ios 11 support of "files app"

[KB]

@sero

On iOS 11.0.1, when I tap the download icon next to a Scrivener project in the Files app (the project is stored on iCloud Drive), Scrivener opens immediately and displays the following error message:

98888F4E-1A99-4554-A9DA-DE964CC1D264.png

I could not find a way to first download the project to the Files app and then open it in Scrivener in a second step.

Is this an issue of the Files app or something that Scrivener can fix?

This is a hugely annoying problem with the final version of iOS 11. In earlier betas of iOS 11, if you tapped a file in Files app, it would automatically download before it was passed to the app to open it. Alternatively, you could tap on the blue cloud icon on the right of the row in Files app to force a download. In the final version, and I have no idea why or if this is a bug Apple introduced at the last minute, this doesn’t happen. You can no longer tap on the cloud icon to force a download, and if you tap an undownloaded file, it gets sent to the app without downloading.

So, it seems that the app is now responsible for downloading an iCloud file if it is not yet downloaded when sent to the app. Which would be great, except that iOS 11 also introduces a bug whereby it is not possible for apps to monitor the download progress of an iCloud Drive file that is stored outside its own container. You can send a file to Scrivener, and it could (when I code this part), check if the file is (1) and iCloud file and (2) if so, trigger a download. However, once it’s done this, there is no way for Scrivener to monitor the download progress and show you a progress bar so that you know when the download is complete. The best it could do is poll occasionally checking to see if the download is complete, showing an indeterminate spinner - which for large files would look as though Scrivener has frozen. I have contacted Apple technical support about this to see if there is any way around this bug, but am still waiting for an answer.

However, there is a way to tell Files to download files - it is just really, really well hidden. To do so:

1. Long-press on the file in Files app.

2. Tap “Info” in the black menu that appears.

3. Tap the little blue cloud icon in the info window appears. This actually works and downloads the file, unlike the identical button that appears in the row in Files app.

Basically, Files app is great, but it seems that it is not quite ready for prime time yet. Hopefully Apple will address all of these issues, but it’s a shame they weren’t addressed before the iOS 11 release. (Although this isn’t the worse iOS 11 bug - that would be the completely broken rich text system. )

All the best,
Keith