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In our everyday lives, we end up spending a considerable amount of time using the internet on our iPhone and iPad devices — browsing different websites, sending and receiving emails, conversing with friends and family over messaging apps, streaming music, watching movies or episodes of your favorite shows, and so much more. You may often want to download and save specific files on your iPhone or iPad. Saving files on iOS devices used to be a cumbersome process until a few years ago, but thanks to improvements in newer iOS versions and added features in apps like Documents by Readdle, you can now easily choose how and where files are saved on your devices.
Besides being a powerful Free file manager for iPhone and iPad, Documents works great as a universal app to open a variety of file types. You don’t have to worry about paying for third-party apps that may be expensive, sluggish, or both. Documents comes bundled with a long list of impressive features, including a built-in browser that allows you to save files on iPhone and iPad with a few simple taps. Get Documents for Free from the App Store. Then, let’s learn how to save files on an iPhone or iPad.
How to Save Files on iPhone & iPad
You can download any file type using Documents by Readdle and save it at any location you choose, local or in the cloud. Here’s how:
- Download Documents and launch the app.
- Tap on the Browser tab at the bottom right.
- Navigate to the website or link from where you want to download the file from.
- Click on the download button to start downloading the file. If you have a direct link to the file instead, it should begin downloading automatically.
- Documents prompts you to choose the name for the downloaded file, and the download location. Turn off the ‘Ask me every time’ toggle to automatically start downloading the next time.
- You can track the download progress at the bottom of the screen.
- Once the download is completed, you use Documents to open the file, move it to another folder, or copy it to the cloud using services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
Get Documents for Free from the App Store
Where are files saved on iPhone & iPad?
There are many different ways to download files on your iOS device, and each browser or third-party app has its own download location preference. If you’re wondering where files are saved on iPhone and iPad, don’t worry! We’ll help you figure it out and overcome the confusion so you can quickly access your file.
— Where are files downloaded using the Safari browser?
Safari — the default web browser on iOS and iPadOS saves files into the ‘Downloads’ folder. To get to this folder and see your downloaded files, open the ‘Files’ app, choose iCloud, and then open the Downloads folder.
To change the default iPhone download location, open the Settings app, scroll down to Safari settings, tap the Downloads option, and choose between iCloud Drive, On My iPhone, or ‘Other…’
— Where are files downloaded using the Documents app?
Documents by Readdle, by default, lets you choose where you want to download and save files on your iPhone and iPad. To make things easier, the set location chosen is the ‘Inbox’ folder, but you can always choose your preferred folder before the file begins downloading. To navigate to this folder, open Documents and tap on the Inbox folder under the ‘My Files’ tab.
Downloading and saving files from email, web, and other Apps
We’ve already seen how to download and save files from the internet using a browser like Safari and the built-in browser in Documents. But what if you want to save files from other third-party apps like email apps, instant messaging apps, etc? Let’s take a look at how to download and save files from email, web and other apps:
- First, make sure that you have Documents installed. If not, get Documents for Free from the App Store.
- Navigate to the app from where you want to save the file(s).
- Open the file, then tap on the little Share icon. In the example below, we’re downloading and saving a .zip file received as an email attachment in Mail.app
- In the iOS Share sheet, tap the ‘Save to Documents’ option.
- That’s it; the file is saved in Documents, and you are presented with contextual actions that you can take on the file, such as Unarchiving it.
Documents by Readdle is the perfect app for downloading and saving files on your iPhone and iPad. Get it for Free from the App Store and level up your file game.