Choice Of New Phone Depends On Btsync Support - Please Advise

[bzowk]

Hey Guys - 

 

Well, it's time for a phone upgrade and I can't decide between Android or iPhone again.  The primary reason I would want Android is because of how you can use BTSync with it.  Here's what I do with my current Android phone (m7):

 

What I Currently Do on Android (Want to do on iPhone)

- Have BTSync Pro which has computer and phone linked (plus other devices)

- My PC automatically downloads an MP3 radio show daily, renames it, and moves it to a folder syned with my phone

- My Android phone checks for and syncs the folder (plus my Titanium backup & music folders) over the night - updating / adding the downloaded MP3s from that day

- When in the car in the morning, Tasker detects when connected to car's bluetooth and starts to play the new MP3 show automatically

 

I realize that audio files can be synced with iPhone's iOS, but seemingly I can only play them by launching the BTSync app which has pretty basic playing support.  Due to Apple's closed filesystem, you cannot open a separate app and browse to / open the synced MP3 files as you can in Android.  I've tried this even on Jailbroken iPhones and the file may be copied from BTSync's folder to another app's folder, but it takes a while to do and I'll need to do this daily. 

 

The only workarounds I can think of with the above situation would be a script to run in a jailbroken iphone's terminal each morning to copy the file, a BTSync feature added to sync folders other than the ones in it's app's data folder, or a feature to open the audio file in 3rd party app.

 

My Questions

1. Is the above correct about how BTSync works in iOS or am I missing something?

2. Any suggestions for how I could do what I do on Android in iOS? (Don't care about auto playback)

3. If no, are there any future plans to implement something like this (if even possible with Apple's rules)

 

Thanks guys!

[iswrong]

Due to Apple's closed filesystem, you cannot open a separate app and browse to / open the synced MP3 files as you can in Android.

 

This is app sandboxing: an app can only touch files within its own Sandbox. The only way files could be shared in iOS was by opening the container app (e.g. Dropbox or Bittorrent Sync), selecting a file, and then choosing the option to open the file in another app. This also gave the annoyance that, e.g. you couldn't add e-mail attachments from Mail.app. The only way one could attach files, was by going to the app that has access to a file, and choosing to share the file by e-mail.

 

This has changed to some extend in iOS 8 - an application can implement a File Provider extension, which allows other applications to open files using that application. I am not sure whether the current Bittorrent Sync application providers this, our household has moved from iOS phones to Android phones over the last two years . If it does, you could open files from Sync in other applications, on your request.

 

However, you will never be able to automate things to the same extend with non-jailbreaked iOS. Android simply provides much more freedom.

[RomanZ]

@bzowk @iswrong

Sync implements file extension starting from 2.2, so technically other apps can reach Sync's files via extension.

 

Although, there is another major drawback in Sync for iOS (and i'm not 100% sure it can be avoided even on jailbroken device): iOS is very cruel towards background apps. Currently, you can't have Sync running in background on iOS: operating system kills it within 2-3 minutes.

 

So to Sync you'll actually need open Sync explicitly and keep it like that until it finishes synchronization.