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Windows PC to iPad

#21
Another user posted file management apps that are available. The only difference between these and the program that hosts your folder system on your PC is that it isn't already on your ipad and you get to choose which one best serves your needs. Some link to cloud services as well as hardwired methods.

ALSO, it's also been stated that you can make your entire drop box or Google drive account available offline on your device. It's in the settings.

I use both types of systems on my iPad. I use dropbox/drive as a master backup and so I can get at my files from any internet browser. I also use file organization systems for local storage.

However, it sounds like you're not liking the ipad. That's fine to. If it doesn't do it for you, then don't use it.

For the record I'm not a fan of the iPad OS not having a master file system as well, but what it does have is plenty for me to have everything I need on it and accessible for most of not all of my uses.
 
#23
I'm gonna start with this - How many gigabytes is your iPad? If it's not 64, you're probably not going to be able to do what you want anyhow. I have a 32, and it filled up waaaay faster than I thought it would. I just spent an hour deleting apps and files to fit the latest update, without which most new apps won't work. Yeah, you have to do it. And I still haven't freed up enough memory (4.9 gigs). Once I do, it's going to get filled by the update, too.

Second, I'd suggest throwing the towel in and getting the tool you want and need for your job. There's a really aggravating learning curve that comes along with an iPad. Things that are easy on on PC take a very long time to figure out, include lots of hoop jumping, and some of them can never be done. I learned that the hard way. Hated my iPad for quite a while. Now, however, I love it.

I love it because I stopped trying to make it a PC. I use my PC when I need a PC, and use my ipad for what it's good for, and it is real good for lots of things. Especially recording. What totaled to about $5000 worth of software on my computer, I have on the iPad for a little over $100. Cubasis is $50. And while it might not have the functionality of Cubase, it's got pretty much anything I'm ever going to use on a recording, and is like $600 less. I've got other recording software, all kinds of synths, samples, instruments, drum machines, amps, effects... many of them free, the more expensive ones costing $5 - $10.

That's the selling point for me. Anything else you can do on any tablet. Stop driving yourself nuts. Accept it for what it is and either keep it and move on, or get rid of it.
 
#24
I have not read through all of the responses, but I'll just comment to the OP.

I too was PC/DOS/Windows since 1986

Then I got an iPhone, then an iPad.

First - the iPad is not a computer, per say, so the file management system is not what you are going to be used to. When I got the iPad (gift) I thought it would help me go paperless with contracts and the like. I'm a realtor - ever seen a realtor walking around. Reams of paper stuffed in files, falling out of their car, all over their desk? Well, I wanted to avoid that.

Turns out, even w/o the file system, I found a fairly easy and effective way to do it. I use iBooks. Easy to search and organize the PDFs I am using. I only keep active client paperwork on it, and I continually sync it all with my laptop. There might be other ways to do it, but I have not looked into them, as this has been working fine. And, I like you, needed a solution that worked, internet or not.

I have achieved my paperless state and I love it. I use the iPad as a modern "day timer" for those who remember. Contacts, calendar, notepad (freehand), reminders, calculator, mortgage calculator, and on and on. I use it for presentations as well.

This transition went so well for me that I replaced my Dell (XP.....it was time) laptop with a Macbook Pro. So now I am all Apple, and while there was an adjustment, I couldn't be happier.

I still use a Dell desktop to run Protools, mostly cuz its set up with the monitors and all that, has all my sessions on it and so on.
 
#25
I was the IT guy for a small game developer. About 70 employees. One of the company owners was a very hard core Apple evangelist, even though every employee worked on Windows machines. Anyway Apple Evangelist Guy talked the other owners into giving every employee an iPad, on the belief that the iPad would make everyone more mobile and creative and productive. We set about trying to make that happen. But guess what. The iPad, despite its many cool glorious features, isn't really much good in an office environment for doing real billable work. It was a major fail from that aspect.

However all the employees were grateful for having received a free capable mobile device to do their Facebook and Netflix and messaging and googling and such-like tasks.
 
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#26
Android...? Any decent tablet would suffice. I have a Toshiba AT10-A, battery life is 16-20h, there is 32GB storage with a 64GB SD card, 1GB RAM (enough), and a USB port (OTG cable). ES File Explorer is the best file manager IMHO. :)
 
#30
Pilgrim said:
Surface Pro 3 would solve all these problems and provide more power, more memory and more overall capability.
Click to expand...

Which has been the Apple/Microsoft equation since forever. Back in the early 1990s, I bought the first computer I ever owned. After using both Apple and DOS computers for years before that, I wanted an Apple, but it cost twice as much and could do half as much. So, it was a pretty easy decision. It's just a tool, not a lifestyle. I don't like Microsoft very much, but at least their systems do more or less what I want them to do and cost less. They do all kinds of stupid things that gum up the works, but at least there's works to gum up.

Yes, I'm a crank. I still have a slide rule, although it will probably go to a friend's daughter who was completely fascinated by the idea of a slide rule. I'll still be a crank, though.
 
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#31
Pilgrim said:
Surface Pro 3 would solve all these problems and provide more power, more memory and more overall capability.
Click to expand...

And costs more than twice as much.

The iPad does what he wants it to do, he seems unwilling to accept any of the dozens of solutions offered in this thread.

and now we are in yet another pointless Mac/PC debate with the same old ignorant nonsense thrown in for good measure. Good work internet!
 
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#32
The iPad was really designed for 'soccer moms' to be simple and fairly intuitive. Hence the ecosystem is very limited.

