# ZeroSpin — File manager with columns

> File manager with columns (iPhone/iPad app by Gary Leonel Guaman Toasa.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zerospin/id6801599350 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Gary Leonel Guaman Toasa](https://appshunter.io/developer/6801377265)
- Category: Utilities, Productivity
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 18 MB
- Released: 2026-08-20
- Data updated: 2026-10-03
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zerospin/id6801599350/reviews.md

## What is ZeroSpin?

ZeroSpin is a file manager for iPad with the layout you already know from the
desktop: columns, list or icons, a sidebar with your locations, and independent
windows.

BROWSING
· Column, list and icon views, with adjustable width.
· A sidebar holding your folders, your clouds and your external drives.
· Sort by name, size, date or kind.
· Search within the folder you have open.

OPENING AND EDITING
· A code editor with line numbers, syntax highlighting and a monospaced
  typeface, for scripts and configuration files. Saves in place.
· Jupyter notebooks with their cells, their Markdown and their output — and now
  editable cell by cell, keeping the plots and the results.
· Draw on an image and save the result.
· Preview for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
· Every file opens in its own window, not in a tab trapped inside the main one.

ORGANISING
· Copy, move, duplicate, rename, compress and unzip.
· A trash you can restore from: deleted items go back where they came from.
· Drag and drop both ways, with any other app on the iPad.


RUN IT ON YOUR COMPUTER
The iPad cannot run a notebook or a script: there is no interpreter and no
just-in-time compilation. Your computer can.

With BosonCode installed — the app by the same developer that connects the iPad
to your machines — ZeroSpin adds "Run in BosonCode" to any .ipynb, .py, .sh or
.jl. You pick which machine, the file goes up and opens there, with its GPU and
its interpreters. ZeroSpin sees the machines you have already added, so nothing
is configured twice.

Without BosonCode, ZeroSpin works the same for everything else.
YOUR COMPUTERS, INSIDE ZEROSPIN
Install the project's free and open-source script on your own Linux or Mac, add
that computer in the app, and its folders sit next to yours.

· Browse its files in columns, the same as the ones on your tablet.
· Open and edit them; saving sends them back to the machine.
· A terminal on any folder, in its own window.
· Drag files between the tablet and the computer, both ways.

It all travels over your private Tailscale network: your computer is never
exposed to the internet, and there are no servers in between.

The script is free. There is nothing to buy to use any of this.

WHAT BOSONCODE ADDS
Your tablet cannot run a notebook or a script — no interpreter, no
just-in-time compilation. Your computer can.

BosonCode, by the same developer, opens any file in the full code editor on
your machine: syntax highlighting, extensions, and Jupyter notebooks that
actually run, with its GPU and its interpreters. It uses the same computers you
already added here, so nothing is configured twice.

Without it, everything above still works.

NO ACCOUNTS, NO TRACKING
No sign-up, no analytics, no th your folders is
requested one at a time through the system picker, and ZeroSpin never enumerates
files you have not granted.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.4.0 — 2026-09-29

New in 1.4.0, with notes on the capabilities it uses:

1. Mac app: com.apple.security.network.server
The Mac app listens ONLY on 127.0.0.1 (localhost). It is a local bridge so the built-in code editor (a web page served by the user's own computer) loads from http://localhost, which WebKit treats as a secure, app-bound origin (needed for service workers). Nothing on the network can connect to it.

2. Background modes: "fetch" (Background App Refresh) and "audio"
- fetch: the app checks the user's own Claude Sessions Monitor (running on their computers) to post LOCAL notifications, for example when a coding session finishes or asks for permission. No push server, and nothing is sent anywhere except to the user's own computers.
- audio: the built-in music player keeps playing when the screen locks.

3. File Provider extension (iPhone/iPad)
Shows the user's own computers as locations in the Files app, so other apps can open and save their files. The user turns it on in Files › Browse › ⋯ › Edit. It only talks to the computers the user added in ZeroSpin, with the credentials they entered.

4. Notifications
Local notifications only (session status, terminal bell). The "Approve"/"Deny" actions require unlocking the device.

5. GitHub (optional)
Sign-in uses GitHub's OAuth device flow; the app never sees the GitHub password. "Codespaces" lists the user's GitHub Codespaces and opens them in an in-app web view (github.com / *.github.dev), or in Safari.

6. GitHub Copilot in the native editor (optional)
Copilot runs on the user's own computer (GitHub's official Copilot language server). It needs the user's own GitHub Copilot plan (Copilot Free works) and GitHub's own sign-in. ZeroSpin does not sell or provide Copilot.

