Using iPads to access network shares

[JordanT91]

I'm setting up some iPads for teachers to use as their personal devices.

 

I've got Office sorted on them, as well as printing and all the apps I think they'd need like Teams, Zoom, Google Drive, OneDrive etc.

 

The thing I'm struggling with is getting access to their personal network drives.

 

Using the built-in Files utility I can only map to the root file server, not their individual drives. Apparently this is a limitation of the Files utility.

 

Documents by Readdle seems to be highly recommended so I tried that, and it looks like it maps individual network drives perfectly. The only problem is, it opens documents from the drives within the Documents app and as read only, not with Word, Excel.

 

Can anyone suggest a solution? I need to be able to access a network drive and open the Office documents with the Office apps in edit mode (like you would on a Windows device!)

 

Thanks.

[FN-GM]

You could use Foldr. It will allow you to access network shares via app and / or web interface.

 

The long term solution would be to migrate your data into a cloud service. Eg: OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive. This would work out cheaper, less maintenance and easier to use.

[Cat_Jam148]

The Documents app does allow you to select the file and then share it with the Word app allowing you to then edit the document in Word. It does then need to be shared with the Documents app if it is to be stored back on the network drive.

[JordanT91]

The Documents app does allow you to select the file and then share it with the Word app allowing you to then edit the document in Word. It does then need to be shared with the Documents app if it is to be stored back on the network drive.

 

 

Hmm that might work. I've just tried it and when sharing a document to Word, it only opens as read only. I have to save a copy somewhere, make the edits then send it back to Documents to save to the drive. That's a bit of a faff!

[Michael]

 

The thing I'm struggling with is getting access to their personal network drives.

 

 

Migrate Documents data to Google My Drive? All accessible via the App.

[JordanT91]

if anyone is interested, I purchased FileBrowser for Education for the iPads. It allows in-place editing of Office documents and also allows mapping directly to a user's H drive which Foldr struggled with.