As you probably know, the applications on your iPhone use Apple's cloud storage space, iCloud, by default to store your files and documents. This has several disadvantages, especially if you start to run out of space in iCloud. Fortunately, it is possible to change the storage location of your iPhone applications and store its data on Dropbox, Google Drive or any other cloud service..
Set up your Dropbox account in the Files app
Apps like Pages, Numbers or GarageBand give you the option of backing up your documents directly to iCloud. The main advantage of this solution is obviously to be able to save storage space on your iPhone.
This device also has other advantages. Your documents are accessible from any device connected to the Internet, including a Windows computer. You just have to make sure to configure the iCloud application on your PC..
But beware, it sometimes happens that certain companies block access to iCloud services. Impossible then to access his files in the premises of his company. Another recurring problem with all cloud services is the saturation of storage space. If you already have a Dropbox or Google Drive account, you would probably like to be able to use it to store files generated by your iOS applications.
For this you will need to change the storage settings of your iPhone. This step will allow you to add the online storage service of your choice (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) to your iPhone. For more information, I invite you to read the article: manage your cloud accounts from the iPhone Files application..
- Install the application of your cloud service on your device (in this case here we will install the Dropbox application)
- Then open the Files app on your iPhone or iPad
- Click on the button (3 aligned dots) at the top right of your screen
- Activate the switch corresponding to the cloud service you want to use with your applications
- Validate your configuration by clicking on the ok button
Change the storage location of your favorite apps
Now that your online storage service is configured on your iPhone, you will be able to choose the default storage location on your various applications. This means that every time you create a new file with one of your apps, it will automatically be saved to Dropbox.
- Open the settings of your smartphone or your Apple tablet
- Bring the window down
- Find in the list the application whose storage location you want to change
- In our example, we will take the Pages application
- Click on the application icon
- In the new window, find the document storage section
- Normally this option should be set to iCloud Drive
- Click on the topic to see the different storage options available to you
- Select the storage service of your choice from the list (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.)
Then you just have to repeat the operation for all the apps for which you want to change the default storage space. Be careful, you should know that these modifications can cause some problems.
If you no longer use iCloud to store your documents, they will no longer sync with your other Apple devices. Obviously this rule only applies if the Dropbox application has not been previously configured on all of your devices.
