Adding files to devices (Should know)

Whether for one or multiple users/devices, sometimes it is necessary to add files to one or many devices. Here we go through adding content to our devices as well as recommending best practices for adding different types of files.

Getting ready

In order to add different types of content to our devices, we need to have an application installed on the device that can open that type of file. You will also need to make sure that users are created in Apple Configurator.

For example, to open a PDF file we need an application that can open PDFs on the device. You can read about installing applications in the Deploying applications on prepared devices (Become an expert) recipe.

How to do it…

To get started, make sure that your devices are under supervision. We talk in depth about supervision and assigning devices in the Deciding whether to prepare, supervise, or assign (Must know) recipe.

1. To get started, click on the Assign button in the Configurator pane. Once in the Assign pane, you will see that there are three distinct areas:

   • Groups

   • Users

   • Documents

   

2. Choose the user that you will be assigning documents to by highlighting the user in the Users section.

3. Once the user is highlighted, click on the plus [ + ] sign in the bottom-left corner of the Documents section.

   Tip

   You can only put files on the device if you have already installed an application that can open that type of document and it has iTunes files sharing capabilities.

   You will now be prompted with a choice of the application that you want to open the file with.

   

   Tip

   There are several free applications out there such as Adobe Reader and Documents 2 Free. Please test these before deployment.

4. When you click on Choose, you will be prompted to find the file on your computer to be opened.

5. Click on Open.

   You can do this for several files and they will be added onto your device.

6. When all of the files are added to the window, click on Check Out.

   

   Now the application used to open the document is in the file list.

   

How it works…

Configurator takes advantage of the same file transfer system as iTunes to move files into the applications. Only applications that have the capability to open files in this manner will work to transfer documents and files onto the device.

Note

You must install an application via Configurator and the application must have the iTunes file transfer capability built in. If the app does not have this feature built in, it will not show up in the list of applications.

Also remember you can remove files in the same way by clicking on the minus button in the documents pane.