The screens¶

Which screens you see depends on the host you're using: Pixeldrain has Files, Lists and Filesystem, a WebDAV, S3 or SMB host has Filesystem, and a REST API host has whichever its config turns on (see Screens). When a host has only one screen, the tabs are hidden and that screen is simply shown. A host can also have several Filesystem tabs, each opening at a folder of its own (see Several tabs of one kind).

The top bar¶

Back or the magnifier at the start: back on a file's details and in the settings, search on the screens with files.
The host switcher in the middle, on the screens with files, and the screen's name elsewhere. It shows the host you're using, with a badge: a tick on green when it answers, a cross on red when it doesn't, a question mark when it hasn't been checked. Tap it for all your hosts, each with where it is, whether it answers and whether you're signed in, and Manage hosts.
⋮ at the end Nightly, with what the screen does first:
- Select, and on an open list Download all, on a folder Download this folder;
- New: Upload (into the open folder, or as new files of the host), New folder, and on Pixeldrain Import files by ID;
- Sort by: name, size or date. Choosing the field it's sorted on flips the direction. Every list of files shares one order, kept across restarts;
- View: rows, a grid of big pictures, or Smart, which picks the grid when most of the files are pictures and videos; and Compact rows. What you choose is this folder's (or list's) own; on the Filesystem it can be for its subfolders too. Use the default goes back to the one in Settings → Look and feel;
- Settings.
Sort by and View stay open while you choose, so you see the change. In a stable release, Sort by and New are cards above the list, and the settings are behind a gear.

Files¶

Every file of your account in one list (on Pixeldrain, the files on your account page).

Pull down to refresh.
Tap a file for its details. Its ⋮ has Download, Share link, Add to… (the filesystem or a list), Delete, and for a song playing in the background, Add to queue Nightly.
Upload is in the ⋮ menu, under New Nightly.

Lists¶

Pixeldrain's lists: shareable collections of files. A list's ⋮ has Open, Download and Share link. Opened, its files are sorted like the Files screen; a list you own can have files removed from it (Remove from this list). Taking the last file out of a list deletes the list, which the app says first.

Download all, in the ⋮ menu of an open list, downloads every file of it: each on its own, or as one zip.

Filesystem¶

A folder browser, for every host that has folders. Each Filesystem tab keeps its own folder, and opens at it again after a restart; a tab with its own root folder can't go above it.

The path above the list shows where you are. Tap any part of it to go back there; the back button goes up a folder.
The ⋮ of a file has Download, Rename, Move and Delete, where the host allows them. A folder's Download Nightly has Separately (its files, in the same folders, in your Download folder) and As one ZIP. On a host whose files have no link (SMB, a private WebDAV), Share file Nightly downloads the file and hands it to the share sheet.
Move Nightly: browse to the folder they go into; a bar at the bottom says what's moving and where, with Move here. Its ✕ leaves them where they are. (In a stable release, a folder picker opens.)
Folders come first Nightly, unless you turn that off in Settings → Files.

In any other app, Share a file (or several) and choose Materialdrain.

Files Nightly wait in a bar at the bottom of the screens with files, until you're where they should go: in a folder of a Filesystem tab, or on the Files screen as new files of the host. Upload here sends them; the ✕ drops them. Nothing is uploaded before that. (In a stable release, the Upload screen opens with them.)
A Pixeldrain link Nightly (pixeldrain.com/u/… for a file, /l/… for a list), shared or tapped in another app, opens it in the app, on the built-in Pixeldrain. Android asks the first time which app opens such links, or turn it on in the app's system settings under Open by default.
Other text Nightly becomes a text file, which waits like a shared file.

The app waits for the unlock first when it's locked.

Upload¶

Only on a host that has nowhere else to upload to: on the others, upload from the ⋮ menu of the Files or Filesystem screen Nightly. (In a stable release, every host that takes uploads has this screen.)

Pick one or more files, or switch to Upload Text and paste some, then press Upload.

Picked files are listed with their size before anything is sent; a single file shows a preview: an image, a video's first frame, a song's cover and details, a PDF's page count, an app's icon and name.
Up to three files go up at a time. With Settings → Files → Upload by last change on, they go one after another instead, oldest first, so the newest ends up at the top of the host's list.
When it's done, each file's link can be copied, or all of them at once (or right away, with Copy the link after uploading Nightly).

On Pixeldrain, files go into your account's file list. On a WebDAV, S3 or SMB host, which have no such list, they go into the host's top folder (the config's root_path or prefix).

Search¶

The magnifier at the top left. Type, and the matches appear under the search box, over the blurred screen; tap one to open it. The list behind isn't changed.

On the Filesystem screen, search looks through the open folder and every folder under it: the app lists the folders in the background while the box is open, nearest first, and the matches come in as they're found. Each match says which folder it's in. Searching again is instant until something changes on the host.

All matches are shown, unless you set a limit in Settings → Files → Search result limit.

