Question [Resolved] Add Files button doesn't work for users with iPads and iPhones

kiwi3685 wrote:

Are you having problems using the "Add files" buttons from a PC or Mac running Safari web browser or is the problem only on an iPad or iPhone?

The answer will almost certainly be that it just didn't work in iPhone/iPad. It never has, and probably never will. I know of no standard web site where it would, or even could work. Where would it upload from? These devices don't use the same directory structure as "normal" PCs as far as I can tell.

Everything worked fine for my users until I upgraded to Kunena 1.7.2 from 1.5.5, so I don't think you're on the right track there

Just try googl'ing the question. You will find hundreds of articles explaining the technical reasons what you can NOT add files from iPhone / iPad.

OK, so on my development system I restored my site from a backup taken when it was running Kunena 1.5.5 and tried using an iPhone and an iPad to insert an image into a post. The result: it wouldn't work.

So I went back to my users who'd reported the problem to check and they honestly couldn't swear they'd tried to do this until I'd upgraded to 1.7.2. SO it looks like it's not a Kunena problem to me.

However, I do want to provide my users a good experience regardless of the platform they use to access my site, so after some further experimentation I have come up with a solution/workaround that is really simple to implement, does not require any effort from either myself or the Kunena team, and leaves the choice fully in the hands of my users.

The solution is not to use the Safari browser on iOS to access the Kunena forum, but to use a different browser called iCabMobile which allows uploading of images to the forum. And to prove it, here are a couple of screenshots from an iPad doing just that with both 1.5.5 and 1.7.2. I don't know if other Safari alternatives will work - but it definitely does with iCabMobile. (I also have no affiliation to the authors of iCabMobile by the way.)

I think this goes some way to dispel the myth that iOS is special somehow: it's simply a case of Apple not building the facility into Safari.

I now consider this a closed issue - thanks for your help and support.