iOS text editor is now available!

[Ed]

We are happy to announce that iOS now has a text editor! You can access this feature on any text file from the toolbar in the lower left corner.

[cjdshaw]

All 3 problems - keyboard over text, cursor skipping blank lines, £ sign uneditable - seem to have been fixed in app version 62.2.2. Good work!

[Ed]

Fantastic news @cjdshaw! Thanks for confirming 🙂

Would you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using our Dropbox Community? You can access it here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxT

Thank you!

[mtvgn]

I'm still having problems using this feauture.

I always have 2 txt-files in my root folder of Dropbox to easily reuse on every (Windows) computer that I use, but when I just wanted to copy some text I wrote on my iPhone a few minutes ago, both files were unusable (i.e. only the 'comments' popup arose in the left down corner, but not the 'edit mode' popup). I had to add a new txt-file to be able to edit the file and copy the text.

I think this might have to do with the files being Windows txt-files and I'm trying to edit them on a IOS device, but still that should be able somehow as noone else is complaining about it anymore. Right?

iPhone SE, iOS 10.3.3, dropbox 64.2

I fetched my iPad to see if that has the same problem and it has

iPad Air, iOS 9.3.5, dropbox 64.2

I am behind my Windows computer now and just created a 4th txt-file with partly the same content to see if that has the same problem and it does, but I actually think I know what causes the problem, as all 3 files that can't be edited on the iPhone have some special characters on the first line so maybe that's causing this non-editable problem and you can look into that? Thanx!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndu2aeie8p0ttz3/tryOut.txt?dl=0

[cjdshaw]

I can confirm that between 62.2.2 and 64.2.2, the problem editing text files with special characters has returned. See mine for a simpler example than mtvgn's

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aglfc6w1d4m8xkg/Pound%20sign.txt?dl=0

[Ed]

Hi again,

I spoke to our engineers and it looks like the initial solution we've found out was breaking some Asian encodings because of inherent ambiguity between them, so it had to be switched off for the time being.

I don't have estimates to when a fix will happen so a suggestion if you want to edit the file, is to convert it to UTF-8.

[EmonkhanEmon]

ThIsI

[DanPH77]

QUESTION:

I use to use the text editor PlainText 2....it stopped working so I am glad you can edit text in Dropbox now.

ANYWAY, is there a way to make it so it auto syncs when you open up the app and still have the file open in Dropbox mobile app?

On Plaintext for example I could edit the text file on my computer and when I unlocked my phone with the Plaintext app still running it would auto sync.

On Dropbox right now you have to back out of the file and let it sync and then click on it again on the Dropbox mobile app to make sure you have an updated copy.

Please advise.

[Timdier]

Thanks for this. With planetext no longer functional, I’ve been looking for a quick way to edit  ascii files. Don’t need anything fancy, just make changes to a shopping list. Ergo, quick loading is most important 

—Tim

[DanPH77]

@Timdier

I also came from PlainText 2 the only downside IMO though is that it doesnt auto sync. You cant keep the file open on your phone it wont sync...PlainText would auto sync with the file open and still running. If they could add that it would be great

[Timdier]

Does it sync when you cloes/leave file?  If so, ok with me. 

Only problem I have on my iPad 4 mini is I can’t close/exit a file. I have to kill the Dropbox app

—tim