How to move PDFs between your iPhone and your Mac
Get a PDF from your Mac to your iPhone, or from your iPhone to your Mac, with AirDrop, iCloud Drive or Files, in seconds and without email.
The problem
The PDF is on one device and you need it on the other, and emailing it to yourself is slow and clutters your inbox.
How do I send a PDF from my Mac to my iPhone?
AirDrop it: Control click the PDF in Finder, choose Share > AirDrop, and pick your iPhone. On the iPhone it opens in Files or Books.
How do I transfer a PDF from iPhone to Mac?
On the iPhone, tap the share button on the PDF, then AirDrop, then your Mac. It lands in the Mac's Downloads folder.
How do I keep a PDF on both devices?
Put it in iCloud Drive in Finder. On the iPhone it appears in the Files app under iCloud Drive, and edits sync both ways. For PDFs you want to read, Books syncs them too.
Why does AirDrop not show my iPhone?
Both need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on, and the iPhone unlocked and nearby. On the iPhone, check AirDrop in Control Centre is set to Contacts Only or Everyone for 10 Minutes.
Our take
Use iCloud Drive for anything you will need again, and AirDrop for one off sends. A PDF that lives in iCloud Drive is one copy wherever you open it; AirDrop makes a second copy each time, and the two drift apart the moment you annotate one.
Once it is on your Mac
Simply PDF opens the PDF for free. To sign it there, see sign a PDF on a Mac; to make it smaller before sending it on, compress it.
Questions
How do I send a PDF from my Mac to my iPhone?
Control click it in Finder and choose Share > AirDrop, then your iPhone.
Where do AirDropped PDFs go on a Mac?
Into the Downloads folder.