Google Drive

How to use Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., in Files app on iPhone and iPad

How to use Google Drive, Dropbox, etc, in Files app on iPhone and iPad

Apple introduced the Files app in iOS 11, and it has stayed on all subsequent versions, including iOS 15. The Files app is the built-in iPhone file manager to store documents, videos, projects, and just about anything. By default, it lets you save and access files in iCloud Drive and locally On My iPhone.

But you can also easily enable third-party apps and services like Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, Box, and more inside the iPhone or iPad Files app. Once that's done, it becomes easy to move data among different locations. Let us show you how to do this.

Google prepping new app for backing up your Mac to Drive

Are you a fan of Drive, the search giant's cloud-storage service? If so, a new app from Google will soon let you back up any folder(s) on your computer to Drive and keep them in sync.

This is welcome news because Drive's current desktop client does not allow for selective sync of any folders that don't live inside of the Google Drive folder on your Mac or Windows PC.

The forthcoming Backup and Sync app is better integrated with your computer than the existing client and will replace it on Wednesday, June 28.

According to the search firm, Backup and Sync is intended to “help everyday users back up files and photos from their computers, so they’re safe and accessible from anywhere”.

As mentioned, you'll be able to continually back up any items found in custom folders on your computer, like the Desktop, Photos, Documents and so forth.

Backup and Sync will replace Google's existing desktop uploader for Photos, too.

Basically, you could use the new app to back up and sync your entire Mac account's home folder to Drive and use Google's powerful search engine via Drive's web interface to quickly identify that needle in the haystack you were looking for.

However, you'll probably need to upgrade your cloud storage to keep your Mac safely backed up to Drive. Each Google account gets 15GB of free Drive storage versus Apple's 5GB free tier.

If you need more storage, you can upgrade to one of the paid Drive tiers:

100GB for $1.99 per month 1TB for $9.99 per month 10TB for $99.99 per month

And here are Apple's recently refreshed iCloud storage upgrades:

50GB for $0.99 per month 200GB for $2.99 per month 2TB for $9.99 per month

Google Drive for Mac and Windows is available via google.com/drive/download.

Google Drive for iPhone and iPad is a free download from App Store.

Do you use Google Drive? If so, are you looking forward to backing up your Mac to the Google cloud? If not, what's your preferred online service for storing files, documents and other data?

Tell us in comments!

Google Drive becomes Android migration tool with contacts, photos, videos & calendar sync

Google wants to make it even easier for Apple fans to switch from iOS to the Android platform so it's turning the mobile Google Drive app into a migration tool of sorts with new features that let you upload and synchronize your contacts, photos, videos and calendar events.

The search giant also provides a Quick Switch Adapter with its Pixel smartphones that allows users to quickly transfers data directly from an iPhone to their Pixel phone.

Google Drive is available at no charge from the App Store.

How to download files and documents to iPhone or iPad

Download documents and files on iPhone and iPad

Downloading and saving files or documents to a computer is something we don't think about. Click, click, done. It's saved on the hard drive and ready to be accessed when needed. On iOS, it can get a little more complicated than that.

How do I download a file to my iPhone? Where do I download it to? These are questions I've recently been asked, but also problems I have faced myself. In this article, I'll try to share different options for you to download files to iPhone or iPad.

You can now attach Google Drive/Dropbox files and GIFs from Tumblr to emails in Yahoo Mail

The failing Internet pioneer Yahoo today announced a major update for its mobile email application.

Bumped to version 4.3, Yahoo Mail for iOS introduces new third-party integrations allowing you to add cloud files directly from your Google Drive or Dropbox to your messages as attachments, or add animated GIFs to your emails from Tumblr, which is another Yahoo-owned property.

The compose interface makes it easy to choose among Tumblr's most popular GIFs of the moment, search for that perfect GIF or browse GIF categories including Love, LOL, Cute, Cheers, Fail, Happy and more. GIFs are added to your emails as attachments.