Pythonista 3 doesn’t show iCloud files created on MacBook Pro

Question

Description:

• Using the menu Script Library > iCloud in Pythonista 3 on iPad shows .py files created in Pythonista, but not files created in another IDE and saved to that iCloud folder

Steps to reproduce:

• create .py file in an IDE on MacBook Pro
• save the file on MacBook Pro in iCloud > Pythonista 3 > <subfolder>
• in Pythonista 3 on iPad, open the main menu (hamburger menu) and select `Script Library > iCloud >

Expected:

• Pythonista file navigator shows all files in the folder

Actual:

• Pythonista file navigator shows only the files created in Pythonista

Questions:

• Is Pythonista caching an index of its iCloud folder separately? If so, is there a way to get Pythonista to reindex the folder?
• How to see all the files in the Pythonista iCloud folder, and thus use that folder for syncing files between iPad and MacBook Pro?

Answer 1

You can also open the files in Pythonista using the "Files" app from Apple on the same device. Once you opened them this way, they usually show up in Pythonista´s file browser/open file menu just fine. That way you don't have to go through the hassle of doing this on another iOS device and the sharing... .

Answer 2

Problem:

• Pythonista does seem to be either a) relying on an outdated index of the iCloud > Pythonista folder itself, or b) not downloading the files from iCloud automatically. We need to force Pythonista to fetch the file details directly and/or download the files.

Solution:

• Under the main menu (hamburger menu), click the +, then Import..., and select Files from the contextual menu. This will access the iCloud drive.
• Select the Pythonista folder from iCloud.

This should trigger Pythonista to download the current files from iCloud. You won’t need to actually complete the import procedure - it’s enough to access the iCloud drive through the import menu.