Update: The Best File Manager And FTP Apps for iPhone And iPad (Review)
Update: The 3 Best FTP Apps For iPhone And iPad: File Explorer, iStorage And Documents By Readdle
Do you face the problem which iOS explorer you should choose? There is a huge number of so-called NAS, FTP, Cloud or file managers / explorers for iPhone and iPad. But which are the best FTP – NAS – ‘Private iCloud’ Apps? I spent all lot of time and money in finding the right explorer. Finally, I got the right one and, in the later, I will tell you which one!
My personal wish list is:
- Remote private clouds: I want to manage my private iCloud via FTP: two NAS drives, one is a FRITZ!NAS and the other one is a My Book Live
- Remote computers: I want to have direct / remote access via FTP to my Windows 7 Netbook
- Cloud services: I want to manage as many other clouds like Dropbox, Box, Skydrive, Google Drive, ….
All together I tried the following 9 apps:
- iNAS 🙁 (only FTP over WiFi “on the fly”)
- FTP Server 🙁 (only FTP over WiFi “on the fly”)
- WebDAVNav+ 😐 (only WEBDAV, no FTP, no remote computers)
- iSMEStorage 😐 (WebDav, FTP, does not sync properly, no remote computers)
- SuperFiles Lite 😐 (WebDav, no FTP, Clouds, no remote computers)
- Karrgo 😐 (WebDav, Clouds, FTP, no Remote computers)
- iStorage HD / iStorage 😐 (WebDav, FTP, Clouds, no remote computers, too many crashes)
- FTP on the Go Pro / FTP on the Go 😐 (only FTP, no Clouds, no remote computers)
- File Explorer 🙂 (Remote computers, FTP, Clouds)
My personal test results of the latest three will be find in detail here:
I’ve already written some comments on the app iStorage HD and iStorage: iStorage HD for iPad – A Terrific Tool for FTP / FTPS / SFTP, WebDav And Cloud Access
Today I must update my findings and admit that iStorage is not really the app I was looking for: There are too many crashes and files could not be opened in other apps via ‘open in’. But the design is clear and you can split te screen into two parts to move files via drag and drop. If the crashes are eliminated and the ‘open in’ bug is fixed, iStorage will be an excellent and workable app.
My personal test results on iStorage HD:
FTP on the Go:
Up to now there is not an universal app: FTP On The Go is an FTP client for the iPhone and iPod touch. FTP On The Go PRO is a FTP client for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
I personally like the way this app organizes files and folders. But for some users it could seem to be more or less complicated…
Some information about my experience with FTP on the Go can be find in ‘troubleshooting-open-in-missing-apps’.
What FTP On The Go PRO can do:
- Optimized for iPad, but also runs on an iPhone or iPod touch.
- View many files at once in the tabbed viewer. This lets you copy between files, compare, etc.
- Switch between browsing and full-screen viewing or editing with just a tap.
- Quick-scrollers let you scroll through files or folders.
Plus Everything Below
What FTP On The Go can do:
- Download, Edit, and Upload web pages or any other text files on your FTP servers.
- Browse folders on your FTP servers (FTP, FTPS, & SFTP).
- Built in text editor with Search & Replace makes it quick to edit web pages or other files.
- Save files on your iPhone to view or edit later.
- Bookmark your important servers.
- Built in FTP Server and Web Server allow viewing and adding files to the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.*
- Browse files on your iPhone from any computer with a web browser.
- Get even more control to add files, delete files, etc. by using a FTP client to connect to your iPhone. (Like another copy of FTP On The Go; or with Windows using its built in browser; or any other FTP client.)
- Use iCloud to share files between your devices.
- Smart Replace (see below) will not break your existing files if a phone call or lost connection interrupts the upload!
- Images from your iPhone camera or iPhone photo library can not only be uploaded to the server, but can be resized as you upload. Make them exactly the size you need.
- No “server disconnected” messages like you often see in PC FTP programs; FTP On The Go just reconnects if needed.
- SFTP and FTPS are both available
- A Master Password for FTP On The Go program protects your valuable server information if your iPhone is lost or stolen
- Even set so passwords aren’t saved at all. You will need to enter them each time FTP On The Go is started, but for those that want that extra peace-of-mind, the passwords are never stored.
- Create, edit, rename, move and delete files and folders on your FTP server.
- Change file permissions on the server (CHMOD).
- Download and Upload whole folders with just a tap.
- You can even send “Raw” FTP commands–any arbitrary command you need. (For instance sending: “SITE chmod 755 *.php” could make your life easier.)
- Includes support for “Mode Z” which does compression on-the-fly. Really good for 3G and especially Edge connections. (In testing, some directory listings were compressed nearly 90%!)
* For sharing with the FTP and Web servers, all computers and iPhones will need to be on the same WiFi wireless network.
My personal test results on FTP on the Go:
- Remote private clouds: Yes, works both with My Book Live and FRITZ!NAS 🙂
- Remote computers: No, does not work with my Windows 7 Netbook 🙁
- Cloud services: No, does not natively work with cloud services without FTP-access (WEBDAV not supported) 🙁
File Explorer is the app that helps you to directly access your files on your remote computer (Mac, Windows, Linux) and Cloud Services (Dropbox, GoogleDocs) from your iOS devices. You could directly read your files without download. File Explorer saves the viewed files to local cache, so you could read them again without network access. If you want to download your files to iOS device, we offer you a powerful background batch download feature. Furthermore, File Explorer has lots of useful features for local files. You could use the built-in FTP Server to transfer files between computer and iOS devices over WIFI. Support file management, search etc.
- Remote Computers: Connect CIFS/SMB protocol to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
- Cloud Services: Access files in Dropbox and Google Docs
- FTP Server: Transfer files between computer and iOS device over WiFi
- A huge number of supported file types
- Includes a PDF reader, a photo gallery and a music & video player (XVID,AVI,MKV,RMVB,WMV,FLV,MOV, MP4, M4V,MPV etc.)
My personal test results on File Explorer:
Taking everything into account File Explorer is up to now the app I was looking for….
Stay tuned! 😉
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Thank you for your review. File explorer was the last thing I needed to go comp free.
What about File Browser?
Thank you very much for your question!
Up to now I didn’t test it because of the in-app purchase of dropbox. Further more, so far I understood, there are no further possibilities to connect other cloud services. For example, File Explorer and, especially, iStorage do!
Cheers and stay tuned! 😉
Gee Are