PDF won't open on iPad: find the cause and fix it
A PDF that will not open is usually still downloading, password protected, scanned pages without text, too complex for your reader, or damaged. Work down the symptom list below, and test the file in a second reader.
Find your symptom
Find your symptom
Match what you see on the screen to a line below, and try only that fix.
- It spins or stays blank
- The file may still be in iCloud and not on the iPad yet. Open Files, tap it once and wait for the download to finish.
- It asks for a password
- justRead asks for the password and opens the file once you type it.
- It opens but the page is an image
- It is a scan, so there is no text to search, select or read aloud.
- Only part of it appears
- A very large or complex file can fail in one app and work in another, so try a second reader.
- An email attachment will not open
- Save it to Files first, then open it from there.
- It fails everywhere
- The file is probably damaged. Ask the sender for a fresh copy.
Open it in a second reader
In Files, Mail or Safari, use the share button and choose justRead to open the PDF there.
If the file opens there, the problem was the first app, not the file. If it fails in both, the file is the problem.
What a reader can do with awkward files
Scanned pages
justRead shows scanned pages as they are and tells you when a scan has no text to read aloud.
Your place
justRead saves your place automatically, so a file you did manage to open reopens where you stopped.
Offline
Books stay readable offline and download from iCloud when needed.
When no reader can open it
Damaged files
A truly corrupt file fails in every reader. Ask for a new copy rather than hunting for a fix.
Protected files
justRead reads DRM-free files only and does not remove protection.
Avoid the problem next time
Keep documents in one library folder and share files to your reader instead of opening an attachment in the mail app.
If a comic archive is the file that will not open, see what to do when a CBZ or CBR file will not open. The PDF book reader page lists what the reader supports.
An EPUB that refuses to open has its own checklist in fixing an EPUB file that will not open.