How to sync files between computers and devices to share PDFs.
Keep all your work in one place, no matter where you work on it.
Effortlessly keep your PDFs in perfect harmony with these easy ways to sync files between computers and devices. It’s common these days to have a laptop, a tablet, a phone, and maybe even a desktop. So, when you’re working from one device, why shouldn’t you be able to pick up where you left off on another device? Learn how to sync PDF bookmarks across devices so that you can work flexibly, hassle- and paper-free.
What kinds of PDFs can be synced?
PDF files are extremely versatile, and you might need to use them for many different reasons. Depending on how you’re using your PDF, you’ll probably open it with a different program. Some PDFs are eBooks — you’ll open them in iBooks or Kindle. Other PDFs might be documents you access on a program like Adobe Acrobat. Most of these programs will allow you to sync your PDFs across devices.
Methods for how to sync files between computers and phones.
If you need to access the same PDF on multiple devices, your easiest option will be to use cloud storage. Cloud storage is accessible through many different apps and services. Read on to discover a few methods below.
Share and sync files between computers with cloud storage.
- What does cloud storage do? Cloud storage solutions back up your PDF documents and sync your PDF across multiple devices. This includes platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud.
- How do I save my PDF to the cloud? You can either save your work to your desktop and then drag it into your cloud storage, or you can log into your cloud storage and choose files to upload. Depending on your device and cloud storage platform, you might also be able to save it to the cloud through the File > Save As feature.
- How do I access my PDFs? Make sure you have access to the cloud storage you’re using on all your devices. Usually, that means having a PDF reader downloaded on your phone, computer, and tablet or accessing it through your device’s browser.
- What if I don’t have Wi-Fi? You don’t need the internet to read and mark up PDFs, but you will need it to save and sync. Back up any edited documents to the cloud when you do have Wi-Fi, and download documents so that you can access them when you don’t have Wi-Fi.
How to sync files and share with Adobe Acrobat.
If you’re using Adobe Acrobat, the PDFs you’ve opened with Acrobat will be stored in Adobe Document Cloud. Follow these steps to ensure syncing:
- Log in to Acrobat with the same credentials on every device.
- Double-check that your documents are being saved in Document Cloud.
- You should now be able to access your PDFs on Adobe Acrobat or Document Cloud.
How to sync local files to iPhone.
The simplest way to sync PDFs on your iPhone is to use iCloud on your devices and enable syncing. To learn how to sync local files to iPhone, follow these steps:
- In settings, make sure that you are logged in to iCloud. Do this for both devices with the same account.
- In the settings of both devices, toggle on iCloud Drive.
- In iBooks settings, toggle on the Sync Collections and Sync Bookmarks and Notes options according to your preference.
Your iCloud may need a quick refresh (toggle off and back on) for your synced files to appear, but they should be accessible on all the devices for which you use that iCloud account.
How to sync files on all your devices.
If you want all of your devices to have synced files, follow these steps:
- Choose a cloud storage service that can work on all of your devices. When choosing a service, you may want to pay attention to the interface on a mobile device.
- Log into the cloud storage service with the same account on all your devices.
- Pay attention to syncing settings and allow syncing across devices.
- Access your files through the cloud.
Do synced PDF files automatically update?
Whether your PDFs are automatically updated depends on your enabled settings and whether you’re using cloud storage. If you do want your synced PDFs to automatically update, sync using cloud storage and adjust your settings for automatic update.
More resources on PDF files.
Syncing files between computers and other devices can allow you to work on the same project in many different spaces, even on the go. After learning how to sync files between computers, here are more resources to work with PDFs:
- Learn how to encrypt a PDF file.
- Learn how to share PDF files more securely.
- Learn how to make a PDF interactive.
- Learn how to make PDF files uneditable.
Discover how you can use Acrobat to create and work in PDFs, whether you need to add pages to PDF files, extract PDF pages, split your files, and more.
