The Files app may sound like little more than a digital filing cabinet for your iPhone. But when used to its fullest, it serves as a portal between your Apple devices, allowing you to access Mac documents on your iPhone and vice versa.
And that can be useful. For one thing, it’s much easier to keep track of my receipts during business trips. The problem is that the app can be complicated if you are not familiar with it.
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The Files app has been around since iOS 11 came out in 2017, and before that it was known as the iCloud Drive app. Here’s an introduction to how to get started with the Files app, as well as some of its best features.
Basics of the Files application
Tabs at the bottom of the Files app.
The Files app comes preinstalled on your iPhone or iPad. If you don’t see it on your home screen, just swipe down and search for Files in the Spotlight search bar. If nothing appears, go to the App Store, search for Files and download it.
When you open Files, it automatically picks up where you left off in the app. If you are using the application for the first time, it should open at search tab. At the bottom of the screen you will see search tab along with others for Recently and Shared.
No matter what tab you’re on, there’s a search bar at the top. If you know the name of the file or document you’re looking for, type it to see a live preview of the search results. You don’t even need to have the Files app open to search it. On the home screen, swipe down and you can use Spotlight search to find the file you’re looking for.
The Shared shows files that you have shared with others or files that have been shared with you. And, as the name suggests, Recently tab contains all the documents you’ve recently used, downloaded, or opened, and by default sorts files from newest to oldest.
Browse tab
The Locations section has a list of drives where you can save and organize your files.
The search tab includes sections for Locations, Favorites and Labels. Locations is divided between On my iPhone, iCloud Drive and Recently deleted. If you use third-party apps like Dropbox or Google Drive, they will also appear in the Locations section.
External hard drives will also appear below Locations while connected to your iPhone or iPad.
Organize yours Locations or change the order by touching Menu icon (circle with three dots) in the upper right corner of the screen. Selection Edit will allow you to reorder the list under each Browse section and hide the locations of your choice. To hide a location, just turn off the radio button to the right of the location name.
On my iPhone it shows all the files stored locally on your iPhone. The iCloud Drive shows a list of shared folders and documents that can be accessed on other Apple devices such as a Mac, iPad, or online through the iCloud website. The only condition for winning iCloud Drive working on multiple devices means making sure they’re all signed in to the same Apple ID.
Save documents to the Files app
Here’s a pop-up preview of files from the iPhone’s Share menu.
On iPhone or iPad, Share menu is the main way to add documents to Files application
Let’s say you want to save an email attachment from the iPhone Mail app. Just tap the Share menu icon (which looks like a square with an up arrow) and select Save to files option.
A window will appear that looks identical to the window Files application From there you can choose the location and folder where you want to save it.
Scan documents
Like the Notes app, the Files app has a built-in scanner. It even has a guide to help you scan the level.
Once you’ve figured out how to navigate the app and save files to it, there are a bunch of other neat tools and settings. I usually use iCloud Drivebut almost everything I’m going to cover is about On my iPhone also drive.
Perhaps the most important tool to know Menu button at the top right. When you tap it, you’ll be greeted with a list of MacOS-like options. From here you can add a New map, change display options, and reorder files based on their name, type, date, and size. For example, I created a new folder called Receipts in my iCloud Drive.
But one of my favorite features is Scan documentswhich is available with Menu inside this folder. The Scan documents the menu option automatically triggers the camera to scan a document or take a photo of a receipt. I use it all the time when I travel for work because it automatically syncs with other devices like my Mac, which I use to submit expense reports.
Document menu and bookmarks
Using tags, like the travel one in this image, is a great way to organize your iPhone notes and avoid losing them. They also work in the Files app.
The Files app has another hidden menu. If you tap and hold on any document, you’ll see a pop-up window with specific options for that file. You can also easily drag and drop documents from the Files app to another app. Let’s say I want to add a PDF to an email. I can select the PDF in Files and share it with Mail, or I can tap and hold the PDF and leave the app with the other hand, open Mail, and add it to a new message. This drag-and-drop method can be cumbersome on the iPhone, but feels less so on the iPad.
Perhaps one of the most powerful tools in Files is the ability to add tags to a document. Bookmarks are not only shown in searches within Files, but also in Spotlight search on iPhone and iPad. If you had a bunch of documents with the same tag, you could search for that tag to quickly find and share all those files.
The Files app has been around for years, but Apple is constantly updating and improving it with newer versions of iOS. I look forward to seeing what other features Apple adds to Files in the coming years. For more information about files, see this Apple support page.
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