I refer to i-Products as i(diot)Phones and the like because any idiot can use one with no training.

For the OP the answer is simply not Apple.

If you can live with a laptop buy a used Lenovo x301 or T420 or T430 off eBay. I have several, their bombproof with the exception of dust gettin in the fan area and sometimes running hot. Find an XP machine and you're good to go.
 
#33
drumsnbass said:
The iPad was really designed for 'soccer moms' to be simple and fairly intuitive. Hence the ecosystem is very limited.

I refer to i-Products as i(diot)Phones and the like because any idiot can use one with no training.

For the OP the answer is simply not Apple.

If you can live with a laptop buy a used Lenovo x301 or T420 or T430 off eBay. I have several, their bombproof with the exception of dust gettin in the fan area and sometimes running hot. Find an XP machine and you're good to go.
Click to expand...

His complaint seems to be it's too complicated to use DropBox.... and iPads are for idiots? OP doesn't want a laptop. An i-product being simple to use doesn't mean it cannot also be a powerful tool. Being simple to use, and rock solid stable is seen as a GOOD thing by a lot of non-idiots and non-soccer moms.

So, download one of the 12 apps I posted. get over your fer of the cloud and Keep your iPad.
Or...
Get rid of the iPad and buy an Android tablet... and then download a file browser app (just like iPad) or get over your fear of the Cloud (Google reallly wants you to use Drive but DropBox is better)... wait! That's the exact same process!

Or get a Windows tablet. I guess you get the file browser but the rest of it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Win8 doesn't have near the support of the other two platforms and traditional apps that do run in Windows are kind of a sloppy horrible mess on most tablets as they were designed for a keyboard and a mouse.

You have the best solution in your hands right now.
 
#34
Well, for the 15th friggin' time, putting stuff on the Cloud isn't an option because I choose to use my devices where Internet access isn't available.

DropBox isn't terribly complicated. It's slow. It works reasonably well for transferring one, or a dozen files. I'm talking about transferring a thousand files. I don't have the rest of my life to upload files, then download files then try to sort them.

Yep the best solution is in my hands right now...the keyboard to a PC...running Windows. But when I can't tote the PC along, then maintaining the functionality of a PC on a smaller device is important. In the time it's taken to type responses to this thread, I could've copied all my pertinent folders, with their files inside, to a USB flash drive, with time left over.
 
#35
Sync once.
Save locally on ipad.

Have you tried it? It's free. You can try it with whatever file or folder you like. You can delete it when you are done.

Offline viewing:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/87
You will copy your big folder to the dropbox folder, it syncs 1 time, you hit the little star on the corresponding folder in the iPad app. BOOM! all your files are LOCALLY stored on your device eliminating all the complaints you've repeated here several times. You take them with you exactly as you had them. DropBox can open pretty much anything. This is what you asked for.
If what you want is confirmation that you hate your iPad that's not what you asked for. It does what you are asking, and it's easy.

This is the right tool.

Good luck.
 
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#36
For me...ipad toy, PC tool. I use dropbox and tried to replace file hierarchy with the ipad but it just didn't work. I have good speed at home, just doesn't cut it. It's great for keeping pictures and stuff I don't ever want to lose, uploaded for safe keeping, but for data access on the fly, no, and for local storage the iPad just wasn't for me.
Chromebook, Dropbox and saas in general have great uses and will continue to advance, but for me and the OP it's just not the same solution and it's not a geezer issue.
 
#37
If you decide to get a windows surface, don't get the RT. Get the Pro so you can run real windows and install real windows software /apps. I bought an RT - huge mistake. Can't even install a different browser - stuck with IE which has many problems. Finally had enough and went and bought an Acer ultrabook running 8.1 and love it. But I should have just bought the Surface Pro.
 
#38
I gave a tablet a fair try. But I need a keyboard, printing, and I like developing software. An 11.6" Windows 8.1 notebook is a nice compromise. Win 8.1, I could take it or leave it, but I love the touch screen, and it was cheap enough that I can toss it in a backpack and not worry too much about it.

Invalid Link Removed

I still use the tablet for web surfing and e-mail.
 
#39
Like others have said google drive or Dropbox. I was at a meeting 60 miles from office and accessed my work files on my iPhone to read a policy out. 3G ftw.

I save all my docs direct to the cloud access it anywhere from any device. It is immediate backing up of all my information. I respond to emails and access and attach needed information instantaneously no matter where I am.

Things are getting so efficient it's messed up. I'm addicted. Head in the clouds.
 
#40
nashvillebill said:
This sounds like the typical Apple mentality. Telling ME what I need.

No, I'm the user. I have been using computers since the 1970's, back with IBM punch cards and FORTRAN through a compiler. I know my needs. I need to keep many file formats available under simple folder structures where I can locate them easily. And clumsy workarounds--yes they ARE clumsy, compared to merely sticking something on a USB flash drive--don't cut it. Storing files under their particular app and sorting them to find them is not efficient. I have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of various documents.

A Windows Surface tablet? Has a USB port. Lets me keep files the traditional way. I don't have to go to my "App Store" to download stuff.
Click to expand...

Let me understand this. You got an iPad for free. It doesn't do what you want, how you want it. People have tried to help you figure out how to make it useful for your needs, but since you can't do it the way YOU want, you are pissed.

So, why not sell it for a few bucks, and go buy something else. It was free right? What's the issue?

Sheesh.
 

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