One of the most demanding features on iPhone is to save document (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF, etc) on iPhone and view it on-the-go. I’m using a 8GB iPhone model. I always think of using it as a mobile harddisk that lets me carry & view my documents on-the-go. Even it comes to firmware 2.1, however, Apple does not provide any support for this feature.
In my earlier posts, I have mentioned about saving files on iPhone using SSH / Netatalk and several workarounds to view Doc/PDF on iPhone. 
These approaches are far from perfect and not so easy for everyone, particularly those without technical background. I have been waited for a more perfect solution to replace these interim ones. Finally, the solution is here: Air Sharing.
What’s Air Sharing
Air Sharing, which is a new application in AppStore, provides you a very easy way to connect your iPhone with your computer and transfer files between them. With Air Sharing enabled, your iPhone appears as a shared drive on your computer. So, you can transfer files from computer to iPhone by just drag & drop. But unlike Netatalk which works for Mac only, Air Sharing supports all major operating systems including Mac, Windows and Linux. On top of that, the most impressive feature is Air Sharing lets you view documents locally on iPhone.
Supported File Formats
- Microsoft Office Document including Word, Excel and Powerpoint
- Apple’s iWork Document including Pages, Number and Keynote
- HTML
- RTF (Rich Text Format)
- RTFD (TextEdit documents with embedded images)
- Plain text document with Unicode support
- Source code file (e.g. C/C++, Java, Javascript, XML, etc) with coloured syntax highlight
- Movie file (Format supported: H.264, MPEG-4, 3GPP)
- Audio file (Format supported: MP3 VBR, AAC, WAV, etc)
- Image file (Format supported: GIF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, etc)
How to use Air Sharing
- Launch Air Sharing and your iPhone is now ready for other computer’s connection. In Air Sharing, you should find a HTTP URL in the status bar at the bottom. This is the iPhone’s URL your computer will connect to.
- Start Finder on Mac. Click “Go” -> “Connect to Server…”. Type in your iPhone URL (e.g. http://10.0.1.197:8080)
- Wait for a few seconds. Your iPhone will be shown up in Finder as a shared device.
- And you can now just drag & drop files onto iPhone.
For Windows / Linux user, you can consult the help page of Air Sharing about how you can connect to the iPhone on your computer.
Viewing Document using Air Sharing
A picture tells a thousand of words. Check out the screenshots and see how you can view different documents via Air Sharing.
Note: All documents in Air Sharing can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
Looks great, right? But, there is a catch. You have to take your action now. According to Avatron Software Inc, Air Sharing will be selling at a price of US$6.99. For now, it’s running a promotion for two weeks only. You can download it for free on Apple’s AppStore. Don’t wait. I can say this is a must-have application on iPhone.
Drop me comment and share your experience on Air Sharing.
Update: A new version of Air Sharing has been released to improve Windows Vista connectivity. You can click here to check out the update.
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I got the iPhone because of it’s ability to supposedly read books – Word docs, PDFs, whateva. So far this option is crap even with Air Sharing – how to I get to Chapter 20 page 400? I have to scroll through 399 screens – there is not a go to page option. What the heck?
There are ereaders out there like Sony and Amazon Kindle but I’d have to upgrade $$ from what I have (Tiger) to Leopard, buy Parallel, buy Windows AND then I have the wonderful opportunity after hundreds of dollars to buy the ereader. So any advice about iPhone and reading books without going freaking crazy scrolling through hundreds of pages to get to the page you left off at?
Thanks!
Simon,
I installed AirShare on my iPhone 2.0. But after installing it when i followed the instructions for Windows, it was not working.
In windows one has to click ‘Add new network place’ from My Network Places. On entering the URL given in AirShare. When I try to enter that URL it returns me an error message which goes like ‘The folder you entered does not appear to be valid. Please try another one’. Do have any clue to make it work?
Just figured it out…The wifi to wic iPhone is connected and the PC conneted to LAN have different gateways so connection does not seem to be possible. Sorry for posting the question without drilling enough.
Shirley, this solution is about viewing document like PDF or Word document on iPhone, but not specifically for eBook. For eBook solution, you can download eReader or Stanza from AppStore. These two applications allow you to jump from chapter to chapter and page to page.
This is great app for viewing my files stored at my comp. But how can I send files to my comp. wirelessly? I cant add my pics from my Iphone to air share? Or should I use another an app?
Berke, Air Sharing allows you to send file wirelessly. I presume you’re using Windows. You can map the iPhone as a network drive (e.g. F:\) in Windows Explorer and you can just drag & drop files to that folder. The file will be sent to iPhone automatically.
Air Sharing already comes with a comprehensive user guide on how you can do this. You can click the “?” on the lower-left corner to launch the user guide and refer to “Connecting” section.
Thanks for the excellent application recommendation, instructions and link. For those of us less technically minded you have saved hours of frustration. Incidentally, it was not free (£3.99), but for what I do, well worth it.
A question. Once you lose a wifi connection with an ipod touch, does the ability to view those documents that you dropped onto the touch go away or will the files that you dropped in stay permanently til you delete them?
Joey,
The file will still be there and you can still view the file on iPhone without Wifi connection, as long as you have already copied the file to your iPhone. That’s why we use Air Sharing.
Keep up the good work.
What a joke. I’ve never been able to connect to Air Sharing, following all these instructions. This is so frustrating.
Don, what OS are you using? I tested on Vista and Mac. Both are okay.
Works like a charm for me and Linux.
