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Your iPhone has the ability to view, download, edit, and save PDF documents to the Apple Books app or iCloud Files.
You can download PDFs that have been sent to your email address in an email app like Mail or Gmail, or viewed on a web browser, in just a few easy steps. These PDFs will be stored on your iPhone and iCloud devices for easy accessibility.
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Here's what you need to know to download a PDF on your iPhone.
AdvertisementBefore starting this process, make sure you have the Apple Books app downloaded to your iPhone.
1. Launch your preferred browser (in this example Safari on an iPhone X).
2. Go to the webpage where the PDF document you wish to download is — for example, an e-scooter study done by the city of Portland, Oregon.
3. Open the PDF.
4. Once the PDF document is opened in the webpage, tap the Export icon at the bottom of the screen — it looks like a rectangular box with an arrow pointing up.
5. Toggle through the list of apps to find Copy to Books and select it.
6. The Apple Books app will then open, and the PDF will appear in your Library. To view the PDF, just tap.
AdvertisementWe've illustrated the process below on Apple's Mail app, but it's analogous to the process on any other email app like Gmail, where you can also open and save PDF attachments.
1. Launch the Mail app from your iPhone's home screen.
2. Scroll and select the email with the PDF document you wish to download to your iPhone.
3. Tap the PDF document attachment to open.
4. Select the Export icon in the bottom left-hand corner (it looks like a box with an arrow pointing up).
5. Toggle through the apps to find Copy to Books, then tap to select.
The Apple Books app will then open and the PDF document will appear in your library.
Advertisement1. Open the PDF document you wish to save (by either browser or email).
2. Tap the Export icon.
3. Toggle to find Save to Files under the list of apps and select it.
4. Next, select the location where you'd like to save the PDF document on your iCloud Files app.
5. Once selected, tap Add in the upper right-hand corner.
The process for downloading a PDF document to Apple Books and iCloud File is pretty similar across third-party apps, too, but may differ depending on the set-up of the app. For more information, check Apple Support.
AdvertisementMeira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland, Oregon. She writes about business, culture, and technology for Insider. Her work has been featured in Digital Trends, Willamette Week, USA Today, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and San Francisco State University. Feel free to reach out to her on Twitter, where she can be found most of the time, @MeiraGebel.
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