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Enable iOS Markup toolset capability from a PDF loaded from Dropbox

I’m a mature student who’s gone back to school to advance my career capacity. I’ve meticulously set up Dropbox folder structures to sort and hold my course information assets such as PDFs. While in class the other day on my iPad Pro, I went to pull up a PDF in Dropbox, to annotate. I noticed my options were to use the inline set of Dropbox annotation and related tools, or send it to Adobe Acrobat app where I could use the Adobe tools. I really like the “Markup” toolset/baked-in experience within iOS and MacOS (via Preview App). However, in order for any third-party iOS app or Files app on iCloud Drive to modify the PDF (duplicate, copy, or add inline annotations) I have to move the PDF out of Dropbox, to iCloud Drive on my iPad Pro. Then, I can use the third-party apps or iOS Markup toolset to annotate the PDF.

I’d like to retain use of Dropbox for my university education practices but with the need to engage PDFs to annotate with the dynamic set of tools from iOS Markup toolset (I’m into research coding and indexing using my Apple Pencil), I’m left with the decision of potentially moving my entire education file set over to iCloud Drive.

Is there any way around this? Is Dropbox app for iOS planning to permit PDF file editing via iOS’s Markup feature set at some point in the future?

Thanks!

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Nancy

Welcome to the Community, @Mike P.58! I hope you’re doing well.

First of all, I’d like to thank you for your feedback on this; I’ve also passed it to our team, so that they can see your comments.

Besides that, a workaround that I believe could work for you is enabling Dropbox as a location in your Files app, and then opening your PDFs from there directly. This should allow you to use the markup features from iOS and the changes should save back to your Dropbox account.

Hope this helps!

Mike P.58

Thanks! I've tried loading a PDF from Dropbox using iOS's Files App. I get a roadblock notification to the effect of, "Cannot Open This File". While it opens ok in Preview App on Mac OS.

Megan

Hey @Mike P.58, what steps do you follow, in order to load the file?

Did you export it from Dropbox, locally to the device? If you have any screenshots of the error, feel free to send them our way too.

Mike P.58

@Megan no. This is the error dialogue received when attempting access a PDF file from Dropbox while in the Files App or a iOS third-party app (in this instance Highlights App) on my iPad running iOS 16.

What I have to end up doing is moving the file out of Dropbox into iCloud Drive. At that point the PDF file can be successfully opened in iOS Files App or any third party iOS-running app, such as Highlights.

I'm at a point with my high volume university edu reading that I may have to abandon using Dropbox for iCloud Drive. 😞

If there's a software update to Dropbox for iOS (iPad) coming soon where PDFs can be successfully opened in iOS apps (think Highlights App) and Files App, let me know!

Here's a screen grab of the dialogue I get when attempting to open a PDF hosted on Dropbox. This is from Highlights App. Also get the same dialogue when accessing from iCloud Drive: link removed

Megan

Hey @Mike P.58, I've removed your link in order to avoid high traffic, since we're on a public forum.

Can you try to attach it back here, using the little camera-like icon when you try to respond?

Mike P.58

Hi @Megan here it is! 🙂

Hannah

Hey @Mike P.58, can you let us know which version of the Dropbox app you're using?

I just tested this on my end and did not run into any issues. Does this only happen with the 3rd party app you're using or directly from the Files app too?

Mike P.58

Dropbox app version: 334.2.2.

Running iOS 16.5..1 on an iPad Pro.

I'm experiencing this roadblock through third party apps accessing from Dropbox (I cited Highlights App as one of them), and the native iOS Files App.

Thanks

Nancy

Hi again, @Mike P.58!

Do you mind if we open a ticket for you, at this point, so that we can look into your Dropbox account?

Mike P.58

Yes, let's have a closer look under the hood! 🙂

Hannah

Sounds good, Mike!

I just sent you an email, so we'll continue there. 🙂