How to send a PDF to your iPhone and find it again

Send the PDF by AirDrop, Mail, Messages or iCloud Drive, then open it from Files. To keep it with your books, share it to justRead or import it from Files. With several formats in your library, a badge on each cover tells them apart.

See the five ways

Add Books with Import from Files and the Sources Calibre, Project Gutenberg and Library Folder, beside the Project Gutenberg catalog — Add Books with Import from Files, and a catalog list beside it.

Five ways to get a PDF onto an iPhone

Menus change a little between iOS versions, so this list names the method and leaves the exact taps to your screen.

AirDrop: Quickest from another Apple device nearby. You choose where the file goes when it arrives.
Mail or Messages: Open the attachment and use the share button to send it to another app.
Safari: Open the link to the file and use the share button to open it in another app.
iCloud Drive or a synced folder: Put the file in a folder that appears in Files, and it reaches the phone on its own.
Drag and drop on iPad: Drag the file out of Files and drop it on the app to add it to the library.

Getting it into your library

Open in

justRead can open a PDF from Files, Mail, Safari or any share sheet.

Import

The import button in the library takes PDFs, EPUBs and comics straight from Files, and you can pick many files at once.

A synced folder

Point justRead at a folder that your cloud app syncs into Files, and every book in it, however deep, is imported.

From a catalog

A PDF can also download straight from an OPDS catalog into the library.

Finding it afterwards

The library can be filtered by format, so PDFs can be shown on their own.

Pull down on the library to rescan the folder and pick up what changed.

Sort the list by title, series or read time, whichever finds the file fastest. Read more in the ebook library guide.

A library grid with covers and format badges, one marked AUDIO — The library with covers, format badges and one audiobook.

Locked and scanned files

Password protected

justRead asks for the password and opens the file once you type it.

Scanned pages

A scan opens as an image of the page, so there is no text to search, select or read aloud.

Where the file lives

justRead reads the folder you point it at, in iCloud Drive or on the phone, and syncs your place, highlights and bookmarks.

The guide to adding books to an iPhone or iPad covers every route in more detail.

Add your first PDF

Send one file to your phone and open it in your library.