FAQ  

Cloud Opener FAQ's

 

  •  Long Press is your friend

Long Press on a file to activate the action menu

  • How it works

Cloud Opener allows you to explore iCloud Drive and can open files from it. Opened files will be 'remembered' and shown in the file list. You can Edit and Save these files and they will be automatically uploaded/synchronized to iCloud. When from an other App these files are edited, the updates will be automatically downloaded.
New files or copied files created in the Cloud Opener container can be opened by other Apps. From the OSX Finder or Windows Explorer you can also open and edit these files. Saved files will be updated automatically.

Just drag some files from the Finder into the Cloud Opener folder and you will see these files arriving into Cloud Opener.

NO, Cloud opener does NOT make copies of files opened from iCloud Drive. A file to be able to use must first be downloaded by the iOS iCloud Daemon before it can be used (Only the first time usage). Opened files are cached by iOS NOT by Cloud Opener. Cloud Opener only triggers the iCloud Daemon to make the files available for usage.

The iCloud Drive Browser is a by Apple developed and restricted component.
The inner workings are controlled by iOS not by Cloud Opener.
If Cloud Opener does not show the files no other App will be able to show the files.
It is not allowed by Apple that AppStore Apps use this browser as the main view of the App!
Rejection is the result if so.

There is also the Import function. This function does make a copy of the file and stores it into the at that moment selected directory (Local or iCloud).

  • How to open a file?

The concept of iCloud Drive is that every app has its own iCloud container

Initially the Cloud Opener container is empty.

You have to open create or move/copy documents to it (can also be done in finder of OSX or Windows)1

Tap the Cloud Opener Button, Tap iCloud Drive or any other document provider like Drop Box.

Just navigate through your documents and directories and Tap the document of your choice.

Cloud Opener will remember the documents you opened and links to documents from other containers.

When documents are copied by finder to Cloud Opener container they will showup automatically in the list.

  • What happens when the File picker suddenly disappeared?

iCloud Drive is still pre-mature. So also the implementation of the Apple UIDocumentPickerViewController.

This component represents the File picker and is currently ( iOS8.1.1 ) unstable.

When a the File picker is shown and a small network glitch happens, the File picker cancels and closes by itself.

At the moment I cannot fix this it is a bug in the code of Apple and they have to fix this in a next release of iOS( bug report is filed )

  • I'm seeing folders with 0 items

When the Document Picker comes up it will show you 0 (zero)  items in the folders.

At that moment it starts collection file information from iCloud Drive and will change the values accordantly.

Please be patient, this can take some time.

  • Opening a File takes a long time.

Before Cloud Opener can use a file, the file must be downloaded from iCloud Drive.

When a file is selected, the Apple iCloud Daemon background process start downloading the file.

Cloud Opener wait for this process to be finished.

Unfortunately, downloading by the Daemon is very slow.

  • Where are the Settings?

Swipe from the left of the screen to the right to activate the slide menu.

From there select settings.

In the IOS settings App you will find the settings for Cloud Opener

  • What Setting are there?

Swap Long Press Action

Show External Files

Show File Extensions

Send to: Store local or remote

Mail compression

Network warnings

...

  • General Info

Cloud Opener can store documents locally and remotely at iCloud Drive or any other Document Provider supported Cloud Service  (Drop Box, One Drive, Drive etc).

Use Cloud Opener to show your presentations, photo's and any other kind of documents on any iOS (8.0+) device.

Use Cloud Opener to Create and/or Modify Images and Photos.

Use Cloud Opener to Create and/or Edit your Rich Text documents and save as PDF.

Import Photos and Videos from your device to iCloud Drive or any other Document Provider (Drop Box, One Drive, Drive etc)

Use Cloud Opener to attach files ( also iWork! ) to your email message.

Use Cloud Opener to add files to your Messages.

Use Cloud Opener to Print your document.

Use Cloud Opener to Copy your document for use in an other app.

Use Cloud Opener to Rename, Move or Delete a file on iCloud Drive.

Use Cloud Opener to compress your files (Zip)

Open a Safari webloc file in Safari on you device. (url files are also supported)

Cloud Opener is the quick and simple iCloud Drive Swiss Army Knife.

Supported files: pdf, png, jpg, mov, m4v, mp3, txt, html, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, webloc, url and many more.

Support for any type of document depends on the installed Apps.

  • How do I upload to iCloud Drive?

From within the App you want to upload a file from, tap the share button and Cloud Opener will be in the list of apps to send a file to.

From within the OSX Finder you can drag files into the Cloud Opener folder.

From Windows with iCloud installed,  you can drag files into the Cloud Opener folder.

  • How do I Delete a file from iCloud Drive?

In Cloud Opener, select the file you want to delete and choose the Trash bin from the options menu.

  • How do I Move a file from iCloud Drive?

In Cloud Opener, select the file you want to move and choose Move from the options menu.

Next select the place you want to move your file to.

Why are the Move and Delete options not shown for a file?

The file needs to be opened once (and downloaded by the Apple IOS iCloud Deamon) before it can be Moved or Deleted.

This is due to an issue I can't solve but maybe fixed in an future release of IOS

  • How do I select a file from my iCloud Drive?

Tap the Cloud button and Cloud Opener let you choose a file and preview it with Quick Look.

Just select a file from your iCloud Drive and Cloud Opener can show you in which of your installed apps you can open it.

Just select a file from your iCloud Drive and Cloud Opener can show you in which of your installed apps you can open it.

Why does it take so long to open a file the first time?

iCloud Drive is synchronised in the background by the Apple IOS iCloud sync process (Deamon).

When a file is opened for the first time, the iCloud sync process downloads the file to your device.

When finished downloading, Cloud Opener can use the file.

The download time depends on the size of the file and the speed of the internet connection

  • Why do I get timeouts?

1 When you try to open a large file, the Apple iCloud sync process first must download the file to you device. For large files this can take a long time. But be patient, finaly the file will be on your device.

Try again later.

2 When only on cellular and having the iCloud Drive setting "Use Cellular Data" off, Cloud Opener is not able to download any file

Open Source

Cloud Openeris built using several Open Source components. We made downloads available below to conform with part 6.a) of the LGPL 2.1.

The following restrictions apply to everything in Cloud Opener distribution in these downloads, except for the open source pieces. The open source pieces are governed by their respective open source licenses.

  1. You may download those files only for your own use. Customer may not redistribute any work based on those files.

  2. Reverse Engineering only for debugging purpose. Customer may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the binary files (.a/.o files), nor attempt in any other manner to obtain the source code. Reverse engineering is only allowed for the purpose of debugging the modifications the Customer is doing in #1.

Here's the download links.