7. Photos
The video editor adds photos with the system PhotosPicker, which runs out of process. The app does not request Photo Library access.

How to review without your own computer: all features that don't need a computer work on their own (local files, iCloud Drive and other providers, the native code editor, the music player, the video editor, the image editor, GitHub browsing). Features that act on a computer (terminal, remote files, BosonCode editor, notifications, Files locations, Wake-on-LAN, Copilot) need a Mac or Linux machine with the open-source script above; the README explains the one-line setup.

### 1.3.0 — 2026-09-17

What's New
Run your scripts on your computer, not on the tablet.

• Run: open a script and press Play. ZeroSpin lists the interpreters that
  really exist on that computer — the project's .venv, every conda
  environment, pyenv, the system Python, plus Julia, R, Node, Ruby and shell —
  you pick one, and it runs in a terminal in the script's own folder.
• Themes: Classic, Console and Holo, in light and dark, from Settings › Theme.
  Terminals follow the theme.
• The code editor now lives inside ZeroSpin: syntax, extensions and Jupyter
  notebooks that run on your machine. It unlocks with a one-time purchase;
  files, computers and terminals stay free.
• A floating button in the editor and in every terminal: Tab, text size,
  search, and a menu with the rest. Drag it wherever you like.
• Keyboard, like the Finder: arrows move through the column, → enters a
  folder, ← goes back, ⌘-click, ⇧-click and ⌘A select.
• Right-click the empty space or the header of any column for New Folder,
  New File, Paste and Open Terminal Here.
• Mac: open a terminal in any of your own folders, drag to select several
  files, resizable columns, and double-click opens files in their usual app.
• iPhone: the editor no longer reloads every time you come back to it.

### 1.2.0 — 2026-09-13

ZEROSPIN ON IPHONE
The whole app, on the phone too. In landscape the sidebar stays put as a column
beside your files; in portrait it slides over and back out of the way. Files,
previews and terminals open as sheets, since a phone has no windows.

DRAGGING FILES TO AND FROM YOUR COMPUTERS
Drag a file from this device onto a folder on one of your machines and it goes
up; drag one the other way and it comes down. Before, dropping onto a computer
failed with a message nobody could act on.

### 1.1.0 — 2026-09-13

YOUR COMPUTERS, WITHOUT ANOTHER APP
Add your own Linux or Mac straight from ZeroSpin. Machines running the free
setup script show up on their own, or you can type the address. Their folders
then sit next to yours in the sidebar.

Browse them in columns, open and edit their files — saving sends them back to
the machine — and drag files between the tablet and the computer in either
direction.

A TERMINAL ON YOUR MACHINE
Press and hold any folder on a computer and open a terminal right there, in its
own window, already in that folder. It is a real terminal, not a web page
pretending to be one.

WHERE YOU LEFT OFF
ZeroSpin reopens the folder you were last in. There is also a Recents list, with
everything you opened from this tablet and from your computers.

FIXED
Creating a file or a folder on a computer worked but did not show up until you
navigated away and back.

### 1.0.2 — 2026-08-25

DRAGGING FILES INTO OTHER APPS
A file dragged out of ZeroSpin now arrives properly. It announces its real type
— a PDF as a PDF, a script as a script — so the app receiving it recognises it,
and it hands over a readable copy instead of a path that the other app has no
permission to open. Dropping a file onto the editor in BosonCode uploads it to
your machine, which is what it should have done all along.

FIXED
The app could close when a page you were viewing asked you to choose a file and
you picked Take Photo.

## Apps similar to ZeroSpin

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Chess Clock – Game Timer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-clock-game-timer/id1616904409) | 4.8 (4) | Free | Utilities |
| [PlantSnapper: Plant ID](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plantsnapper-plant-id/id6761613149) | 3.9 (344) | Free | Utilities |
| [Ziply Fiber](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ziply-fiber/id6451298186) | 1.6 (141) | Free | Utilities |
| [Vaulty: Password Manager & 2FA](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vaulty-password-manager-and-2fa/id6756258232) | 4.6 (248) | Free | Utilities |
| [SoftShield VPN: Private & Fast](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/softshield-vpn-private-and-fast/id6475775196) | 4.5 (263) | Free | Utilities |
| [AirDroid Cast-screen mirroring](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/airdroid-cast-screen-mirroring/id1539892125) | 4.6 (2,304) | Free | Utilities |

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-03.*