Almost every "Other File Provider" is greyed out

[Quorum75]

When choosing Open Existing Vault / Other File Provider all choices are greyed out.

[tobihagemann]

This is actually not a bug and it's just how most of 3rd party file providers work. But I think we should make this very clear in the onboarding screen that this is expected.

[tobihagemann]

If anyone is wondering about the technical details: Apps need to support "picking folders" via NSExtensionFileProviderSupportsPickingFolders in the Info.plist of the file provider extension. However, this key doesn't seem to be officially documented anywhere by Apple. Twitter was the only source that we could find (actually the complete reply chain is hilarious).

We're not sure if we should support this key either because it doesn't seem to really work. But we're still investigating it during the beta. E.g., adding a vault inside a vault doesn't work (yet?).

[Quorum75]

I understand, Apple has never been very transparent on anything anyway.

FYI it works with Boxcryptor for any Cloud services. However I don't know how they manage it.

Also, as you can see on the screen shot Cryptomator for Onedrive doesn't appear on the list although I added it to the Beta.

[tobihagemann]

If I'm not mistaken, Boxcryptor doesn't have the option to add "other file providers" (via the UIDocumentPickerViewController). What you're seeing is that they support a lot of cloud services using their own implementations. Cryptomator actually supports a lot of "other" cloud serivces as well via WebDAV, see #37.

[Quorum75]

To be honest the process on macOS and iOS is a bit different.

On macOS you can use Boxcryptor on any Could providers even if they are not on the list, like Mega for instance. You just need to add the Cloud folder from the Finder into the Boxcryptor list.

On iOS you have also a list of Cloud services, however you can too use WebDAV to add whatever service you want.

[ShredderWalnut]

I'm trying to access a Cryptomator vault from within Textastic but the Cryptomator extension is greyed out. Is this caused by the same issue in this thread? Will it be "fixed" in a update?

[phil1995]

Yes, you are right it is exactly the same reason (lack of NSExtensionFileProviderSupportsPickingFolders support) why Cryptomator is grayed out in Textastic and all other apps that need access to folders.
As described in #48 (comment) we decided to not support NSExtensionFileProviderSupportsPickingFolders as it is undocumented and allows 3rd party apps to access the filesystem directly without interacting with our FileProviderExtension.

[toomaj]

If I'm not mistaken, Boxcryptor doesn't have the option to add "other file providers" (via the UIDocumentPickerViewController). What you're seeing is that they support a lot of cloud services using their own implementations. Cryptomator actually supports a lot of "other" cloud serivces as well via WebDAV, see #37.

WebDav is not always the best choice as most cloud storage providers don't support MFA/2FA on WebDav, which encourages bad practices especially when one WebDav key gives access to the entire storage or some providers force users to switch off 2FA in regards to activate WebDav. This is not a Cryptomator problem but those challenges exist.

[emillienemann]

If anyone is wondering about the technical details: Apps need to support "picking folders" via NSExtensionFileProviderSupportsPickingFolders in the Info.plist of the file provider extension. However, this key doesn't seem to be officially documented anywhere by Apple. Twitter was the only source that we could find (actually the complete reply chain is hilarious).

We're not sure if we should support this key either because it doesn't seem to really work. But we're still investigating it during the beta. E.g., adding a vault inside a vault doesn't work (yet?).

It'd be extremely useful to me. The only app I currently use that has this enabled is Working Copy and it's great for automation using shortcuts and many other things. It would also allow to people use Cryptomator folders in third party file browsers like FileBrowser, Documents or FE.
I could also edit Cryptomator files in Textastic, use it for Git with Working Copy, and edit files in iA Writer.
Sad to hear this is not possible, because all sync applications like photo syncing, text queries and other more advanced things would either be impossible or have to be done in the app itself.