How do you add an email attachment on your iPhone or iPad? With iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more!
You're writing an email and need to attach a file to it, perhaps an office or iWork document, or maybe a PDF or text file. For security reasons, you can't go wandering through the file system, but you can attach any file into any email from any storage provider app, including iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more.
- How to attach iCloud Drive files to email on iPhone and iPad
- How to attach Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive or enterprise files to email on iPhone and iPad
- How to use the attachment shortcut on iPad
How to attach iCloud Drive files to email on iPhone and iPad
Because Apple's iCloud service is built into iOS, files located in iCloud Drive are simplest to attach.
- Launch Mail from your Home screen
- Tap Compose to start a new email.
- Touch-and-hold to bring up the editing menu on iPhone. (Or use the shortcut key on iPad)
- Tap the arrow button to get more options.
- Tap Add Attachment.
- Tap on the folder that contains the file you want to attach, if it's not at the top level.
- Tap on the file you want to attach.
Add a recipient, a message, and you're good to go.
How to attach Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive or enterprise files to email on iPhone and iPad
Thanks to document provider extensions you can also attach files from other popular online storage services, and from an enterprise storage system if you have one.
For the document provider extension to be available, you first have to download the host app from the App Store.
Once you've downloaded the app, launch it and log into your account. Then you can start attaching away.
- Launch Mail from your Home screen
- Tap Compose to start a new email.
- Touch-and-hold to bring up the editing menu on iPhone. (Or use the shortcut key on iPad)
- Tap the arrow button to get more options.
- Tap Add Attachment.
- Tap on Locations at the top left.
- Tap on the storage provider you want to use. If you don't see your preferred provider:
- Tap on More.
- Switch On your preferred storage provider.
- Tap on Done.
- Tap on the folder that contains the file you want to attach, if it's not at the top level.
- Tap on the file you want to attach.
- Some providers, like Google Drive, allow for multiple accounts. In those cases:
- Tap on the account you want to access.
- Tap on the folder that contains the file you want to attach, if it's not at the top level.
- Tap on the file you want to attach.
Add a recipient, a message, and you're done.
How to use the attachment shortcut on iPad
The iPad now has shortcut keys to either side of the predictive keyboard. In Mail, one of those keys is for attachments. Instead of having to use the edit menu, as detailed below for iPhone, simply use the attachment button to save yourself some time. Everything else remains the same.
How to save Mail attachments
Want to save email attachments as well? Check here!
How to save email attachments in Mail for iPhone and iPad
Any questions on attachments?
If you have any questions on adding attachments, or about Mail in general, drop them in the comments!
Reader comments
How to add attachments to Mail for iPhone and iPad
Still blows my mind that there is no on device storage. One of the primary reasons why I can't use my work ip6. Too frustrating especially as I have iCloud turned off for everything. I don't want to have to download attachments every time from a cloud service. Brutal...
There is on-device storage. It's just sandboxed per-app for security reasons. Previously that meant files were jailed inside apps. Now with document provider extensions, the OS can punch through the sandboxes and present a unified file browser in iCloud Drive.
I would love the ability to mark files for permanent local caching, though.
Security reason is crappy reason. On a blackberry its why easier and that's more secure then iOS.
What makes you think BlackBerry is more secure than iOS?
Lol really?
iOS has been jailbroken, aka hacked, at nearly every one of its releases.
When has BB10 or even BBOS been jailbroken/rooted?
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Playbook was jailbroken almost immediately.
This is the real challenge with security: Most people don't understand what it is, so don't appreciate what's done with it.
Crypto in post iOS 7 is stupendous. I urge you to go read the current white paper. It's rock your security world.
So one Blackberry device vs. every iPhone... but iOS is just as secure?
And didn't the FBI just recently hack a post-iOS 7 device for a terrorist investigation without needing Apple's help?
And what about that flaw that allowed hackers to take over an iPhone just by having users view a picture?
