iPad:
Saving, sharing and deleting files
Our short, animated course shows you how to use the Files app on your iPad to save important documents, so that you can access them later, even if you don't have a Wi-Fi or data connection.
The video is broken down into handy chapters, including how to:
- understand the Files app
- open an email with an attachment
- save an attachment
- use search to find the Files app
- open and view a saved file
- share a file from your iPad
- delete a file from your iPad.
Sign in to save your progress
Transcript
Welcome to the "iPad: Saving, sharing, and deleting files" course. You'll learn how to safely save an important file onto your iPad and how to find a file and share it using email. You'll also learn how to securely delete a file when you no longer need it.
If your iPad has a physical Home button, some of the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.
You can use your iPad to keep important documents and other files close to hand. For instance, if your travel agent emails you a travel itinerary, you can open the file on your iPad using your email app, but it can be a hassle to have to search your Inbox each time you need to find the file. So, we'll look at how you can save it to your iPad and access it later using the Files app.
The Files app is the place on your iPad where saved files are stored. You don't even have to be connected to the internet to access saved files. So, if we save our travel itinerary to Files, we'll be able to access it whenever we need it.
We have received a travel itinerary in an email. Let's see how to save it to the Files app.
Begin by opening the Mail app to find the email with the itinerary attached. You can find the Mail app on the Home screen. Tap it to open Mail. The Inbox view opens and shows a list of recent emails. Our travel agent has just sent us an itinerary for our trip so it appears as a new email at the top of the list of emails on the left side of the screen. Tap on the email and it will open on the right side of the screen.
[eSafety tip]While it can be safe to open and read an email, never click on a link or open an attachment you are unsure about. You should also use an antivirus app on your mobile device to scan downloaded attachments before opening.[eSafety tip ends]
Now the email is open, we can see the itinerary document in the body of the email. There are a couple of steps for saving the itinerary. First, tap the preview image of the document in the body of the email to open and view it full screen.
Next look for the share icon at the top right of the screen. It looks like a box with an arrow pointing up out of it. Tap on it. The Share panel will appear. Look for Save to Files and tap it. Look for On My iPad at the top left of the screen. If this isn't already highlighted blue, tap it to select it. To save this file to the Files app on your iPad, tap Save in the top right corner. The Share options panel will slide away which means the itinerary has been saved. Swipe up from the bottom of your iPad to go to the Home screen.
Let's see how to find and read the itinerary we just saved using the Files app. There are a few different ways to open the Files app, but let's look at a handy shortcut you can use to search for and open any app on your iPad.
Swipe down from the middle of the Home screen and the search bar and keyboard will appear. Type in "files". The Files app icon will appear as a suggestion. Tap the icon and the Files app will open.
From the list of options on the left side of the screen, tap On My iPad to see all the files that have been saved to the Files app on your iPad. Here's the itinerary file that we saved earlier.
Files has a lot of features to help you keep files on your iPad organised. But for now, we are going to focus on opening this travel itinerary. In this demonstration, we don't have many files saved so it's easy to see the itinerary, but you can also use the Search bar to find a file you've saved. To open the itinerary, tap on it.
It's a good idea to save important documents to the Files app when you might not have access to Wi-Fi or mobile data, like when travelling. Even when you don't have internet, you can still access your files.
When you're finished, tap Done in the top right corner to close the itinerary and see the On My iPad screen again.
Once you have saved a file to your iPad, you can easily share it with other people.
In this demonstration, we're going to send the itinerary to a friend as an email attachment. First, we're going to tap and hold the itinerary. To do so, simply leave your finger on the screen for a moment longer than a normal tap until a menu of options appears.
Next, find the Share option, which looks like a box with an arrow pointing up out of it. Tap on it. The Share panel appears and shows a list of all the different apps you can use to share files and other content from your iPad. It's worth exploring the many options here, but for now, let's find the Mail icon. It looks like an envelope on a blue background. Tap on it.
A New Message screen appears with the itinerary already included as an email attachment. Tap the To box and the keyboard appears. Enter your friend's email address. Next, tap the Subject box and type in the subject of the email. If you tap anywhere below the subject in the white area of the email, you can add a message, but we're not going to do so for this demonstration.
When you're ready to send the email, tap the Send arrow in the top right of the screen. Once the email is sent, you'll return to your saved files in the Files app.
To finish up, let's look at how to safely delete a file from your iPad. For our demonstration, we're going to delete the file about gardening because we don't need it anymore.
Tap and hold the file you wish to delete. A list of options will appear. The Delete option is at the very bottom of this list. It's red and the icon looks like a small bin. Before you tap it, make sure this is definitely the file that you want to delete.
[eSafety tip] You should only delete files that you have saved onto your iPad. It's not recommended to delete any other files as it might cause your iPad to stop working properly.[eSafety tip ends]
Tap Delete and the file will be removed from your iPad. If you need to access the file again, you'll have to find it from its original source and save it to the Files app once more.
Swipe up from the bottom of the iPad to close files and return to the Home screen.
You should now be able to save, open, and read files on your iPad using the Files app. You should also be able to share and delete files.
If you're unsure about any steps, you can rewind the video or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you're ready to move on, there are many other causes to explore on Be Connected.