Looking for a file manager with NAS & Dropbox support

[donka]

Looking to manage the files on my home network from my iPad but need the ability to access files on my NAS (samba shares) and ideally also have Dropbox support. Other cloud services are a bonus but Dropbox is my preferred service at the moment. I have seen a couple of apps that may do what I need but they offer no lite version for testing out and some are relatively expensive.
Main uses will be copying files from laptop to NAS, moving/deleting files on my NAS and copying files from laptop/NAS to Dropbox.
Any recommendations?

 

[hoppity0511]

Only thing I can think of is logmein app for iPad and then access home computer to do all the things you want....

 

[jtrosky]

Looking to manage the files on my home network from my iPad but need the ability to access files on my NAS (samba shares) and ideally also have Dropbox support. Other cloud services are a bonus but Dropbox is my preferred service at the moment. I have seen a couple of apps that may do what I need but they offer no lite version for testing out and some are relatively expensive.
Main uses will be copying files from laptop to NAS, moving/deleting files on my NAS and copying files from laptop/NAS to Dropbox.
Any recommendations?

Look into an app named FileBrowser. It lets your iPad talk to windows shares as if it were a PC. I use it for work to access all of our shared drives... Works great. Can also talk to NAS (Samba). Not sure about dropbox support off-hand though (if not, I'm sure the author can add it),

I do believe they have a similar free app to test before purchase... It's called NetPortalLite - however, it's an iPhone app (no native iPad support yet). However, it uses the same "method" to access SMB shares, so if it works, FileBrowser will work (which is a MUCH nicer app for iPad).

 

[donka]

I'm looking for something to use on the iPad regardless of whether my laptop is on or not - otherwise I would just use my laptop.
I know Readdledocs can do something similar but I already have Goodreader which does it all apart from the NAS access part. Filebrowser looks like the kind of app I am after although it doesn't support dropbox. iFiles looks similar too but doesn't support NAS access.

 

[donka]

Looking to manage the files on my home network from my iPad but need the ability to access files on my NAS (samba shares) and ideally also have Dropbox support. Other cloud services are a bonus but Dropbox is my preferred service at the moment. I have seen a couple of apps that may do what I need but they offer no lite version for testing out and some are relatively expensive.
Main uses will be copying files from laptop to NAS, moving/deleting files on my NAS and copying files from laptop/NAS to Dropbox.
Any recommendations?

Look into an app named FileBrowser. It lets your iPad talk to windows shares as if it were a PC. I use it for work to access all of our shared drives... Works great. Can also talk to NAS (Samba). Not sure about dropbox support off-hand though (if not, I'm sure the author can add it),

I do believe they have a similar free app to test before purchase... It's called NetPortalLite - however, it's an iPhone app (no native iPad support yet). However, it uses the same "method" to access SMB shares, so if it works, FileBrowser will work (which is a MUCH nicer app for iPad).

Yip, I tried NetPortalLite last night and could access my NAS just fine so I assume FileBrowser will work fine from this aspect but lack of Dropbox support is stopping me from getting this app.
Anything else similar?

 

[jtrosky]

Yip, I tried NetPortalLite last night and could access my NAS just fine so I assume FileBrowser will work fine from this aspect but lack of Dropbox support is stopping me from getting this app.
Anything else similar?

Not that I'm aware of (and I really looked before I found FileBrowser). Really, FileBrowser is a good app - I would just ""Open in..." Dropbox for now. But, I would also send the author an email - I'm sure it's something they could/will add if you ask! Sounds like a great idea to include DropBox support.

Since I already own the product, I'd be glad to contact the author for you and see what they say about DropBox support (I'd like to see it too). I could always say "I know a few people that would buy your product, but the lack of DropBox support is holding them back!". May help push them...

 

[donka]

Yip, I tried NetPortalLite last night and could access my NAS just fine so I assume FileBrowser will work fine from this aspect but lack of Dropbox support is stopping me from getting this app.
Anything else similar?

Not that I'm aware of (and I really looked before I found FileBrowser). Really, FileBrowser is a good app - I would just ""Open in..." Dropbox for now. But, I would also send the author an email - I'm sure it's something they could/will add if you ask! Sounds like a great idea to include DropBox support.

Since I already own the product, I'd be glad to contact the author for you and see what they say about DropBox support (I'd like to see it too). I could always say "I know a few people that would buy your product, but the lack of DropBox support is holding them back!". May help push them...

