How do I store some Pages and Numbers documents locally on my iPhone?
Often I am not ‘online’ while using my iphone. I’d like to be able to access one of my Numbers and/or my Pages documents but can not. I watched you tutorial on how to do this on my Mac (thank you very much!) but would also like to do the same on my iPhone.
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Doug Brandt
The simple way to do it would be to just go to the Files app, locate the file, tap and hold it, and then choose Download Now. If you see Remove Download instead, that means it already has it stored locally.
If you don't access the file for a while, and your iPhone is low on storage space, then the file may be offloaded again before you need it. Another factor is the size of the document. But this is simple and will work in most cases.
Otherwise, you need to tap and hold the file, select Move, and then browse to the "On My iPhone" section of the files app. Move it there. But this takes it out of iCloud Drive completely so you'll lose access to it on your other devices. It will just be local on your iPhone. Note there is a Copy button at the top right before you complete the move, so you can store a copy locally. But this is a second copy and not linked to your iCloud Drive copy. So any changes you make to one would need to be manually reconciled to the other.
In your "Why" section you didn't really explain why you need to do this, as in what this file is, how you use it and why you need this file to be accessed when offline. The best answer depends on these factors.
iOS doesn't have its own version of the "Optimize Mac Storage" feature, which can be easily turned off on the Mac to keep iCloud Drive's content available offline. My iPad Pro likes to delete local copies of older files stored in iCloud Drive, despite over 70% of the 1 TB of storage being available. Furthermore, a forced download of an item is no guarantee that the file will be available forever. Readdle's Documents app solves this problem in an elegant way using the 2-way sync feature.
Pavel: Well, the opposite. On iOS and iPadOS the "Optimize" feature is always on. There's no way to turn it off.
Gary, I am following the directions you left in your first comment. I have an iPhone 15 with the latest iOS. Just as the original post, I am trying to have an offline copy of a document on my iPhone, while copying/keeping the original copy on iCloud.
When I tap and hold it I get the response 'Remove Download' instead. However, when I check, 'On My iPhone', it says it is empty.
Please, what am I doing wrong?
Thanks for any help!
Ted Casler
Ted: When you tap and hold the file, you should get "Keep Downloaded" as an option. If you don't see that, perhaps you are still not on iOS 18? Note that On My iPhone is a separate area. Those are files just local to your iPhone and not part of iCloud Drive at all. Like files in the Home folder on a Mac. Using "Keep Downloaded" won't change the fact that the file is part of iCloud Drive, just that it is always cached locally, ready to use if you are not connect to the Internet.
Gary: Thank you for the quick response. It worked. I've checked and the file is both on iCloud and local to iPhone (cloud symbol is gone). I checked it in Airplane Mode, and the file is still accessible. I was expecting to see local files (that are also on iCloud) in On My Phone so I will have to research that better. (Actually, I am still on 17.7, wasn't even aware 18 was ready).
Thanks for your help!
Ted Casler
Ted: If you aren't on iOS 18 yet, you don't have "Keep Downloaded" as an option. All you can do is to use "Download Now" (or just open the file) and hope that you don't run low on space and it is offloaded from the cache before you need it when not connected.