Attach PDF (or any document) to email.

I don't know how it is with other phone OS, but I think Apple's own brand applications have long been a bit lacking, the free ones that is (mind you, the price of iOS devices you'd think the bundled apps could be a bit better). Third-party developers always come through though - and your best friend as far as getting a decent solution to workflow is Good Reader with Dropbox.

Just download GR, read the manual and pratice what it can do. The "open in..." function goes a long way to making things more productive. Apple's 1990s opendoc vision is slowly coming together. I persevere.

I've just run into this as well.

I can see why an "attachment" button in the email app may not be attractive to Apple because of the sandboxing of the email app which probably doesn't have access to the isolated data areas of individual apps. However, it does have access to the clipboard.

So I can see two possible solutions to this problem in the long run. One, provide better cut/paste of reply message contents that would make the process easier, such as the ability to copy/paste all the recipients in a reply messaag and preserve their location and format within a new message (cc:, bcc:, etc.). Or two, provide for cut & paste of PDF documents so that one can cut the pdf out of one app and paste it into a reply response email. Or better yet, both, just in case...

This is a MAJOR problem... which, as with the many problems with iOS, Apple simply refuses to DEAL WITH... I've been an APPLE user for over TWENTY years... they used to be a PROFFESIONAL'S platform, one which the user had control over, but ever since the advent of the iPod and the move to cornering the CONSUMER market, their FUNTIONALITY has been sacrificed in favor of DUMBED DOWN 'user friendliness'... taking the case in point... adding an attachment to a 'reply' email... or as is my desire, to add more than one PDF (or other none photo or video attachment) to an email... CAN'T BE DONE.... so I have to send 'six' seperate emails which just comes across as dumb and unproffessional to the recipient.... I completely agree with the comment about iPhone/ iPad being little more than a teenager's social networking tool.

After two decades supporting APPLE, I find myself seriously considering abondoning them to the morass of the dumb and dumber mass market... after all, they don't need the likes of me anymore, and they, month on month, continue to fail to meet my needs and requirements from a computing firm.

I'm not sure which company you're talking about. The Apple that has made products I've used for the last 25 years has never allowed the user much control over the interface. They didn't lock it down quite as much on the Mac but you always had to go to third party apps to do much customization. And, most of the world considered "IBM-PCs" the business computer and Apple computers only suitable for individuals, education and graphic designers. You are echoing statements that people have been making about Apple products since the beginng: "They're not business tools!". Despiite that, many, many business people continue to use Apple products, including iPads, quite successfully. Whether or not they meet your needs is an individual issue.

For what it's worth I find your suprious dichotomy between "professionals" and consumers more than a little bit condescending.

You should absoulutely use the tool that best meets your needs. I hope you find it.

Best of luck.

DonnStarr wrote:

This is a MAJOR problem... which, as with the many problems with iOS, Apple simply refuses to DEAL WITH... I've been an APPLE user for over TWENTY years... they used to be a PROFFESIONAL'S platform, one which the user had control over

Apple is a professional platform. I am a professional and have control over my Mac and iPhone. Our professionals in our organization overwhelmingly use Apple (we are platform agnostic) over Windows and Android, which supposedly give you more "control" over the platform/computer/device.

Now, your point is...?

there's a world of difference between the professional user and the consumer... in my experience the consumer prefers ease of use over complexity and control, while the professional the opposite... going back to MacOS 6 and up to OS9 which is when I started with Mac's one had access to the Extensions and Control Panels which offered immense customisation and control of the machine... Graphic, Video and Music professionals amongst others chose the Mac as the prefered computer for exactly these reasons... I never made any reference to 'Business' as for me professionalism is not tied directly to business pursuits, but rather to quality and high standards (both qualities very often lacking in the business community... if I may say so)... but coming back to the point... I find it a sad state of affairs that something as established and simple as being able to add multiple attachments to an email, should be unavailable in a proprietry email client on what is, despite being named a smart phone, in fact a minature computer.

This thread was started by someone wanting a similar basic functionality, and yourself and others seem to have missed the point of the original enquiry... again something that seems to happen quite often amongst the discussion user's here... often from those who seem to have some sychophantic obsessive loyalty to the 'brand'... in other words, your posts offer no insight or helpful information to the original enquirer or to those searching for solutions to the same or similar issues (which is how I ended up here to begin with).

Finally, I have found a partial solution to my issue through the app 'GoodReader' (thankyou to the person who offered that up)... But even that doesn't address the original issue of this thread of not being able to add an attachment in a 'REPLY' email.... poor show apple... and irrelevant nonsense from the likes of you...

Have a great day :-)

DonnStarr wrote:

Finally, I have found a partial solution to my issue through the app 'GoodReader' (thankyou to the person who offered that up)... But even that doesn't address the original issue of this thread of not being able to add an attachment in a 'REPLY' email.... poor show apple... and irrelevant nonsense from the likes of you...

You're welcome. I was one of those people (as was the OP, who didn't find it suitable). What you don't seem to understand is that no one here can do anything about the original issue. So, it's simply not possible to "address the original issue" other than to offer other suggestions and to provide the feedback link so that people who need this feature can let Apple know.

Best of luck.

In reply to DonnStar, and adding some more thoughts (for clarity)...

Firstly I'll list the steps again for the benefit of others looking for the solution, who don't skip back a page.

GOODREADER

1. in your MAIL app, do a reply, then select all and copy.

2. Open GoodReader.

3. Find the file you'd like to attach - it doesn't have to be in GoodReader, so long as you can "open-in" and move it there.

