GoodReader offers you the ability to access different kinds of servers.

Read Me First

Accessing E-Mail servers to download E-Mail attachments

Accessing WebDAV servers (MobileMe iDisk, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, MyDisk.se or others)

Accessing Google Docs

Accessing FTP servers

Accessing Dropbox


Read Me First

This introduction applies to every server connection except for Dropbox. You can find a separate guide to access Dropbox here.

Before connecting to a server, its record must be created. To create a server record, go to Web Downloads section, select Connect to Servers, go to Create New Connection section and select a server type to add. You will be asked to enter readable title of a server record (this title is what you will see in a server records list), user name and password to access this server, URL of a server (except for pre-configured servers, for which GoodReader knows their URLs), and possibly some other connection parameters, depending on a server type.

For extra security don't store a password in a server record, this way you will have to enter it manually every time when connecting.

You can always edit server record data by pressing a blue arrow to the right of server title in server records list.

You don't have to create records for local WebDAV servers on your WiFi network - they will be detected and shown automatically in most cases.

Tap a server record to connect to this server.

When connected, you will see a list of folders on that server (tapping them will bring you inside those folders) and a list of files (tapping them will start downloading of those files). For E-Mail servers you will see headlines of messages (see details in the appropriate section).

It's ok to have several separate downloads at the same time.

Find information about your downloads in Web Downloads section.

Downloaded files themselves are placed to the main My Documents folder. If there is a file with the same name in that folder, numbers will be added to a downloaded file's name until the available name will be found.

You can delete files and folders (or email messages) from a server by swiping their names (be careful - this can't be undone).

You can upload files and folders from GoodReader to servers by first preparing those files/folders for copying/moving using GoodReader's File Management tools. Then, when connected to a server and found proper destination folder, press Paste button to start copying/moving files to a server. This feature is not available for E-Mail servers.

In case if network error happens, GoodReader may show you an error message instead of a server folder contents. To reload the real contents of a server folder into GoodReader's memory, press Reload button:

You have 2 options to rotate the screen - automatically or manually. Choose your option in General Settings section of Application Settings. In automatic mode screen orientation will follow the actual device movements. In manual mode (very useful for reading in bed) you can always rotate the screen manually with this button:

 


Accessing E-Mail servers to download E-Mail attachments

The iPhone OS architecture doesn't currently allow other apps to directly access E-Mail messages stored on your iPhone/iPod in the built-in Mail app. However, you can access E-Mail servers via IMAP or POP3 protocol directly from GoodReader to find a message with a file attachment and to download such attachment into GoodReader.

Please read the Read Me First introduction.

IMAP is a much more advanced protocol than POP3, and it works much faster when downloading message headlines. Please use IMAP instead of POP3 whenever possible.

GoodReader offers a set of pre-configured popular mail servers - gmail.com, yahoo.com, me.com, hotmail.com and aol.com. GoodReader knows how to access these servers. You only have to provide your user name and password.

Note for yahoo.com users: yahoo.com only offers POP3 access for their paid accounts. At the time of writing this, no IMAP or POP3 access to free yahoo.com accounts is possible.

When entering connection parameters for servers other than pre-configured servers, you will be asked to specify if a server uses SSL, and a type of authentication. Please avoid using "Password" authentication when "Use SSL" is off. By doing so you expose your password to the whole world every time you connect.

When a server uses IMAP protocol, GoodReader by default scans all messages on a server and shows you only messages with file attachments. You can change this behaviour and make GoodReader show you all the messages for IMAP servers by switching the Emails with attachments only option in Application Settings, Other Settings section.

IMAP servers: messages with attachments will be marked with a paperclip image. When you'll tap on such a message, you will get to the detailed view, showing you the list of all files attached to this message. Tapping on an actual attachment will start the downloading.

While IMAP protocol allows to determine if a message contains file attachments while scanning for message headlines, POP3 doesn't offer such information until the actual downloading of a message has started. So, when it comes to POP3, to save your Internet traffic, we show you all the messages with a question mark, to indicate a fact that it is unknown at the moment if this message contains an attachment or not. When you'll tap on such a message, GoodReader will start actual downloading, and will determine if there are attachments or not, and will save all the found attachments to the My Documents folder.

This feature is a paid add-on. It can be purchased in app for an extra charge (requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later).

Because App Store In App Purchase engine doesn't provide a refund routine, we encourage you to try all our paid add-ons for free in GoodReader Lite app, and then use those features to unlock the power of full version of GoodReader.

 


Accessing WebDAV servers (MobileMe iDisk, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, MyDisk.se or others)

You can access file storage and sharing servers like MobileMe iDisk, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, MyDisk.se or other servers on the Web that support WebDAV protocol. You can browse folders, download, upload and delete files.

