How to merge PDF files on iPhone

Merging PDFs is one of those tasks that sounds like it needs a desktop — or a sketchy upload-everything website. On iPhone it takes less than a minute, and done on-device it does not involve handing your documents to a server. Here is the flow.

What you end up with: One PDF, in the right order, built from as many source files as you need.

  1. 1

    Get every piece onto the phone

    Collect the PDFs you want to combine: files from Mail can be saved to Files, shared sheets can send documents straight to Paperly, and anything already in the Paperly library is ready. Merging works the same whether the PDF was scanned, downloaded, or received.

  2. 2

    Choose the documents to combine

    In Paperly, pick the PDFs from the library or import them from Files. Each document appears as a stack of pages, so you can see exactly what is about to be merged — no blind combining.

  3. 3

    Arrange the page order

    Drag pages until the document reads correctly: cover page first, main form in the middle, supporting pages at the end. Pages can move across documents, not just within them, so a signed page from one file can sit inside another.

  4. 4

    Export the merged PDF

    Export produces a single new PDF. The source files stay untouched in your library, so a merge is never a one-way operation — you can split the result apart again later.

  5. 5

    Compress if it is going by email

    Merged scans can get large. If the file is headed for an email attachment limit, run compression once before sending and check the new size — the pages stay readable.

Worth knowing

  • Name the merged file for the recipient, not for yourself — 'Application-Smith.pdf' survives an inbox better than 'Merged (3).pdf'.
  • If one source PDF is huge, compress it before merging rather than compressing the combined file twice.
  • Keep the originals until the recipient confirms — splitting back apart is easy, but re-collecting six source files is not.

Do it in Paperly

This guide follows the real Paperly workflow. The relevant features, if you want the details: