Books & PDF storage
Also known as: Apple Books storage, iPhone PDF storage, where are my PDFs
Books and PDFs you add to Apple Books or save in the Files app are stored on your device and can grow large — illustrated books, audiobooks, and scanned PDFs especially. They sync through iCloud, but local copies still count toward your iPhone storage.
- Books and saved PDFs are stored on the device
- Audiobooks and scanned PDFs use the most space
- Remove a download to free space while keeping the title
Where books and PDFs live
Titles in Apple Books and PDFs you import there appear under the Library tab; PDFs you save outside Books land in Files > On My iPhone. Audiobooks and image-heavy PDFs are the biggest space users, since a single scanned document can run to many megabytes.
A downloaded book shows on-device; a cloud-only title shows a download icon. You can remove a download to free space while keeping the title in your library, then re-download it later.
Managing the space
Check usage in Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Books, where you can review and delete content. In the Books app you can also long-press a title and choose Remove > Remove Download to clear the local file without losing your place or purchase.