Learn different ways to merge two or more PDFs into one file or split a lengthy PDF into several smaller documents.
People often share various school stuff, college projects, rent agreements, payment invoices, business correspondence, and more as PDF documents.
Sometimes merging two or more PDFs into a single file makes sense. For instance, you might want to combine three separate monthly invoices into a single quarterly report.
Conversely, there are situations when you might want to split a huge PDF into smaller documents, like a group project referring a master PDF.
Combine two or more PDF documents into one
Before you begin: Working with documents that are saved in Apple’s built-in Files app is much easier; those who prefer to save their PDFs in Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, etc. can easily configure those services to show up in the Files app.
Use the Apple Files app
1) Open the built-in Files app, tap Browse, and go to the folder with your PDF documents. If your PDFs are scattered across different folders, copying or moving them into the same folder will make your life easier.
2) Tap the three-dotted icon at the top right and tap Select.
3) Select the PDFs you want to merge.
4) Tap the three-dotted menu icon at the bottom-right corner and choose Create PDF. This will merge the selected PDFs into a single file and save it in the exact folder/location as the smaller PDFs.
While this method is the easiest, it doesn’t let you reorder your merged PDF documents.
Use the iLovePDF app
iLovePDF is a great app that allows you to merge and split PDFs. It’s free to use for 3 tasks every day and can combine PDFs while offline with no cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
1) Open the iLovePDF app on your iPhone or iPad, go to the Files tab, and tap iLovePDF – On my iPhone or iLovePDF – iCloud.
2) Tap the red plus button, then choose Files to bring up the standard iOS file picker. Select the PDFs you want to merge and hit Open. Doing so will import the selected PDFs into the iLovePDF app.
3) Now tap Select from the top, select your imported PDFs, and choose Tools > Merge PDF.
4) Use the hamburger icon to change the order of PDFs. The topmost document will appear the first, followed by the other PDFs. With the documents ordered to your liking, tap the Merge PDF button.
5) The app will merge your selected PDFs and save them to an Output folder. Now choose Go to files to find your merged document. To send the PDF to the Files app, tap the three-dotted menu button and choose Share > Save to Files.
Along with the iLovePDF app, you may also try Merge PDF and SmallPDF apps to do this job.
Use a Siri shortcut to merge PDFs
Apple’s powerful built-in Shortcuts app can perform various useful actions, including merging PDFs.
1) Add the Merge PDFs shortcut on your iPhone or iPad. You can also create it on your iPhone by recreating the actions depicted on the below screenshot.
2) Choose the Merge PDFs tile in the Shortcuts app, select your PDFs from the Files picker, and tap Open.
Alternatively, open Files or another app where you have the PDFs and select them, then tap the share icon, and choose Merge PDFs iDB.
3) Choose the location to save the file and tap Done.
4) The shortcut will merge your PDFs into a single file and show you the preview. After reviewing the document, hit Done to exit the preview and the shortcut will save your merged PDF at the chosen location. From there, you can open the document and tap the share icon to send it via email, messaging apps, AirDrop, etc.
Split a PDF into two or more PDFs
These are some of the easiest ways to divide or split a very long PDF into multiple smaller parts on your iPhone or iPad.
Use the Files app
The Files method lets you save only specific pages of a PDF document as a new file.
1) Go to the Files app and tap a desired PDF to open it.
2) Tap the share icon and choose Print from the share menu.
3) Tap Range and specify the start and end pages or swipe horizontally on the bottom preview and uncheck any pages you’d like to exclude.
4) Tap the Share menu at the top and choose the Save to Files command. Your iPhone will create a new PDF comprising only the selected pages, saving it automatically in the Files app. Feel free to repeat the steps above to split a PDF further. Perhaps you only saved pages 1 to 5 the first time and would now also like to split out the remaining pages as another separate PDF file.
Split a PDF by range or extract all its pages
The super iLovePDF app allows you to divide a single PDF document into multiple parts or pages. The initial and final steps are the same as we explained in the previous section covering merging PDFs.
1) Open the iLovePDF app and go to the Files section, then tap iLovePDF – In my iPhone or iLovePDF – iCloud. Next, tap the red plus icon > Files > select the PDF from the Files app, and hit Open to add it to iLovePDF.
2) On the imported PDF, tap the three-dotted menu button and select Tools > Split PDF.
3) Choose from the available options, then hit the Split button. You can split your PDF by range or fixed interval, remove pages from the document, or extract every single page as its own separate one-page PDF document.
In addition to iLovePDF, you can also use the Split PDF section of the PDF Tools app to turn a big PDF into smaller fragments.
Use an iOS shortcut to split a PDF
We previously explained how to use the Shortcuts app to merge two or more PDFs on your iPhone and iPad. With a few changes, you’ll also be able to split your PDFs.
1) Open our Split PDF shortcut in Safari on your iPhone or iPad to import it into the Shortcuts app.
2) Tap your shortcut in the All Shortcuts section to run it. You’ll need to choose a big PDF from the Files app and choose the Single Page option to save just one page as a new PDF or Page Range to save everything between the start and end pages.
3) Lastly, choose where to save the file.
Use online websites to merge and split PDFs
Online websites like iLovePDF.com (free), SmallPDF.com (requires pro for some features), or Adobe.com (requires a subscription after an initial try) are all fine for splitting and merging multiple PDF documents. These websites may look a bit jammed on the iPhone’s small display, but you can comfortably use these tools in a browser on your iPad or computer.
Do keep in mind that with online services, you’re uploading your documents to servers so proceed with caution. I myself typically prefer the offline tools described above but sometimes rely on online tools for non-sensitive PDFs.
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