[Review] iFile – Browse Your iDevice File System

This is by no means “new” info, but i like this application so much i thought it justified to give it a featured review as it helps me no end day to day.

iFile is an essential tool to any developer or themer who works on their iPhone as it gives access to the filesystem with very few restraints. It has recently been updated, adding full compatibility with iPhone OS 3.x, and there were also a few “new” features thrown in for good measure.

The app developer behind iFile, Carsten Heinelt, has seen over a million downloads of his amazing app, and rightly so. You can follow him on Twiiter here

The changelog for the newest version is…well…epic! Which is why i will give you a link to the previous improvements;

• 1.1.0-1 – Feature and Bugfix Release

  • General
    • iFile is now compatible with 2.x, 3.0 and 3.1.
      • iFile has two executables: One compatible with iPhoneOS 3.x and one compatible with iPhoneOS 2.x.
      • The exectuable for iPhoneOS 2.x is identical to the one of iFile 1.0.1-1. Thus, it does not contain below new functionality.
      • All legacy code for 2.x compatibility has been removed from the 3.x executable.
    • Changed registration to also happen when leaving Registration Status view in iFile’s Preferences.
    • The com.saurik.mamu (mailto:attachment=) package dependency got removed.
    • Interaction with other Tweaks/Applications:
      • Safari Download Manager: Allows to open saved files directly in iFile.
      • AttachmentSaver: Allows to open saved files directly in iFile.
      • MusicControls: allows to interact with iFile’s Audio Player e.g. on Lock Screen etc.
    • Some of the functionality listed for this release will be available only for registered users:
      • iFile custom URL scheme ifile:// to interact with other applications
      • File name search.
      • External viewer support.
      • Playlist playing in new Audio Player.
      • Display of song title instead of file name for audio files.
      • Display of thumbnails instead of default icons for images.
      • Text editor search functionality.
  • Localizations
    • Added Dutch and Slovak localization.
  • File Browser
    • Added file name search capability. The search can be performed in current directory only or in the whole directory hierarchy starting at the current directory. The search string is case and diacritic insensitive. Searches in Edit mode of the File Browser allow deletion, copying, cutting and zipping of the found and then selected files. Search results show date and size for current directory and path for other directories. Via iFile’s preferences the user can choose if the search string should be of
      • Simple format: search text contained in filename, e.g. “test”,
      • Wildcard format, e.g.”*test*”,
      • Regular Expression format, e.g. “.*test.*”.
    • Changed deselection behavior of browser when navigating upwards in hierarchy: Now the according directory gets deselected after navigating up. This makes it easier to understand where you came from.
    • Added support to display of AppStore application name instead of cryptic folder name for directories in ~mobile/Applications. Under the application name the real directory name gets displayed.
    • Copy, cut and paste has been migrated to use the iPhoneOS’ global clipboard. This has the side effect that the file paths (and also file URL’s) of copied files will be available also in other applications. File content is not copied to the clipboard.
    • An audio file’s song title can be shown instead of the file name. This can be enabled/disabled via iFile’s preferences.
    • For images iFile can show an image thumbnail instead of the default image. This option can be enabled/disabled via iFile’s preferences. Image thumbnails are only created for images smaller than 1MB.
  • Attributes Editor
    • Added support to change permissions and ownership hierarchically for a directory.
      • It applies user and group to all directories and files in the hierarchy.
      • For directories permissions will be set identically as for the top directory.
      • For files permissions get set only in respect to read and write as set on top directory. If a file was already executable, it remains executable. Sticky bits get set as on the top level directory.
    • Added button in case of image files to add the file to iPhone’s camera roll (also possible from Image Viewer).
    • Added button in case of video files to add the file to iPhone’s camera roll (only available on iPhoneOS 3.1).
    • Fixed crash in case of files/folders with owner or group set to an ID not existing in the user/group database of iPhoneOS.
  • File Types
    • Added pps as supported file format.
    • Added mime-type video/x-flv to open OpenStreamer (external).
  • Compressed File Handling
    • Fixed multiple issues in conjunction with compressed files.
    • Compressed files can now be created and extracted in any folder and not only ones owned by user mobile.
    • Extraction of tar.gz, tar.Z and tar.bz2 did not work at all in the past. This is fixed now.
    • Deletion of files from a compressed file is supported only for zip.
  • Symbolic Link Creation
    • Symbolic link creation has been made much easier now:
      • Select the files you want to link to in File Browser in Edit mode.
      • Press the action button and choose “Copy/Link”.
      • Go to the directory where you want the symbolic links to be created.
      • Press the action button again and choose “Symbolic Link”.
  • Audio Player
    • A completely new designed audio player resembling the built-in audio player.
    • Support for playing files from an m3u playlist, all files in a directory or all files found with iFile’s file search interface.
    • Supports repeat of whole playlists or a single song.
    • Supports shuffle play of playlists.
    • Audio file tags are supported for mp3 and m4a files and get displayed.
    • Cover art is supported as embedded cover art in m4a files or as folder.jpg or cover.jpg in same directory.
    • Support for previous song, next song, fast forward and rewind.
    • Shows current time and remaining time of song.
  • Image Viewer
    • The image viewer has now an additional toolbar button to store an image to the camera roll.
  • PDF Viewer
    • Rewrote whole handling of drawing so that much higher zoom scales are possible.
    • Double tap now zooms in by factor 2 or – if already zoomed in – zooms out to page width.
    • Single tap shows and hides navigation bar and status bar.
    • When going to another page the viewer will scroll to the upper left corner.
  • Web Viewer
    • Corrected problem that for local in-page links the navigation bar got updated and showed only “Loading…”.
  • Text Editor/Property List Editor
    • The text editor and the property list editor have been separated. This way it is easily possible to directly edit files in plist format which have another extension via Open with…
    • Added button to toolbar to hide/show navigation bar and status bar.
    • Added text search button and functionality. The search wraps around at end of the file. If the search string gets found the editor scrolls to it. Highlighting of the found text is not possible.
    • Added possibility to hide the keyboard in editing mode (Done button).
  • Debian Package Installer
    • iFile can now install Debian packages in addition to unpacking their content.
  • External Viewers
    • iFile supports now external viewers defined by the themes. This works by specifying an application ID and an applications custom scheme for a given mime-type. iFile will then open a file by passing its path that external viewer using the custom URL scheme.
  • Preferences:
    • New option for showing song title instead of file name for audio files (mp3 and m4a).
    • New option for showing image thumbnails instead of file icons.