Please read the Read Me First introduction.

GoodReader offers a set of pre-configured popular WebDAV servers - MobileMe iDisk, Public iDisk, box.net, FilesAnywhere.com, MyDisk.se. GoodReader knows the URL addresses to access these servers, so you only have to enter your user name and password for these server records. Other WebDAV servers can be accessed by creating a server record with the Any WebDAV Server link in the Create New Connection section.

The same technology lets you connect to local WebDAV servers via WiFi - connect directly (via WebDAV protocol) to any other file management and sharing application on another iPhone that is currently connected to the same WiFi network. You don't have to create records for such servers - they will be detected and shown automatically in most cases.

Note for MobileMe iDisk users: do NOT enter the "@me.com" part of your e-mail address in the user name field.

Note for FilesAnywhere.com users: please note that not all FilesAnywhere accounts support WebDAV protocol. At the time of writing this, only WebAdvanced and Corporate payment plans of FilesAnywhere service support WebDAV connections. Please consult FilesAnywhere manuals to find out if your account supports WebDAV connections.

When entering connection parameters for Any WebDAV Server, you may notice the Chunked transfer option. You should keep it on for most servers. Try to turn it off if you're experiencing problems when uploading files to certain servers.

 


Accessing Google Docs

Starting with v.2.5, GoodReader offers you a server-style access to Google Docs. Unlike previously used web browser access, this way is much more convenient. It allows you to browse your Google Docs account like a simple file server. It allows you to download files, but also to upload and to delete files and folders.

Please read the Read Me First introduction.

Google Docs usually converts certain file types (.doc, .txt, etc.) to its internal format, and then converts them back to a desired format when you want to download them (this doesn't apply to PDF files - Google always stores PDF files in unmodified form). When you'll tap such a file, GoodReader will offer you a choice of formats in which you want to download this file - PDF, TXT, DOC, HTML, PNG, RTF, ZIP (with HTML and images). Files that weren't initially converted to Google's internal format (including PDF files) will be downloaded in unmodified form.

We offer the ability to upload files and folders to Google Docs. Recently Google announced the ability to store unmodified files of any arbitrary type, without converting them to Google's internal format. You can upload such files to your free Google Docs account from your computer using a web browser. It is also possible to upload unmodified files of unrecognized types from GoodReader. However, since we're not using a web browser for this, but Google's proprietary API, Google currently limits such an ability to its paid Premier accounts only. For free accounts Google will only accept files of recognized types from GoodReader, and will convert them to its internal format (PDF file format is an exception - Google will accept PDF files and store them in unmodified form for free accounts as well as for paid Premier accounts). Please note that this information only applies to uploading files, downloading of unmodified files of arbitrary types is possible in GoodReader for all Google Docs accounts, including free ones. This information is valid at the time of writing. Google may change this behaviour after the release of this manual, so please consult Google documentation for more information.

When loading a file list, Google sometimes will report a partial list. In this case you will see the Load more item in a list. Consequent clicks on this item will load the rest of a list. However, it has been noted that sometimes Google reports a partial list, but further loading doesn't show any additional files or folders. This Google's behaviour is known, so don't worry about it.

When uploading files to Google Docs using the Paste button, it has been noted that Google sometimes reports an updated file list with a little delay. So it is possible to paste a file, and then to see an updated file list without this file. Just press the refresh button to reload a file list, and you should see a recently uploaded file. Please note that we have nothing to do with this delay in updating a current file list, it is provided by Google.

This feature is a paid add-on. It can be purchased in app for an extra charge (requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later).

Because App Store In App Purchase engine doesn't provide a refund routine, we encourage you to try all our paid add-ons for free in GoodReader Lite app, and then use those features to unlock the power of full version of GoodReader.

 


Accessing FTP servers

GoodReader offers the ability to acces FTP servers. You can browse folders, download, upload and delete files. Please note that only plain FTP is currently supported, no security additions. FTPS and SFTP protocols are NOT supported.

Please read the Read Me First introduction.

This feature is a paid add-on. It can be purchased in app for an extra charge (requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later).

Because App Store In App Purchase engine doesn't provide a refund routine, we encourage you to try all our paid add-ons for free in GoodReader Lite app, and then use those features to unlock the power of full version of GoodReader.

 


Accessing Dropbox

Dropbox currently doesn't offer any public API to access their service, therefore we're currently unable to incorporate server-style access to Dropbox. However, Dropbox offers a nice web interface, so you can download files to GoodReader using GoodReader's built-in web browser.