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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
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The verdict on

Documents

35
User verdict / 100 High confidence In trouble

Documents by Readdle, a long-standing file management app, is currently experiencing significant user frustration due to a shift towards a subscription model for previously free or paid features, coupled with numerous performance issues like crashes and data loss.

4.8★ lifetime (617,026) Free to download since 2010 by Readdle Technologies Limited updated 0.1 mo ago recent negative 31% 120 reviews across 4 regions
Subscription Model Performance & Stability File Management & Access Media Playback Features Search Functionality
5★447
4★105
3★71
2★62
1★215
recent reviews across 4 regions, vs the 4.8★ lifetime average

Documents by Readdle has historically been a highly-rated app for file management, PDF tools, and media playback. However, recent updates have introduced a mandatory subscription model for many core features, leading to widespread user dissatisfaction. Users are also reporting a variety of bugs, crashes, and usability issues, contradicting the app's previously strong reputation.

What users like

  • Effective for downloading and listening to music and other audio filesR2R35R41R52
  • Useful for organizing and managing various document types and files in one placeR4R20R25R55
  • Offers strong PDF tools, including reflow and editing (though now mostly paywalled)R25R220

What users complain about

  • Many previously free or one-time purchase features are now locked behind a monthly subscription, which is seen as expensive and misleadingR3R12R28R38
  • App frequently crashes, especially when playing music, handling large PDFs, or after updatesR11R43R51R65
  • Users report losing files or an inability to access them after updates or due to bugsR13R14R22R54
  • Search functionality is broken or ineffective for various document types, including PDFs and spreadsheetsR21R39R46R216
  • Difficulty with file management, including saving, organizing, renaming, and transferring filesR56R81R110R369
  • Video playback issues, such as missing controls, videos not launching, or not playing correctlyR29R36R51R309
  • App takes up significantly more storage space after recent updatesR95R560
  • Intrusive pop-ups and a confusing user experience, especially during onboarding or after updatesR7R44R59R61

Latest update · v8.20.3

What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):

Nothing flashy, just some solid technical tune-ups in this update. Got ideas or feedback? Send them our way: [email protected].

Recurring themes

Subscription Model negative
Many users are highly critical of the app's shift to a subscription model, especially for features that were previously free or part of a one-time purchase. They feel misled by the App Store listing and find the monthly fee ($10-$16/month) to be excessively high for the value offered, leading to many deleting the app.R3R12R17R28
Performance & Stability negative
A significant number of recent reviews report frequent app crashes, freezing, and general lag, particularly when playing music, opening heavy PDFs, or after updates. This contradicts the developer's notes about 'technical tune-ups'.R11R30R36R41
File Management & Access negative
Users are struggling with basic file management tasks, including difficulty saving, finding, organizing, renaming, and transferring documents. There are also reports of files being lost or inaccessible after updates, which is a critical issue for a file management app.R13R14R22R54
Search Functionality negative
The search function is widely reported as broken or ineffective, failing to find text within PDFs and spreadsheets, or simply showing a spinning loading wheel.R21R39R46R216
Media Playback Features mixed
While many users appreciate the app for downloading and playing music and videos, there are numerous complaints about missing or removed playback controls (brightness, volume, seeking), videos not playing, issues with M4A file durations, and the removal of features like extracting audio from MP4s without a subscription.R2R29R35R36

Who it's for

This app is for users who need a central hub for downloading, organizing, and managing various file types, especially audio and PDF documents, and are willing to pay a monthly subscription for advanced features R2R4R25. It is NOT for users who expect a free app, are on a tight budget, or require reliable performance without crashes and data loss R3R11R13.

Evidence note: The recent reviews skew heavily negative, focusing on the subscription model and technical issues. While the lifetime rating is very high, the recent sentiment indicates a significant decline in user satisfaction. The developer's release notes are vague and do not address the specific issues reported by users.