You can find the rest of the changelog here

This application has endless possibilities, for example;

There are 2 themes that i like the look of on cydia, but after trying them both, there are bits i like from each and bits that i don’t. Enter iFile. Open up the application and navigate to the themes folder, from here i can copy/cut(move) the bits i like from one to the other. In fact i could even create an entirely new theme and drop all these bits into a new folder, made right there with iFile. I can then name the folder correctly, even add subfolders.

The image preview and music player also help me to ascertain which files are which so that i know i am moving the right ones. Thanks to iFile i now have a great looking theme the way i like it.

Another example of this applications genius is; The other day i was discussing an app with its developer, and we discovered that i was having issues he had not seen from any other users until then, so he requested that i start using syslog and send him the file after a few days so he could begin to understand what the problem was. I was at work when the time came to send the log to him, not a problem, i fired up iFile and was able to select the log AND email it to him, without even leaving the app. Then the next day he sent me an updated version of the apps core file, which i was able to save straight from the email (using Attachment Saver – I’ll review that one another time) and view directly in iFile. From there it was just a matter of selecting and moving the file to the correct folder.

I have never experienced any kind of crashing or “bugs” as yet, and give this app the seal of approval for its shear brilliance. It is available in Cydia for the meager price of $4, which you would be daft to turn your nose up at. And even better, if you purchase either Safari Download Manager or Attachment Saver first, you get iFile for only $2.