Unlock the Secrets of the Files App: 10 Pro Tips for Apples Insanely Powerful Program

Apple has included the Files app now for several years and it got better and better with even more powerful capabilities over the years.
They now have included a lot of the advanced functions you'll find in the Mac Finder as well as the very powerful Preview app.
CONTENT
In this video we will go through these 10 power features:
0:00 INTRO
00:44 OVERVIEW
01:53 1. SHARING vs LINKING
05:48 2. PDF EDITING
10:13 3. ADVANCED SEARCH
10:53 4. SELECTING MULTIPLE OBJECTS
11:19 5. CONTEXT MENU
12:25 6. SCANNING
12:50 7. CONNECTING A SERVER
13:22 8. CONNECTING A DRIVE
13:38 9. DRAG AND DROP
14:09 10. QUICK PREVIEW MULTIPLE FILES

[@borislutz3885]

The best video about the files app ever!!!
learned so many things, thank you!

[@patrickstoeckmann]

Thanks so much. Great to hear you learned a ton!

[@pebayou.3380]

Keep the good work going ✌🏻Great great teacher .

[@patrickstoeckmann]

Thank you, I will

[@georgee3401]

Excellent tutorial. I was unaware of many of these features. Many thanks!

[@patrickstoeckmann]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching.

[@davecunitz753]

Thanks for a great video. I picked up a few tips that I like that I wasn’t previously aware of. :D

[@patrickstoeckmann]

That‘s wonderful to hear. Thanks for watching.

[@atechyverse]

You just gained a subscriber.

[@patrickstoeckmann]

Thanks very much and welcome.

[@benjaminkessler3337]

Any way to share links from non-iCloud storage (ie OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) from within the File app?
Do you know if there is a way to add sticky notes to PDF's like on Preview with Mac?

[@patrickstoeckmann]

With Dropbox you can copy the link from the Files app via context menu (long press on file). Unfortunately, not with Google Drive and OneDrive, there you must jump into the app. There is not a predefined sticker button for PDFs in the Markup section of the Files app, but you can add (via the + icon in the markup palette) a square shape and add text to it. You can then edit the color (i.e. use the traditional yellow or any other color) as well as change border size and color and even make the fill color opaque. Text size, font and formatting can be changed by selecting the text and then through the Aa icon in floating text tool bar at the bottom. You can then copy that and paste it to create an identical look for all your „stickies“.

[@themikeyd]

I wish we could pin files/folders to stop iCloud offloading. I work on airplanes with no access to Wi-Fi and it always offloads the documents I want to use.

[@patrickstoeckmann]

While there is no such functionality (and it would be great to have this), Downloading the folders I need before a trip actually always worked for me. But, of course I have enough space on my device that it rarely needs to offload anything due to space constraints.

[@hesousa8488]

Gostei

[@patrickstoeckmann]

Thank you.

[@borislutz3885]

Magnifying glass does not seem to be available anymore in PDF and moving a page seem to be only possible when it is not selected on my iPad running iOS 17. Everything else however works as advertised.
One thing however that troubles me, ist that the files app sometimes just copies a file instead of moving it. Even when I select move from the context menu. This happens when trying to move files from iOS cloud for example. When using drag and drop, a plus signn appears an he file is copied too. Is there no modifier key (like on the Mac) to get a move intead of a copy?

[@patrickstoeckmann]

The magnifying glass was retired (unfortunately) throughout all apps with the new pencil palette. I have no problems scrolling through PDFs using iOS17 though. Copying and moving a file works differently if you move it between file providers. If you move your file within the same file provider (i.e. within iCloud) moving should work, however if you move from iCloud to Dropbox or Google Drive, then a copy happens, instead of a move. It is the same like in Apple Mail if you want to move say mails between two separate Exchange accounts (not working).

[@borislutz3885]

Yes, I understand, that from Dropbox files are copied, but files are also copied when moving from iCloud drive to local storage. So it seems always to copy when not moved from the same root.
What I meant about the PDF is, that rearanging a page is only possible, when it is not already seletect, thus not showing the 3 dots. A bit stranage but that‘s at least how it looks on my iPad. After I figured this out, rearanging works fine :-)

[@patrickstoeckmann]

That is exactly how it works.

[@Praveen-or5ce]

I see lag in pdf at around 20% zoom

[@patrickstoeckmann]

I never have a Problem with lag in the Files app. I use some very large PDFs - for instance complete stage plays, where I do lots of markup with the Files app. Are you really talking about the Files app? How do you know about 20% zoom? There is no percent indicator in the Files app.