.

Features

Files allows users to browse local files stored within apps, as well as files stored on

cloud storage Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations), and the physical environment is t ...

services including

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

, and more. Users are able to save, open, and organize files, including placing files into structured folders and sub-folders. On the

, users can drag-and-drop files between the Files app and other apps, but on the iPhone the functionality is limited only to inside each respective app. Users can add colored and custom-named tags to files, adding them to a dedicated "Tags" section. A persistent search bar at the top enables finding files inside sub-folders, though it doesn't search within other apps. A list view enables optional sorting according to size or date. Upon long-pressing a file, the app offers several options, including "Copy", "Rename", "Move", "Share", "Tags", "Info", and "Delete". Files stored on third-party services can be copied to the device for offline access. iCloud Sharing is brought out from Apple's dedicated

iWork iWork is an office suite of applications created by Apple Inc. for its macOS and iOS operating systems, and also available cross-platform through the iCloud website. It includes the presentation application Keynote, the word processing and ...

apps to become a standardized feature across the operating system, enabling the sharing of any file in Files; the dedicated "iCloud Drive" app is removed, replaced by Files, with iCloud available as one of the cloud storage providers users can connect the app to.. A built-in player inside the Files app allows for the playback of high-quality

audio files. The app also supports the viewing and extraction of Zip archives. If no compatible app is installed, Files allows for the viewing of

s, and experiments in watching videos in AVI or MOV formats have shown limited, but partially successful, results. Images and "Music Memo" files can also be previewed and played.

References

External links

iOS 11 Files App Tour - YouTube
{{IOS File managers IOS iOS software 2017 software iPadOS software IOS-based software made by Apple Inc.

History

Features

See also

References

External links