iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 let customers reformat exterior drives in addition to make a copy of a file on iCloud completely saved domestically.
Each options had been discovered by builders tinkering with the primary betas of those working methods, and can make the iPhone and iPad File supervisor extra helpful.
Gradual enhancements to iPadOS and iOS 18 Information app
iPads have been capable of entry the contents of exterior drives via the Information software since iPadOS 13. Years later, the applying remains to be pretty primary, however Apple retains bettering it. And iPhone customers have benefitted, as nicely.
The newest modifications apparently aren’t dramatic sufficient to warrant point out in the course of the large unveil of iPadOS 18 in the course of the WWDC24 keynote, however they shouldn’t be missed.
Reformat exterior drives in Information
Final 12 months, the Information app in iPadOS 17 added new options for working with SSDs, flash drives and SD playing cards. iPad may customers may lastly erase a drive and see how a lot open house stays.
When iPadOS 18 launches this autumn, it’ll be attainable to reformat a drive into a wide range of codecs. As noticed by ByteBits, the choices are ExFAT, MS-DOS (FAT) and APFS.
For these already testing the developer beta, go into the Information app, swap to Browse, then faucet and maintain on the identify of the drive. It will open a pop-up window that features Erase. Faucet on that choice to open a window with the brand new drive formatting choices.
As famous, that is additionally an choice for iPhone customers. It’s a characteristic that may principally profit these with an iPhone 15 collection mannequin with a USB-C port as many exterior drives can plug in with out an adapter.
‘Keep Downloaded’ choice for iCloud Drive recordsdata
iCloud Drive makes collections of recordsdata simply out there to any Apple machine. The service affords terabytes of capability making it a superb option to hold intensive collections of recordsdata organized into folders. However as a result of the intent is to retailer recordsdata within the cloud, copies of recordsdata saved on the native machine are momentary. Customers who want frequent entry to a big file may get pissed off once they need to repeatedly obtain it from iCloud. Or need to guarantee a file is at all times accessible.
iPadOS 18 features a new choice: Hold Downloaded. Set this and a replica of the file saved on iCloud can even keep on the iPad. The choice can also be out there to iPhone customers in iOS 18.
Utilizing the options within the preliminary beta entails merely tapping on holding on the identify of the file, which opens a pop-up window. One of many choices in that window is Hold Downloaded.
Clearly, an alternative choice is to easily retailer important recordsdata on the iPad or iPhone. However then the recordsdata aren’t stored collected and arranged with different related ones on iCloud. With Hold Downloaded, the recordsdata are each on-line and native.