How to transfer a file folder to an iPad
March 12, 2013 10:58 AM   Subscribe

Are there any iPad file management apps that will allow a file folder (complete with nested folders and files) to be dragged into it?

In order to provide my boss with all the files she needs for an international trip, it would greatly simplify my life if an app would allow for a complete file folder structure to be dragged and dropped into it. But so far my search has proven fruitless, and I worry it perhaps is a fundamental and unbreakable condition of the iPad's OS, though I hope a kind Metafilaterian will know otherwise.

I'm on Windows XP. iPad 2 with latest OS installed. Many thanks in advance.
posted by AwkwardPause to Computers & Internet (16 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sure, you can do this with DropBox, with the added benefit that it will sync up and store revisions.
posted by bcwinters at 11:05 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


Goodreader is also nice. You connect to the app as a mapped network drive, and drag and drop to your heart's content. Dropbox is a little more automated, but Goodreader also allows for annotating and file manipulations, and is a great resource for keeping all your documents together.
posted by nickhb at 11:08 AM on March 12, 2013


Response by poster: Sorry, should have pointed out that I'm restricted to transferring via the USB cable. Because Dropbox files are stored on their servers, I'm not allowed to put these particular files on there. I have them all stored on a shared server drive and ideally would love to be able to drag & drop all the files to the iPad in one fell swoop.
posted by AwkwardPause at 11:09 AM on March 12, 2013


Dropbox, or Goodreader can do that with the FTP function if you can put the folder on an FTP server.
posted by misskaz at 11:10 AM on March 12, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks so much -- Looking at GoodReader, it appears that iTunes does not allow for the transfer of folders. Oh well, one by one dragging it is, then.
posted by AwkwardPause at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2013


You can use iFunbox for this, but you need to know the correct place to put the folder for the specific app to read it. There's no "my documents" folder, but if you want to stick something where one app can read it, it'll have a data folder.
posted by Oktober at 11:16 AM on March 12, 2013


What goodreader does is you store the whole file structure on your computer's hard drive. You open goodreader and click a button, where it provides an IP address. You map a new network drive on your desktop pointing to that IP address, and drag the whole structure over. At no point are the files on a 3rd server. You just need to have both the ipad and the computer connected to the same network.
posted by nickhb at 11:17 AM on March 12, 2013


Rereading your response, let me specify that it works just as well if you drag the files from the shared server. As long as you can access them in windows explorer.
posted by nickhb at 11:19 AM on March 12, 2013


File App Pro does what you want. It doesn't look like you can drag folders directly into iTunes but you can create folders within the app and organize that way.
posted by maniactown at 11:22 AM on March 12, 2013


AirSharing will let you do separate folders; it may let you do nested.
posted by Gingercat at 12:17 PM on March 12, 2013


Response by poster: I'm now experimenting with Spideroak -- works more or less as Dropbox, but purports to be encrypted (and with no data visible to their staff). This might just be the ticket...
posted by AwkwardPause at 12:19 PM on March 12, 2013


Response by poster: No I'm running up against the fact that Spideroak doesn't provide offline access to the files unless they're marked as favorites. And only files (not folders) can be marked favorites, so I'd still have to go through every single file. Sigh. I'll try to look into Goodreader, although I wonder what our security folks will say about a connection to a mapped drive -- will that be secure?
posted by AwkwardPause at 1:33 PM on March 12, 2013


You can also connect to GoodReader with an SFTP client. I don't know how much more "secure" of a connection you're really going to get.
posted by bcwinters at 1:43 PM on March 12, 2013


Goodreader files are transferred across the internet (wirelessly), but they are not stored on a server, so it doesn't actually have the dropbox problem you described.
posted by yeolcoatl at 4:20 PM on March 12, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks, all -- I've installed GoodReader and the Zip trick works to preserve the folder structure, so that's good, and if that's as good as it gets, that's OK. But I'll talk more to folks how know more about our IT system to see if I can have access to an (S)FTP server or something like it.
posted by AwkwardPause at 5:46 PM on March 12, 2013


yelocoatl, there are ways to transfer files to Goodreader over the internet, but the way I usually deal with it is to connect my iPad to WiFi on the same LAN as my computer, fire up Goodreader, turn on its fileserver, connect to the server from my computer, and drag the files/folder over. The Internet (and iTunes) isn't involved.
posted by Good Brain at 2:19 AM on March 13, 2013


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