Selecting several files¶

Long-press a file (or choose Select in the ⋮ menu) to start selecting; tap others to add them. A bar at the bottom then offers what can be done with all of them at once, the first few as buttons and the rest in its own ⋮:

on the Filesystem screen: download (each file on its own, or as one zip Nightly), move, delete;
on the Files and Lists screens: download (each on its own, or as one zip), delete, add to a list, add to the filesystem, and in a list of yours, remove from the list;
everywhere, while a song plays in the background, Add to queue Nightly, in the order you selected them; and Select all.

Back, or the ✕, ends the selection.

File details¶

Tap a file to open it. With Settings → Look and feel → Swipe between files Nightly on, a swipe sideways goes to the file beside it in the list.

The preview at the top:
- a picture (animated ones move): tap for full screen, pinch or double-tap to zoom;
- a video: tap to play it full screen (see Videos);
- a song: its card, with its cover, title and artist from the file's own tags, and its player (see Songs);
- a text or code file: the start of it, coloured, in a card the size of the others, saying what it is and how long. Its badge opens all of it full screen Nightly, with numbered lines, Find in the text, wrapping, bigger or smaller text, and copying all of it, or only some lines: long-press a line's number, then tap another. A Markdown file Nightly is shown as it looks, with a button for its source;
- a PDF: the top of its first page and how many pages it has; tap it for every page full screen, scrolled with a finger, zoomed with two (or a double tap). It's loaded into the app to be shown (at most 64 MB, and only the last few PDFs are kept); one over 16 MB waits for a tap first;
- an archive: what's inside it: open its folders, and tap a file to save it. On Pixeldrain, zip, 7z, rar, tar and apk; on WebDAV, S3 and SMB Nightly, zips, of which only the parts needed are read.
With the data saver on, the preview waits for a tap. In the full screen view, a swipe sideways goes to the next file of the same kind.
The actions: Download, Share (the link, or Nightly the file itself where it has none) and Delete. Download asks to be tapped twice, so a slip of the finger doesn't start a big download (Settings → Files → Tap twice to download turns that off). While it downloads, the button shows the progress and cancels when tapped; when it's done, it opens the file. The snackbar that says it's done has an Open too. An APK opens the installer, which asks once to allow installs from Materialdrain.
The details: type, size, dates, the folder it's in, and on Pixeldrain the views, downloads and bandwidth, when it deletes itself, and its links and ids. Tap a value to see all of it; the buttons beside it copy or open it.

Videos¶

Full screen, in the app's dark colours. A tap shows or hides the controls.

Double-tap the left or right side to skip back or on (by Settings → Media → Skip by), the middle to pause.
Hold it down to play at double speed Nightly, until you let go.
Pinch to zoom in Nightly, up to four times, and drag to move about.
With Brightness and volume swipes Nightly on, swipe up or down on the left for the brightness, on the right for the volume, and sideways to seek.
The buttons at the top Nightly: fit or fill the screen, turn it to landscape or portrait, and the settings: Loop, Speed, Subtitles and Audio (where the video has them), and Open in another app, for a player of your own or one that casts it.
A video opened again goes on from where you left it Nightly (Resume videos).

Songs¶

A song plays from its card in its details. With Settings → Media → Play songs in the background Nightly on, it goes on when you leave its details and close the app, with controls in the notification and on the lock screen, and the songs of the list it was opened from after it.

The miniplayer Nightly floats above the tabs: its cover, title and play button, with a line along its bottom for how far it is. Swipe it sideways for the song before or after, down to close the song, up (or tap it) for the player.
The player Nightly covers the screen: the cover (swipe it for the next song), the seek bar, repeat (the queue, or the one song), previous, play, next and shuffle, and what kind of file it is ("FLAC • 24-bit • 1751 kb/s • 48.0 kHz"). Pull it down, or press back, to hide it; the song goes on. With Compact player on, it opens as a card a third of the screen high instead, which a pull up grows to the whole screen.
The queue Nightly, behind its button in the player: the songs in the order they play, the ones played greyed out. Tap one to play it, ✕ to take it out, and drag its handle to move it. Add to queue, in a song's ⋮ and in the selection bar, puts more at its end.

Downloads¶

Downloads go into your Download folder (or Nightly Download/Materialdrain, in Settings → Files), keeping the name the host gives the file. A name that's already taken gets a number before its extension: photo.jpg, then photo (1).jpg.

A folder Nightly, or several files, downloads Separately, its folders made again in Download around their files, or As one ZIP: Pixeldrain makes the zip itself, for other hosts the app zips the files as they come in.
One of more than 100 files, or over 1 GB, asks first Nightly: a folder can hold far more than it looks.
With Open downloads when done Nightly on, a single file opens once it's in.

Transfers¶

While something uploads or downloads, a bar under the top bar shows its progress, speed and time left, with a Cancel card above the list. Transfers keep running when you leave the app: a notification shows their progress and can cancel them, and another says when they finish (or fail) while the app is in the background.

Outside the app¶

Shortcuts Nightly: long-press the app's icon for Upload, Files and Filesystem.
A Quick Settings tile Nightly, Upload, if you add it: it opens the app to upload, after the phone is unlocked.
The system's file picker Nightly: with Settings → Files → Show hosts in the file picker on, your hosts with folders show in it (and in the Files app), so other apps can open their files. Read only, and hidden while the app lock is on.