[haertig]

I'm new to iOS. I have a loaner 5S iPhone running iOS 10.something (I think) until I decide what new cellphone I want to buy to replace my defunct Android one. I may just keep the 5S because my needs are meager and new/fancy features don't excite me much. Or I may buy an Android phone, or a newer iPhone. But for now, I should try to learn iOS.

What I want to do, is have an audiobook player that will play local content. I already have several DRM-free audiobooks. Each is a sequence of MP3 files. I would like to get those MP3 files to the iPhone, and listen to the audio book in a sane manner (i.e., not having to select each MP3 file separately, like a music file). I do not want some app where you have to buy audiobooks from their marketplace. I just want to play the ones I already have locally. The way I do this currently (on an Android device) is to use the "ASUS File Manager" app to transfer the files from my Linux desktop to the Android tablet. Then I run an app named "Smart Audiobook Player" on the tablet to listen.

Is there a way to accomplish something similar on iOS? I need to (1) learn a way to transfer files from Linux to iOS and where to put them in the filesystem, (2) install an app to listen to the files I just transferred.

So far, iOS is really alien to me. It seems like you don't get to control iOS, as much as it gets to control you. The concept of files, directories, filesystems, etc. appears quite well hidden. Being a multi-decade Unix/Linux programmer/sysadmin geek I'm using to doing things at a low level. Android puts lots of controls on you, but you can break through those and eventually get something done. iOS is like being locked outside, looking in through a window, and watching it thumb it's nose at you. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to do anything with it, that it doesn't want me to do in a spoon fed manner.

Any pointers to help me figure out how to do what I describe above would be much appreciated. Thanks!