4. In GoodReader, tap on manage files and select the file(s) you want to attach, then tap on "email".

5. Paste the entire "reply to" into the email that now includes your attachment(s).

Yeah, it's a workaround but it works very well. By now I'm just used to swapping in and out of apps to get a decent workflow.

I'm not trying to defend Apple or any other corporation/developer's ethics, however if you think about it, there's a zillion "busine$$" reasons why we have the situation we have. Apple don't make the apps, they make the hardware and the OS - and they control the business relationship with app developers (they didn't always. You'd need to dig a little history – look at the kind of thing Apple were doing around the time of "openDoc" and the dramatic change in their direction c.1996-8). I knew something like the iPad was coming - I hoped and to my dismay iPhone came first, of course it makes sense from a business p.o.v. We are probably not the typical user that Apple based their projections on.

On the other hand the app developers have seized the potential – and I guess they're the ones we should be lobbying for the solutions wanted. Whether we get all of them right now - who knows. There are undoubtedly just as many clever solutions locked up in a dark cupboard as there are the clever (and frustrated) people who create them. They are stymied by the finance manager who says, "we'll roll out 10% of your solution every 2 months as bug fixes, updates and in-app purchases!"

I wouldn't be surprised if before too long, we won't be seeing very many "off-line" improvements, as more apps become subscription based tools and services and go into the cloud.

DonStarr: "there's a world of difference between the professional user and the consumer.."

I, too have been stumped by seemingly simple tasks that require either a cumbersome work-around or simply can't be accomplished. I have also been amazed for decades by posters on user sites who don't have a viable contribution but feel compelled to defend Apple.

I abandoned my laptop after finding that my iPad was better (better!) for my business travel needs. I don't miss my laptop at all, but there are things I save for my desktop computer if I can, mostly because APPLE WON'T LET ME USE A MOUSE with my iPad, which, like the inability to attach a pdf or spreadsheet to a mail reply is short-sighted and stupid.

I'll keep looking for a workable solution or app, and if I find something I'll post it here.

I cannot find ANY reason why mail client doesn't have such BASIC functionality. This is too ridiculous for me to understand it. Unability to answer the mail with document attachement ????????? - I think they missed it on purpose. But I don't know why 😟

I did not have success attaching an edited pdf file without embedding it within the email using the other suggestions, including goodreader. I had a pdf that I needed to edit and sign. I did this in Notability. However, when trying to email it back, every workaround I tried embedded it within an email, and would not attach the file separately. I ended up saving it to dropbox, and sending a link to the file.

I then discovered the app Phone Drive free, which once installed, shows up as an app to "open in." Once the pdf was opened in the app, the trick is to go into the pdf itself. If you try to email the pdf from the home menu in Phone Drive, it still tries to embed it in the email. However, if you open the pdf and then tap on the square icon with a dash in it, you can send an email with the file separately attached.

I hope this helps anyone who struggled with this task as I have.

I have had the same problem from a long time, and although I agree that if you want to send a PDF doc by using the workaround, it doesnt help for my basic scenario problem.

My problem:

You want to Reply All to a lot of persons (more than a couple, most of the time 20+).

You cant Select All/Copy all of the email addresses, and thats the main problem.

Otherwise I could send any email from a 3rd party app just to send the PDF doc.

So basically you by instinct try 2 methods:

1. Reply All in Mail app and try to insert a PDF doc like any other image or video.

2. Use the 3rd app to send the PDF and paste all of the email addresses.

Problems with 1 (like mentioned on this thread already) is only for Photos/videos in your Camera roll.

Problems with 2, at least for myself that use my companies Exchange email on the Mail app, it is impossible to copy all of the email addresses to Paste on the To: field already open on the 3rd app. It will be great if I could copy All of the email adresses (that most of them are names from exchange itself). Example of the emails on my To: field "John Doe > Jack Hughes > Selena Trish > ..." so on...

So the main problem could be resolved if any of the 2 ways described could be done, either by Select All/Copy "correctly as well" all of the email addresses, or by letting insert a PDF in the Mail app like any photo or video...

The workaround unfortunately doesnt work for this scenario, and I do this a lot (and I need a computer to do so instead)...

All that you need to do is download and use "mailbox" app instead of native mailbox. Next, download Dropbox app. These two apps are free and integrated with one another. In addition the Dropbox app is integrated with iOS. So it is just as easy to get a file downloaded on Dropbox as any other method. Plus mailbox is really into organizing your email and getting your inbox to zero. This toats works. You can go attachment crazy with this solution. Attach to deleted, draft, reply, fwd, original. It does pics too. It even one ups the iOS with attaching pics cause one of the options is to attach the most recent pic you took. dang!

Yes, the Mailbox app requires you to either use a Gmail or a iCloud account but these people on this board seem pretty desperate. Best solution for the freebie factor and the common use of Gmail factor.

This solution is seamless if you already use Gmail. Otherwise you have to determine desperation of solution vs downsides of switching to Gmail. If this is not a personal email account then you may have to use one the the McGeyver methods discussed on this board.

zylbazyl wrote:

I cannot find ANY reason why mail client doesn't have such BASIC functionality. This is too ridiculous for me to understand it. Unability to answer the mail with document attachement ????????? - I think they missed it on purpose. But I don't know why 😟

The reason is a simple one. Apple hides the file system from users. Therefore, when replying to an email, it is not possible to simply attach a file to the email, as this would involve some kind of file browser, which means opening up the file system, which Apple do not appear to want to do; hence, the only solution is to send an email from the app containing the desired attachment. A very cumbersome workaround for what is easily achieved on other, more open, operating systems....