Support: Briefcase FAQ

Configuring your Mac for use with Briefcase is usually a one step procedure. Just enable "Remote Login" on the "Sharing" pane of "System Preferences"

Make sure that you use your short username when logging into your Mac using Briefcase.

If you have problems, be sure to check your firewall settings.

This FAQ contains the answers to many other questions. If you cannot find what you need, send us an email

Briefcase and Briefcase Lite share the majority of features, but there are a few features that set the full version of Briefcase apart.

• Connection – Briefcase users can connect to and browse machines on remote as well local networks.
• File Download – Briefcase enables you to securely download directories as well as files.
• File Upload – With Briefcase, you can upload files to another iPhone. Likewise, any type of file, including disk images and installer packages, can be uploaded to another machine, with the option to perform related actions (e.g. mount disk image or install package).
• Email Attachments – Briefcase can email files as attachments using the iPhone's mail interface
• File Viewing – Briefcase supports a few more file types than Briefcase Lite, including RTF, RTFD, and ODT files (when downloaded from a Mac). The full version of Briefcase also supports syntax highlighting for a variety of common types of source files. As well, Briefcase will try to open a file even if it does not recognize the extension. This is especially useful for text files.
• Pricing – Briefcase pricing is $4.99. Briefcase Lite is available free of charge.

Narrator is a multimedia e-book/audiobook app and publishing platform for the iPhone and iPod Touch that delivers stories via:

• High-quality audio, e-text or a combination of the two
• Cool text layout options: email, scrolling chat messages, etc.
• Animated illustrations for picture books
• A built-in dictionary and web links, for those who want to learn more, fast
• A growing list of books, including A Christmas Carol, Twas the Night Before Christmas and more

Read more...

Apple changed the configuration of Snow Leopard so that SSH/SFTP (how Briefcase talks to your Mac) authenticates differently. The fix is to upgrade to v1.3 of Briefcase, which is now available in the App Store.

If Briefcase just shows you the message "Authentication Failed" after you attempt to log in, then it means that your either your username or your password were incorrectly entered.

The most common reason for your username and password to fail is that you are using your long username. On Mac OS X, you have a long username (e.g. Mike Taylor) and a short username (e.g. mtaylor). Briefcase can only log you in using the short username.

You can find your short username by looking in the left sidebar of the Finder window. Here's what it looks like on my machine .

The second most common problem is that you may not have a password set for you user account on your Mac. You can set a password using the Accounts pane of System Preferences. If you have forgotten the password for you Mac read the instructions here.

Double check that the WiFi symbol is visible in the status bar of your iPhone when you are running Briefcase. If it is not, you can join a WiFi network from the "WiFi" section of the "Settings" app on your iPhone. If you continue to have difficulties, it sometimes helps to turn WiFi off and then on again in the "WiFi" section of the "Settings" app on your iPhone.

Apple changed the file formats used by iWork in the new version (iWork '09). Briefcase use's the iPhone's built-in support for viewing iWork files. Because of that, we cannot directly address this problem. We have filed a request with Apple to update iWork file support in the next iPhone OS upgrade.

In the mean time, you can save your files out of iWork using the old iWork '08 format. Remeber to also select "Include preview in document" for best results.

You can make your Linux box show up under the "Local" computers in Briefcase. This makes it possible to use Briefcase Lite with Linux.

Briefcase uses Apple's Bonjour to detect computers automatically. Linux supports ZeroConf, which is the technology that Bonjour grew out of. On Linux, Zeroconf is implemented by the "avahi" daemon. In some modern version of Linux it comes installed by default. However, it doesn't support ssh by default.

Here is how to enable ZeroConf for SSH on Ubuntu 8.04. Other versions of Linux may differ.

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/avahi-daemon/examples/ssh.service /etc/avahi/services
sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

Once you do that, your Linux box should show up automatically in Briefcase.

No, Briefcase cannot connect using the USB cable. Apple does not allow 3rd party applications to use the USB connection. You need to have the iPhone and the computer on the same network in order to connect.

Yes, you need to have a password set on your Mac before Briefcase will be able to connect. Your Mac will not allow outside connections if your user account does not have a password. This is an important security precaution. You can still set up your Mac to log you in automatically when it starts up, without asking for a password. You can do that in the "Users" pane of System Preferences.

Briefcase can connect to a remote computer over 3G, Edge, or WiFi as long as the remote computer is visible on the Internet. Making your computer visible to the Internet usually requires a little bit of work and some networking knowledge.

I have written up a guide on how to set up your computer for remote access. I recommend that you read through it before you get started.

If there is no WiFi network available, it is easy to create your own ad hoc network on your Mac laptop. From the AirPort menu choose "Create Network..." Give your network a name, and optionally a password. On your iPhone, you can manually choose your network (your iPhone may find it automatically) by choosing the WiFi option in "Settings." Once you have joined the network, you should be able to run Briefcase and connect to your Mac.

While Briefcase was designed to work optimally with Macs, Windows users (with a solid amount of technical knowledge) can use Briefcase as well. Windows does not support any open standards for remote login out of the box, including SSH which Briefcase uses. This means that one must install and set up an SSH server under Windows before Briefcase can connect. Another issue is that Windows does not support Bonjour. This means that Briefcase Lite will not work with Windows because you will need the ability to create a remote bookmark for your Windows computer.

Currently the easiest solution for SSH on Windows for use with Briefcase is MobaSSH. It will work with Vista or XP.

After installing an SSH server on Windows, it is important to make sure that the Windows Firewall is configured to allow access to TCP port 22.

The most recent version of Briefcase uses a new SSH component that can be very slow when communicating with Windows computers. We are in contact with the authors of the component and they are working on improving the performance. We will update to a faster version of the SSH component in the next release.

Briefcase will automatically detect any computer that supports remote login via SSH as long as that computer advertises itself using Bonjour (Zeroconf on Linux). On a Mac, just go to System Preferences and enable "Remote Login" under "Sharing." Please reboot your Mac at this point (or you may have difficulty connecting). Computers that support SSH, but do use Bonjour can still be accessed by adding a new bookmark on the Remote tab in Briefcase.

In an isolated number of instances Briefcase has difficulty connecting to local computers. Begin by checking that your firewall is not set to the highest setting ("Allow only essential services"). The firewall must let through "Remote Login (SSH)". You can find the firewall settings in the "Firewall" tab under "Security" in your System Preferences. If that is not the problem, then try rebooting your computer (particularly if you just enabled "Remote Login").

If you are still having problems, please email support immediately and I will work with you to find a solution.

Once you have connected to a computer, there is now a button on the bottom right side of the screen that displays a crossed-out keychain. Tapping on that button will clear your saved passwords.

If Briefcase warns you that the "Host's Hash Value has Changed" when connecting to a computer, please be careful! This could mean that a different computer is pretending to be the one that you are attempting to contact. This is called a man-in-the-middle attack. The computer has the same name, but Briefcase sees that the computer's unique identifier has changed. If you are at all unsure, cancel the login.

If you re-install your operating system, then you will see this message and it is harmless. You may also see this message if you move back-and-forth between different wireless networks that have a computer with the same name.

Briefcase uses the iPhone's built-in media player, which only supports a subset of movie formats. You can find out which formats are supported on Apple iPhone Technical Specifications page.

If you want to convert a movie to view it in Briefcase, the easiest thing to do is to follow these steps on your Mac:

1. load your movie into QuickTime Player
2. under the file menu, choose "Export"
3. in the save dialog, choose "Movie to iPhone" under the "Export:" setting