Re: Tutorial: How to copy ANY files, both directions between Windows and iOS/iPadOS using built-in functionality

On 14/04/2025 00:42, Tyrone wrote:

This requires NO additional software to be installed on anything. All of this
functionality is native to Windows, Linux and Unix (iOS/iPadOS).
 First, to avoid ANY confusion.  This method does all of the copying to/from
Windows on the iOS device. Which makes sense. Windows is the server.  iOS is
the client. Not to mention that when I want a file on my phone that is
currently only on my PC, it makes no sense to go to the PC and send it to the
phone. Why not just get it on the phone directly? My Windows PC is not with me
wherever I am in the house. That's what networks are for.
 Also, when you are at work and need a file from the company servers, you don't
go to the server and push the file down to your PC. You connect to the server
and get the file, from your PC. Which is exactly what we will do here.
 Anyways. Find your Windows IP address. There are many ways to do that, surely
you don't need directions for that.
 On Windows, share the C (or whatever) drive. Right click the drive, Give
Access To, Advanced Sharing, Sharing Tab, Advanced Sharing again. Click Share
This Folder. Make sure you give full control under the Permissions on that
screen, if you want to be able to create/edit/delete files on Windows from
your iPhone/iPad.  If all you want to do is copy files from Windows to iOS
(one direction only), then the default Read Permission is fine.  You can also
set the maximum number of simultaneous users here.
 You also need an account with a password on Windows. You should already have
this anyway. This does NOT have to be Microsoft account. A local account is
fine. Name can be Files and password can be anything you want.
 The above only needs to be done once. If you are already networking multiple
Windows/Macs/whatever (as I do here) then all of this is already done. Also
the above instructions are for Windows 10 Pro. Windows Home I THINK is
slightly different. It still works, but I have not used any Windows Home
versions for many years.
 On any iPhone/iPad with at least iOS 13, connect to your local wifi. The same
one that your Windows PC is on. Open the Files app. Click on the 3 dots in the
circle at the top. One of the options is Connect To Server. Tap that. Enter
the IP address of the Windows PC. Connect as Registered User. Enter your login
name and password.
 Now you will see the Windows C (or whatever) drive on your iPhone/iPad.
Navigate to whatever folder you want. Tap a file and hold, the menu will pop
up. Choose Copy. Then tap On My iPad on the left for an iPad. For an iPhone,
return to the main Browse screen and tap On My iPhone. That will you take you
to your "users" folder on the iPhone/iPad. Here you can create folders for
stuff that you download from the internet or from your local network. Tap and
hold, tap Paste.
 Done and done. Easy, nothing to install. Copying from iOS to Windows is just
as easy. Copy from On My iPhone/iPad and paste to whatever folder on the
Windows drive.
 Now that the server part is setup on Windows, all you need to do is Connect To
Server anytime you want to move files. On ANY iOS device that is on the same
network as the Windows PC in question.
 Note that this is all standard SMB networking stuff.  SMB networking is how
Windows/Linux/Unix share files/folders with each other on a network. You share
the (drive/folder/whatever) on one and connect to that share on as many others
as needed. Offices using Windows use this exact same method for users to
connect to company Windows file servers.
 Also note that you can share any folder(s) individually, instead of sharing
the entire drive.  You could share only your Windows User folder, for example.
  Or you could share a different data drive. I have 4 drives shared here: C, D,
E and F.  I have MANY years of photos, PDFs, music and video files, etc. You
are in complete control of this.
 But for me, sharing the entire drive is just easier. Because you don't have to
worry about saving/moving things on Windows to a "special folder" to make them
available on the network. Besides, you have to login via the Files app (or on
another Windows box, etc.) to see anything. So there is security.
 The only issue you might see is that your IP address of the Windows box might
change after some number of days.  Some wifi routers change IP addresses at
what seems to be random times.  Mine here do not (Netgear). IP addresses are
based on the MAC addresses of each device.  But there are easy ways to fix
that issue.
 I do this all the time using iOS 17.7.2 and 18.4. I also have an iPhone 8 Plus
with 16.7.10.  Works fine there too.  I have also tested Windows 7, 8.1, 11
and Server 2012 R2.  All work fine, because they all use the same SMB
networking method. I have been doing this for around 4 (5?) years, which was
when I first learned of this. I was playing with the Files app and stumbled
upon the "Connect To Server" option.
 Before that I was emailing things to myself. That of course works, but there
are file size limits to email attachments.  Using the SMB method here, you can
copy entire folders back and forth. Only limitation is the amount of storage
you have on Windows and iOS.
 

Thanks.
I connected up my Windows 10 PC, added a password to the local user account, shared a folder then followed your instructions & I can see the Windows files on an Iphone 7 that I've been lent.
In addition the Windows 10 PC can also read & write to the shared files on my Windows 8.1 rig but not vice versa as I log in without a password. This is something that hasn't happened for some years.
The W10 files are read only on the iphone so I can't do anything other than read them.
I am a complete novice with phones. Basic things like what an icon means, finding a backslash or closing a browser tab can take hours.
--
Regards
wasbit