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Ask HN: It's 2018, best way to manage files on Apple devices?

14 points by edge17 ↗ HN
I just spent the last hour trying to sync an mp3 audiobook to my iphone from my work computer and ended up deleting everything that was on it via iTunes syncing progress. Apple seems to make it harder and harder to manage my own files on my iDevice with each release, and worse than doing nothing it usually takes some action that is damaging.

I'm not here to Apple bash, they make great products. I want to know if anyone has a better way to manage media content on their iDevices that does not involve the iTunes sync process?

6 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 22.9 ms ] thread
mcintyre1994
Does iCloud work for you? icloud.com has an online iCloud Drive, if that works on your work computer then you might be able to upload files to that.
edge17
iCloud drive does work, but then I can't get it to open in iBooks to properly handle audiobooks
mstolpm
iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, FileBrowser (App), even EMail: There are lots of options to move media and other files to iPhone/iPad. Once in the corresponding app on the iDevice, you can send it (via share/open in.../send to...) to most apps that can handle the file format. But to be honest: I don't use iTunes, Apple Music and iBooks much, using alternative apps fo most of my media consumption.
edge17
I try to use iBooks for audiobooks because I haven't found other great options that play nicely with audio volumes etc when I'm driving.

iCloud Drive also doesn't allow me to open audiobooks in the iBooks app (maybe my settings are wrong?)

akulbe
Airdrop, if the computer is Mac.
stephenr
iBooks will sync non-store content between devices (e.g. PDFs etc). But I can't find a way to get a .m4b file into iBooks on macOS, so that may not be helpful.