Using Windows XP and same frustration level –
not showing up in Windows Explorer -
- downloaded and installed Bonjour – then what
NOT HAPPENING YET, has anyone been successful w/Air Sharing on Win?
Installed air share, working like a charm. I dragged and dropped several files with different formats. Pictures are ok so are word and excel, but PDF is not loading, screen just goes blank. It’s a 62 MB file. Is there a size limit to the size of file it can open? Also noticed that opening other files are a bit slow, nothing too serious though
Good to know there is some advanced solution to add the ’smart’ to this “smart” device.
Set everything up and launched a 25MB PDF file. Just froze the whole iPod Touch. After a reset, a 5.3MB file works. Would be good if it can cope with big PDF files.
Please let me know if it is possible to transfer pictures from iphone to computer using this Air Share. And how to do it.
Thanks
Mario
Mario,
Yes, you can transfer photos using Air Sharing. Just follow the same procedures as you transfer other documents. Is it ok?
Hi Simon,
Could you please explain how? I have been able to transfer from PC to iphone, but I cant figure how from iphone to PC.
Thanks for your help
Mario
Simon<
From Iphone to PC??
mario,
Do you mean you want to transfer photo inside camera roll on iPhone to PC? Air Sharing does not allow you to view the “Camera Roll” folder.
To do that you can consider to use DiskAid. Or you can check out this post about how you can transfer photo from iPhone to PC wirelessly via SSH.
FileSync
http://www.jeff-net.com/filesync.htm
I recommend FileSync from Jeff-Net. You can view PDFs, PPTs, XLSs, and DOCs. Works great and it has email support, too, to mail files from your iPhone to other users.
Can a person view 100 MB pdfs on the 8gb iphone with AirShare?
Peter: for large pdfs, dont rely on air sharing please. as simon has suggested, use stanza or ereader, both are capable of handling large pdfs and good at going to specific page in the large pdf.
Simon: thanks for this blog! i’ve been a keen follower of your blog to keep myself updated of the latest iphone tips. i’m currently awaiting the sacred coming of the iBluetooth…
@Alex, thanks! I’m also waiting for the official release of iBlueTooth and transfer pictures/files between Nokia/Sony Ericsson mobile.
need some help
i installed air sharing but my iphone doesnt have wifi connection so it is not showing any ip address. what is the solution?
@bary, you’ll need to have Wifi connection in order to use Air Sharing.
ugh! ok i did everything, but when i go the the pdf file it shows blank pages… what am i doing wrong??
I like airsharing . If I send/or download an mp3 to iphone can I move it to itunes?
using mobile finder(from cydia not istore) I can move mp3 file but cant use anything but airsharing to open it with quicktime.but I need to transfer mp3 to iphone and use that song in itunes or background to games or.. whatever??anyone?
simon,
I am thinking about buying the airshare application for my phone, but i only want to do it if i can access the iphone files for the sms sounds. Is the application able to do this?
@Karl, Air sharing allows you to access specific folders for you to transfer documents (mainly). So, if you’re looking to change SMS sound, Air Sharing may not suit your need.
Hi, quick question. Can I use Airsharing if im feeding off of my neighbors Wifi connection. Ive followed all the instructions for win xp and cant get it to connect. The only thing i can think of is the fact that the wifi connection isnt my own. Does that effect connectivity? Also i noticed people commenting about the iPhone and PC being on different gateways? Pardon my ignorance but could someone explain this to me? That could also be my problem. Thanks in advance.
@Kurt, to copy file between PC & iPhone, make sure both of them are on the same Wifi network.
I installed Air Share Pro and moved a 74MB powerpoint file to my iPhone. When I click on it it starts loading but then the spinning wheel stops and the powerpoint file never opens. What is going wrong here?
@Guido, I guess it’s due to the large file size or the PPT is corrupted. Did you try to transfer other powerpoint files (with smaller file size)?
On the topic of transferring photos from the iphone to a PC over wireless: It looks like the methods previously mention require the user to go to the pc and do something (drag files via explorer or ssh to the iphone). Is there a way to copy the pictures from the iphone without requiring any interaction on the PC end? I wouild like to copy photos from an iphone to my media center PC where it is mainly controlled with a remote rather than a keyboard/mouse. One idea I am considering is a Flickr app and Flickr media center plug-in. Any other suggestions?
Found something thats still free and does the job very very well (transfer + view pdfs and files). Only sad thing is that you need to use a FTP client to transfer the stuff, but you can use wifi or USB, and its linux/windows/os x compatible…
FileAid
more info : http://www.digidna.net/fileaid/
I understand Air Share is not working with the 3GS. Has this been worked around yet?
i just updated today (6/7/2009) and works fine now – thank goodness
Okay, so I’m using XP, and I did everything, I got connected to my computer, and I can see the samples folder on both iphone and computer. But when I tap the place to view folders, it only lets me view the samples one and wont let me move up the file hierarchy. What do i do?
Question: if I transfer some mp3’s can I access them and play them via iPod application of the iPhone 3G? Or can I do that only via Air Sharing included player?
XP Users … All you have to do is go to MY NETWORK PLACES …. THEN … SELECT … ADD NEW NETWORK PLACE … AND … FOLLOW THE PROMPTS … Make sure you put http:// before the phone’s ip. Then you can find it in My Network Places and simply drag and drog.
So, the only way I can use SSH for iphone Wifi file transfer is if the phone is jailbroken? And jailbraking an iphone is a major procedure that a tech-knowledgeable person should only attempt, am I correct in this? Thanks again for the info.