Sync PDF files to iOS?

[MasturB]

Hello, I've got some old textbooks I scanned to PDF files. I can't figure out how to get them onto my iPad to open them in iBooks (or some other PDF reader app I may need to download).

I tried dragging it into iTunes but that didn't do anything... I emailed them to myself via Google Drive and on the iPad Pro when I went to save file to iPad there was no real folder I could save it to (just had subfolders for apps like Pages, Keynotes, Notability).

I would like to open these PDF files in my iPad Pro for note taking in multi-task mode next to notability... but this seems like an impossible task to try and even get the PDF's over from my Mac to the iPad.

 

[revmacian]

Hello, I've got some old textbooks I scanned to PDF files. I can't figure out how to get them onto my iPad to open them in iBooks (or some other PDF reader app I may need to download).

I tried dragging it into iTunes but that didn't do anything... I emailed them to myself via Google Drive and on the iPad Pro when I went to save file to iPad there was no real folder I could save it to (just had subfolders for apps like Pages, Keynotes, Notability).

I would like to open these PDF files in my iPad Pro for note taking in multi-task mode next to notability... but this seems like an impossible task to try and even get the PDF's over from my Mac to the iPad.

I use iCloud Drive to sync files between my Mac mini and my iPhone.

Open Finder on your Mac and drag the files into iCloud Drive. Then, on your iOS device, open the Files app and the files should be there.

 

[MasturB]

I use iCloud Drive to sync files between my Mac mini and my iPhone.

Open Finder on your Mac and drag the files into iCloud Drive. Then, on your iOS device, open the Files app and the files should be there.

Is there a way to do it without iCloud? I don't really use iCloud. I just thought there'd be an easy drag and drop way to do this via iTunes.

I dragged the PDF into iTunes on my MBP but it's treating it as a music file even though it's a PDF. I synced the iPad and it wont show up in Books nor Music apps.

 

[revmacian]

Is there a way to do it without iCloud? I don't really use iCloud. I just thought there'd be an easy drag and drop way to do this via iTunes.

I dragged the PDF into iTunes on my MBP but it's treating it as a music file even though it's a PDF. I synced the iPad and it wont show up in Books nor Music apps.

I don't really use iTunes for much so I wouldn't want to advise anything that may be wrong. I would say that it's worth a try with iCloud. Who knows, it may work better for you.

 

[tyke65]

You could use Calibre to convert pdf to txt on your Mac then iCloud Drive to get them onto the iPad. Or am I missing something?

 

[revmacian]

You could use Calibre to convert pdf to txt on your Mac then iCloud Drive to get them onto the iPad. Or am I missing something?

If you're going to use iCloud Drive, the you may not need to convert.. .pdf files should be readable on the iPad.

 

[NoBoMac]

You can't just drag the files via iTunes, need to go to the Shared Files (or some such phrasing, can't recall right now) section and drag drop to a specific app. Eg. Adobe Reader supports this.

Or via the Google Drive method mentioned, export the document to iBooks or some other app vis the Share Sheet (ie. Box with up arrow).

Or since in Google Drive, can just access via the Google Drive app. Or as mentioned, save to iCloud.

But, no such thing as folders ala desktop computing to save to, since data is siloed to the app it is in.