Hi, thanks for your time on this. I have tried to access the developer's website but it appears down just now. One question, does the 'Open In' option work with the Dropbox app? That could be an acceptable work around for me. One more question, can you copy a file directly between 2 remote servers e.g. laptop to NAS or vice versa without the need to copy it locally to the iPad first? Thanks for any help.

 

[jtrosky]

Yes, the app shows the "DropBox" app in the "Open in..." dialog (just verified). I also just verified that you in fact can copy a file from one remote server to another without first copying it to the iPad.

The app never fails to impress me - it does what it does very well! Native DropBox support does make sense though!

 

[donka]

Yes, the app shows the "DropBox" app in the "Open in..." dialog (just verified). I also just verified that you in fact can copy a file from one remote server to another without first copying it to the iPad.

The app never fails to impress me - it does what it does very well! Native DropBox support does make sense though!

Many thanks for your help. Looks like I'll be purchasing this tonight.

 

[jtrosky]

Many thanks for your help. Looks like I'll be purchasing this tonight.

Please let me know what you think of FileBrowser... Like I said previously, I think it's a great app and it does exactly what it's supposed to. Just curious what you think now that you've purchased FileBrowser...

 

[donka]

Please let me know what you think of FileBrowser... Like I said previously, I think it's a great app and it does exactly what it's supposed to. Just curious what you think now that you've purchased FileBrowser...

I will do. Not purchased yet as I was tied up last night but I should pick it up tonight.

 

[donka]

Many thanks for your help. Looks like I'll be purchasing this tonight.

Please let me know what you think of FileBrowser... Like I said previously, I think it's a great app and it does exactly what it's supposed to. Just curious what you think now that you've purchased FileBrowser...

I finally purchased FileBrowser last night - I held off and tried some FTP clients first since I enabled FTP on my NAS.
For my need to browse my NAS and manage the files on it, Filebrowser seems the best option and it does fit my needs nicely. so happy with the purchase. I don't have any requirement for the media and document handling abilities of it though - for that I have Buzz Player HD and Goodreader which are both better at what they do. While I do think Filebrowser is very well produced, it is lacking in features that could make it one of those must have applications - I'm thinking things like being Abel to scan my network for shares instead of manually having to enter the connection information - something most of the media players I have tried can do with aplomb. I also needs to support more protocols - I already knew it only supported SMB but it really could do with the likes of an FTP client, WebDav support (which is coming) etc. Cloud storage services would be good as well although (Dropbox is in the works) but this is relatively easily worked around using the 'Open In' feature. I think adding cloud services would make it easier to move files around.
For maintaing files over SMB which was my main ask, this app works very well and is rock solid. I just think there is potential here to make this a true file manager program and a must have application.

 

[jtrosky]

I finally purchased FileBrowser last night - I held off and tried some FTP clients first since I enabled FTP on my NAS.
For my need to browse my NAS and manage the files on it, Filebrowser seems the best option and it does fit my needs nicely. so happy with the purchase. I don't have any requirement for the media and document handling abilities of it though - for that I have Buzz Player HD and Goodreader which are both better at what they do. While I do think Filebrowser is very well produced, it is lacking in features that could make it one of those must have applications - I'm thinking things like being Abel to scan my network for shares instead of manually having to enter the connection information - something most of the media players I have tried can do with aplomb. I also needs to support more protocols - I already knew it only supported SMB but it really could do with the likes of an FTP client, WebDav support (which is coming) etc. Cloud storage services would be good as well although (Dropbox is in the works) but this is relatively easily worked around using the 'Open In' feature. I think adding cloud services would make it easier to move files around.
For maintaing files over SMB which was my main ask, this app works very well and is rock solid. I just think there is potential here to make this a true file manager program and a must have application.

Glad to hear it's working for you. I agree that it could use some additional features, but it is great at what it's "main" job - accessing SMB shares - something that no other app seems to support (please, correct me if I'm wrong here - maybe there are others)...

 

[donka]

Glad to hear it's working for you. I agree that it could use some additional features, but it is great at what it's "main" job - accessing SMB shares - something that no other app seems to support (please, correct me if I'm wrong here - maybe there are others)...

I have used a couple of media players that will browse SMB shares just fine but you can't manipulate what is on there - FileBrowser is the only app so far that I have seen that lets you copy, move, delete, rename etc.
I tried out a couple of free FTP clients with limited success - I could certainly browse my files but one never had the option to delete and the other crashed every time I tried to delete a file. FTP also lacks the ease of copying files between different servers etc. - you would need to down locally, then upload to the other share which is more cumbersome than the copy and paste method of using FileBrowser and SMB shares.
So it is success for what I want but the app has much more potential to be developed further imho.