How do i search globally for files on ipad air 2?

[Ed Belanger]

After downloading email attachments and taking pictures I'd like to be able to access these items by file name and not have to search manually inside many apps that I have on my device to find my files. Does anyone here know how I can accurately locate files on my Ipad Air 2 in just one step? Spotlight doesn't do it for me or maybe I'm doing something wrong, Bing and other searches are disabled in Spotlight.

 

[scifan57]

After downloading email attachments and taking pictures I'd like to be able to access these items by file name and not have to search manually inside many apps that I have on my device to find my files. Does anyone here know how I can accurately locate files on my Ipad Air 2 in just one step? Spotlight doesn't do it for me or maybe I'm doing something wrong, Bing and other searches are disabled in Spotlight.

There is no central file repository on the iPad or any iOS device. Files are only stored in the apps they were downloaded to. As far as I know spotlight search won't find individual files stored in an app. Photos downloaded from email messages can be found in the photos app. For other downloaded email attachments, such as PDF's, you would have to go to whatever app you downloaded them to in order to find them.

 

[Ed Belanger]

Wow, such an interesting omission on an otherwise perfect device. Or maybe I'm just too accustomed to Windows. I've even downloaded file manager apps, but, they can only deal with files placed directly into its own app. Wonder why Apple did it this way? Thank you scifan57, your reply helps a lot.

 

[scifan57]

Wow, such an interesting omission on an otherwise perfect device. Or maybe I'm just too accustomed to Windows. I've even downloaded file manager apps, but, they can only deal with files placed directly into its own app. Wonder why Apple did it this way? Thank you scifan57, your reply helps a lot.

It has to do with the app sandboxing required by iOS. It's designed as a security method whereby an infected file would be restricted to the app it was downloaded to and couldn't have access to, nor could it infect, files located in other apps.

 

[twerppoet]

For apps that support it, the new iCloud Drive feature (iOS 8) gives you a feature similar, but not quite the same as general file storage. You can not access it directly from the iPad's system, but apps that support it will let you look at, and even edit, files in other apps (if they are compatible). So you could use an App like GoodReader to open or import files.

Exactly what and how this will work out workflow wise is still unclear. It's early days.

Because the files are in iCloud, they are available on other platforms as well. On the Mac it looks like any other directory. I'm not sure how it works on Windows. You can also look at your iCloud Drive files on the icloud.com site in a desktop browser.

There are two downsides. One, it requires an internet connection for updates. Nothing will get updated between devices and iCloud without an internet connection; and you can't implement it on-device only.

Two, if you use it for more than trivial amounts of data you'll quickly blow through the 5 GB limit of a free iCloud account. At 99 cents a month the 20 GB plan is probably enough for most people. Larger plans are available.

Also, not every iCloud Drive folder appears to show up everywhere. So far that seems to be a matter of whether the file types that are 'supposed' to be stored in the folder are usable by the other device.

Anyway, it's a somewhat more flexible system than the old one; maintaining the security but at the cost of some underlying complexity. When it works it should be a decent, simple way to access your files from multiple devices and apps. When it doesn't you'll probably never figure out why it doesn't.