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/one-photo-could-hack-your-...
I could go on. Look, iOS is a great OS, but again--as others have said--if the secure Blackberry OS's can have a file system, I'm still not convinced there is any reason Apple can't.
True, but for my needs, if I need a network to get to my files it is an epic failure.
If you're sending an email, you need to be on a network, so in this case it's a non-issue.
For other use cases, I agree, though iCloud Drive uses the nearline model so frequently accessed and recent files tend to be cached locally so you can still access them. It's older, less frequently used files that need the cloud.
Still, a Dropbox-like "star-to-keep-local" would be welcome.
For security reasons, there are files in many companies which can't be stored on "cloud services.
What is needed is a local on-device storage which enables similar app file sharing capability without having to put the files on iCloud.
Similar to how the Notes app allows you to store Notes "on my iPhone" which are not synced to the cloud
Great article Rene, however - you could do the above in 2 steps using Thingthing Keyboard - http://apple.co/1MQiuxj - Apple = 6 steps :(
The iPad has an attachment button right on the keyboard as well. It'll come to iPhone, I hope.
I cannot access files if I'm sending via Exchange. I work around that by starting my message as GMail, attaching the item and switching it to Exchange only after. Is this a common Exchange issue, or just how my company has it locked down?
Sent from the iMore App
I have no issues with it. If I understand you correctly, I can attach a file from iCloud Drive, OneDrive etc. from within my Mail.app Exchange account. Still amazed that it took this long to gain such basic functionality in iOS, though.
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Did you ever solve this? I have the same problem
Can someone please write an article on how to get alerts to work for subfolders that mail is moved to through iCloud on iOS
Whenever I try to do this it work for Dropbox and Google Drive, but when I select OneDrive it fails to open (crashes and goes back to the email). Anyone else having that issue?
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Nice tip! Now I only need to wait for Apple to add SugarSync to the document provider extensions.
Apple doesn't add services, they add themselves. Apple published the API, but the service has to implement it.
Hey Renee do you know how to get alerts to work for sub folders in iOS email... I have tried adding the recipients that I have made sub folders for to vip but vip only scans the inbox so that's a no go and when I use icloud rules (which are extremely limited in comparison to Mac mail rukes) to move mail subfolders alerts do not work without you manually checking... I have tried to use Mac mail /rules instead because my Mac is on 24/7 but since Yosemite mail is broken and has never been addressed by apple besides the new swipe feature so i turn to iMore...
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Does this not work with Box? Or do I need to do something in Settings to enable it?
Soon, @thingthingapp will have Box integrated and it'll be awesome !
I find it odd that there is still not a quick way to attach a file on the iPhone by simply showing an attachment icon just like you can with the iPad. I was looking for apps in iOS8 (and now iOS9) which can actually attach a file (so no link like Gmail, Inbox, Mailbox or Outlook do) and in fact there are a few apps out there which can quickly do this which are:
- Spark (my favorite on iPhone) - free
- CloudMagic (unfortunately Spark is not yet on iPad and therefore CloudMagic is a great alternative) - free
- Boxer - free or paid app
The reason that i use these apps is also that i want to see conversations quickly (like i also can with Gmail on my desktop).
I just want to email some pics I took with my iphone. The phone should be able to do such a simple operation out of the box. Very disappointed with this device.
I'll be looking into Android or Windows Phone for a replacement..
Any way to just attach the photo from your phone? I need to do this for a job and if the photo is embedded they can't see the geotag. The locations I'm offered thru my iPhone 6s don't even have the pictures I just took in then (one drive, iCloud). This IS ridiculous that it's so difficult to do a simple function. I need to do this while out in the field and not mess around with storage drives. HELP anyone?
what a pain in the a##.... i'm referring to pretty much every capability my iphone has. each takes 17 steps and whirling it over your head... counterclockwise.
my macbook is even worse. i have to use a windows machine to check how to use iOS. can i just get windows?