Appearance
Files and folders
Not everything you edit lives in a repository. The Files card on the Home tab opens a workspace with the same editor as a git project but no git: the app's own Local Files folder, plus any folders and files you open from the Files app or over SSH.
The Files card
- Open Workspace… opens the file workspace where you left it.
- New File… opens it with the new-file form ready.
- Open File… picks a single file from the Files app.
- Recent Files… lists the last files you opened here, across every folder. The row appears once there is something to list. Inside the workspace, Cmd+R opens the same list, newest first, narrowed as every list is (see Searching lists).
- The … button holds Open Folder… and Open SSH Folder….
Local Files
The app's own folder. It shows up in the Files app under HachiCode as Local Files, so other apps can read and write it too. Files here can be recovered after a delete: deleted items go to Recently Deleted in the sidebar, and the version you had on disk before the first save of a session is kept there as well, which is the only undo for an overwrite.
Open a folder from another app
Open Folder… shows the Files picker. Choose a folder from iCloud Drive, from another app's iCloud container, or from a storage provider that can hand out folders. The folder appears in the sidebar under External Folders and stays there across launches; the app keeps the access the picker granted.
You are asked to Name this folder link. Folders in iCloud Drive suggest their own name. A folder under On My iPhone that belongs to another app suggests "Documents", because iOS does not tell the app which app owns it; type the name you want.
A folder inside one you already opened is refused with "Already linked". Opening a folder that contains ones you already linked replaces them with the new, larger one after you confirm.
Open a single file
Open File… grants access to one file. It appears under External Files. You can edit, share and export it, but not move or delete it; use the Files app for that. If the file is deleted elsewhere, the app drops it from the list and tells you.
What you can do where
The sidebar offers the same actions everywhere, minus what the location cannot do:
- New File, New Folder, Refresh on any folder.
- Move renames or moves a file or folder. There is no separate rename.
- Copy to…, Info, Share, Export PDF on files. Info includes the file's permissions (Mode, as
rw-r--r-- (644)), for Local Files, linked folders and SSH folders alike. - Delete goes to Recently Deleted for Local Files. For a linked folder or an SSH folder the delete is permanent, and the confirm says so.
Long-press a linked folder for Rename link, which changes only the name shown in the sidebar, Reconnect, which picks the folder again if access was lost, and Forget, which removes the link without touching the folder.
Saving
Files save on their own about a second after you stop typing, and immediately when the app goes to the background. If a file was changed by another app since you opened it, saving asks first: File changed on disk offers to overwrite, and until you confirm your edits stay in the editor. A save that fails for any other reason keeps your edits in the editor too, and tries again on the next change.
Files over 8 MB and files the app knows to be binary do not open in the editor. Images preview inline, documents open in the system previewer, and anything else can be shared to another app.
A folder that went away
If a linked folder is no longer reachable, whether it was moved, deleted, or its provider is offline, the row shows a warning and lists nothing. The link is kept. Reconnect lets you pick the folder again, Forget removes it. A single opened file that can no longer be reached is marked unavailable with the same Reconnect; a file that cannot be read says Couldn’t open file — File not found when it is gone — and its tab closes. A link to a folder inside Local Files is listed but never followed.
The editor here is the project's editor: the toolbar's full-screen button, the exit button that shows when you touch or scroll, and the floating button's Full Screen action work as in Editor basics.
What the file workspace does not do
There is no git here and no version history. There is no search across file contents; use the editor's find. Cmd+P does search file names, the same way as in a project, over Local Files and the files you opened recently; a file in a linked or SSH folder is found only once it is among the recents. When you want commits, clone the folder's repository as a project instead.