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SophiaP's avatar
SophiaP
New member | Level 2
8 hours ago

I download my PDFs for offline use on my iPad, but it corrupts them and I can't edit them.

Hi everyone. I use dropbox primarily through the files folder on my iPad and computer, where I annotate PDFs of textbooks for law school. I have been doing this for a year and it's worked pretty we...
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SophiaP's avatar
SophiaP
New member | Level 2
3 hours ago

Hi Nancy, 

Thanks so much for your help!

Yes, I am using the files app on my iPad. On my computer it is the Dropbox folder that I access via Finder (which works basically the same as the files app on the iPad).

The corruption issue (i.e. I can't open the pdf) is happening on both the iPad and computer, although it only happens when I annotate the pdf on the iPad. If I edit the pdf on the computer, it saves just fine and I can open on any device with no problem.

To access the pdfs offline on the iPad, I download them in the files app. I also tried toggling the "access offline" bar in the dropbox app itself, which keeps the pdf offline within the dropbox app, but not the Files app. I haven't really tried to access the pdf offline on my laptop, so that's been less of an issue. 

For the corrupted files, my laptop is in Spanish so I'm not sure a screenshot would help. But when I try and open the file, I get an error window that pops up and says something like "adobe/preview cannot open your file. this might be because the file is corrupted." If i try to fix it online with a pdf editor, it will "fix" it but then when I download it, it has only my highlights and none of the actual text of the original pdf.

thanks so much for your help! let me know if I can provide any more information.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    2 hours ago

    Hi SophiaP, what app are you using on the iPad to annotate the PDF files?

    From what you're describing, your workflow is as follows:

    • Download the PDFs in the iOS Files app
    • Open the PDF in your app
    • Annotate the PDF


    Does the file get saved automatically in the app you're using, or do you manually save it? 

    Have you tried editing the file directly via the Dropbox mobile app, which should open a PDF editor on your iPad to annotate the files?

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