How To Download Files On Your iPhone And Unzip Them If Needed

What happens to a file when you download it on your iPhone? In many situations you can view the file right in Safari or Mail, but otherwise, you can find it in the Files app. You can also uncompress ZIP files, or even view the contents of a ZIP archive and extract only one file.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how to handle downloading files on an iPhone. 
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So when you're downloading files on your computer you're probably familiar with where those files go by default and how to deal with those files. But what about on an iPhone. When you download something from a web browser or perhaps an attachment in an email where did that file go. What if that file is a compressed zip file. How do you open it up to get to the contents. 
So let's start by going to a demo webpage in Safari. I set this up and its got two downloads on it. The first is a pdf file. This is a typical download that you may find online. Now if I click on the link to the pdf file it is actually going to show me the pdf file in the web browser. So if my goal is to just view the file I can do so right here in Safari. But if I want to download it, well then I'm going to have to use this button down here if I'm already viewing it and there I could find an option to Save to Files. If I click that then I get to decide where it goes. It's going to bring up a mini version of the Files App. I can see all of the different things I have setup in the Files App. So in here I just have iCloud Drive and all the folders under iCloud Drive. I can dig down in there and put it anywhere I want. I also have the local files on my iPhone here. You may find more like you may have Dropbox or One Drive or whatever else that you have installed. Once you select a location you can click the Save button and it will save to wherever you want. So there's no mystery here as to where the file goes. You're actually putting it somewhere. 
But let's backup one level here and let's say instead of just tapping on this link to view it I'm going to tap and hold and it's going to bring up a preview and then one of the options I have here is Download Linked File. So what if I did that? Then I'm going to remain here at the webpage. Where did the file go? You may also encounter sometimes links will just automatically download. They won't let you view the pdf or whatever the file is right there in the browser. This is something I setup on the server. It defines the file as a downloadable file, not as a viewable file. So in that case you end up in the same place. You tap and it doesn't seem to go anywhere when you get an indication that the file has been downloaded. In fact if you look at the very bottom here or at the top if you've gotten the address bar to be set at the top, you'll see this little indicator that there has been a download. If you tap that then you'll get a bunch of options. One of them is to view your downloads. So Safari on the iPhone has a downloads list just like Safari on the Mac. You tap that you'll get this list. There's only one item in it now, and you could see it here. You can tap right here and it will take you to where that is stored. You can see here it's in the downloads folder in the Files App. I'm actually in the Files App now. That's where it took me. I can go backup a level and you could see here it is iCloud Drive and I was down in the Downloads Folder. 
Now this is just a regular file sitting on my iPhone. Just like you would view a file in the Finder on the Mac. The Files App is the equivalent to the Finder but on the iPhone. If I were to tap here it's actually going to allow me to view the pdf right in the Files App. The Files App includes a pdf viewer. It will let you view other things as well. Like images and text documents and such. I could also tap and hold and get options like renaming it or moving it. If I select move I can move this file to wherever I want. If I want to get organized I can now move it into my Documents Folder or wherever I think this file should go. I don't need to leave it there in the Downloads Folder. In fact if you want to stay organized you probably shouldn't leave anything in the Downloads Folder. 
Now back here in Safari we're still looking at the Downloads List again. I can actually tap right here and it will allow me to view it in Safari. So without going to the files app I can view some file types like pdf's and images and such, right here from the Downloads List. I can also clear the Downloads List here, if it's getting a little crowded.  I can also swipe and delete like that.
Now what if it's not a straight forward file like pdf. What if, in fact, it's a compressed archive. It's a zip file. I've got on right here. I'm going to tap that and it's going to ask if I want to download it. I'll say Sure. Now to download it you actually saw the status there at the bottom. I can now tap here and go to Downloads and I can see that file has been downloaded. So right here from the Downloads List if you were to tap the Magnifying Glass you would again go to the Files App. This is where you can actually decompress what is in the Zip file. If I were to just tap it, it actually would decompress it and I get a folder there and I could dig down in the folder and see the contents. But I could also tap and hold on the Zip file and one of the things I could do is Quick Look. It's going to just show me the Zip file. But notice I can preview content. I could actually go and look at the content in the Zip file without decompressing it. So you can see it says 1 out of 3 and I could swipe to see the image. Here's a word document and here's a pdf. 
You could see another option when I tap and hold is to Uncompress the file. So that's the default behavior when I simply tap the Zip file as well. 
But now that I decompressed these I have them in this folder here and I could see all these files. So I have a pdf here. I have an image like before. I even have a Microsoft Word document. Notice how the Files App will actually allow you to view the Word document. So the Files App not only allows you to see images and pdf's but other files types as well. Even Microsoft Word documents. 
Now what about email attachments? You may get an email with an attachment and in this case it is a Zip file. So if I were to tap on it it would actually preview it right here in Mail. I'm still in Mail. You could see it brings up that same Quick Look preview. I can even preview content. So you can preview the content of an email attachment that's compressed right in the Mail App. Notice how you can tap here when you're viewing just one of those documents and actually share that one document. So you don't have to decompress the entire thing. Or even save the attachment somewhere in order to get the content inside the file. But what if you wanted to Save this. Well, you can tap and hold and one of the options you'll have here is Save to Files. So when you select that then you get to decide where it goes. Also note you have this List View down here at the bottom right. You can select that and you get a list of all the files inside of the Zip file. Then you can jump right to anyone of those. Handy if you have a Zip file that has a ton of different things in it and you want to get to one specific thing. 
Now note that there's some settings that you can adjust in the Settings App. If you go down to Safari you can change the Downloads location right here. So you can set it to the Downloads Folder in iCloud Drive. You can set it to On My iPhone. You can choose Other and choose any location you want. So if there's a specific location that you'd rather have, besides the Downloads Folder, you can set the downloads to go there by default. You also have a setting right here for Remove Download List Items........after one day, after a successful download, or only manually. 
So that's how you handle downloads on an iPhone. Whether they are on a webpage or on an email attachment. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 7 Responses to “How To Download Files On Your iPhone And Unzip Them If Needed”

Geoff Turner

3 years ago

Thank you for this vitally important (to me) process - I have blundered around many time wondering where file has gone.
Thanks for dealing with the day-to-day stuff as well as the more specialised areas.

Hello, just now am fiddling with my new iPhone 13, have seen your downloads "how-to" and need confirmation that a.) I can download items to my local iPhone for review prior to a trip with no WIFI and/or on an airplane for reading and b.) I can reload them to my iCloud for proper storage. Thank you! Best-PW

Gary Rosenzweig

pw: You can always choose to download any file, and if you have plenty of storage space available it shouldn't offload them anytime soon. Test it out for yourself using Airplane mode.

Jason B

Gary, this was very helpful! Does this apply to the iPad as well?

Jason: Yes, should be the same on the iPad. Try it.

Gene

Interesting and helpful video. How did you set the cursor/pointer to be a circle instead of an arrow?

Gene: A circle is always how it looks. See https://macmost.com/showing-a-screen-pointer-indicator-on-an-iphone-or-ipad.html

Comments Closed.

How To Download Files On Your iPhone And Unzip Them If Needed

Comments: 7 Responses to “How To Download Files On Your iPhone And Unzip Them If Needed”

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