Frequently asked

Is Documents by Readdle free to use?
While the app is free to download, many core features, including PDF editing, downloading web documents, and advanced file management, are now locked behind a monthly subscription fee, which users report was not clearly disclosed before download R3R12R66R75.
What are the common issues with the app's performance?
Users frequently report app crashes, especially when playing music or handling large PDF files, along with general freezing, lag, and issues with the search function not working R11R21R43R51.
Can I still manage my files effectively with this app?
Many users are experiencing difficulties with file management, including challenges in saving, finding, organizing, renaming, and transferring documents, with some reporting loss of files after updates R13R14R56R81.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R2] 5/5 · US Great app: I have been using this app for years and with confidence I can say this app is one of the greatest apps ever made and it’s perfect for downloading and listening to music for free 10/10 app
  2. [R35] 5/5 · US NICE!: Good for all my audios! Def recommend, it’s free!
  3. [R41] 5/5 · US Love the app! But…: So I had a great experience using this app. But, for some reason now. I try to play the music I have downloaded on this app (I have over 3,000+ songs on it). And it doesn’t want to play and or if it finally does play it stops randomly. And I use it for car audio (rebassed) that’s a tad bit on the loud, clear and low side. So when it randomly just stops. It’s kind of like “a wel
  4. [R52] 5/5 · US Love my mp3 downloads !!: I love this app! Go to when I want to download audio files. I wish I could change the image of the audio file to something other than a music note, is there a way to do that? If not, would that be something that could be integrated?
  5. [R4] 5/5 · US So Great~: Important~ documents and files in one place ISo extremely Convenient~too .
  6. [R20] 5/5 · US Best app to work: Best and easy to operation
  7. [R25] 5/5 · US Greatest App on App store: I'm tired of describing the greatness of this application, literally a very revolutionary application and there is no equal at all at the same level, I am very happy that I knew it, the PDF tools is legendary, downloading and organizing files is legendary, the archiving tools are legendary, file editing tools and additional features are legendary, linking it with other d
  8. [R55] 5/5 · US my favorite app: it's my favorite app to open any types of documents thank you for all of your efforts to make such a good application
  9. [R220] 3/5 · US Great app, at too high a price: The PDF reflow is one of the best I’ve ever seen, and I’d gladly pay a one-time fee, but $10/month is absurd.
  10. [R3] 1/5 · US Undisclosed Fees After First 7 Days!: Listing in AppStore said only “In-App Purchases,” implying that it’s a free app with possibly optional add-ons that would cost extra; standard model I’ve encountered in MANY APPS over years. Instead, when I opened your Documents app, I was summarily informed that I had 7 days free trial period, after which I would be charged monthly fees!! I never agreed to th
  11. [R12] 1/5 · US Did not say they want to charge monthly fee: I do not know if the product works well or not. However, I did not see anything that stated it was a subscription service until after I had downloaded and installed the application. I seldom use ZIP files on my phone and that was the only reason I was looking. Disappointed they “hid the ball” when it comes to a monthly subscription fee - particularly w
  12. [R28] 1/5 · US Legacy paid users are being squeezed for features they already had: I purchased Documents by Readdle more than 10 years ago and paid for features that were part of the app experience at the time. After years of using the app, I opened the current version. I found that basic PDF tools like rotating and extracting pages, features I previously had access to, are now being pushed behind a subscription
  13. [R38] 1/5 · US Mid: Used to be good, then they gave it a paywall
  14. [R11] 3/5 · US Bug: Bug for pdfreader heavy pdf’s, always crash and dont delete
  15. [R43] 1/5 · US Music Player Seems to app crashing: Whenever I use the app for playing music after 3 or 4 minutes app crashes and close.
  16. [R51] 2/5 · US Music and videos: I don't know how many times I have to write this to finally get through to you. The app crashes when I'm listening to music, and what the hell? Why do videos open in *this* app when I select them in the Files app?
  17. [R65] 5/5 · US Recent update makes app unusable: *Update: I was able to fix the issue below by disabling Auto sync and limiting photo access in the settings! Beyond this one issue the app is a huge help when it comes to photo and video organization on iOS, and out of all the other apps I tried it's second to none and free as well. **Solved issue: Before this year this app as my go to for file storage on my phon
  18. [R13] 1/5 · US Intro/preferences deleted all my files: I wouldn’t trust this app anymore. They seem to prioritize adding useless things like asking me what kind of files I work with or my profession is than retaining files.
  19. [R14] 2/5 · US Lost and entire PDF form: I filled out an entire pdf form with lengthy text boxes. Accidentally hit the back button. All of it…gone. No autosave or warning to save it first. Bad design.
  20. [R22] 5/5 · US My account: I recently deleted this app to update this my phone I have not been able to recover my videos or files everything is gone how do I recover my Account I love this app so much
  21. [R54] 3/5 · US Can’t access after update: I’ve had this app for eight years. It has been amazing. I save all my music on it so for it not to be working right now it’s kind of scary. It’s also a realization that I have to have more than one way to access my music.
  22. [R21] 1/5 · US Search function: The search function isn't working; the loading wheel just keeps spinning.
  23. [R39] 2/5 · US Nice but there are problems with pdf viewer and annotations: There is a bug that happens after I updated the app. When I search inside a PDF file, not all results show up. Fix this ASAP please. Also the colors available to choose from in the colors palette before needing to extend it are limited. And for some reason, PC share doesn’t work. Please fix the search bug AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
  24. [R46] 5/5 · US Cant search for anything: My only thing wrong with this app is whenever I go to search for a document it doesn’t show anything it just stays blank
  25. [R216] 3/5 · US Can’t search spreadsheets: This is advertised as the app to do everything with your documents. But it can’t search a spreadsheet? There’s a search button but it doesn’t work, won’t find text that is clearly visible in the spreadsheet.
  26. [R56] 3/5 · US Hard to save files: Cannot move files from recent to docs regular file
  27. [R81] 3/5 · US Ok but hard to find files: It's ok, works well, but I have a very hard time trying to fine my files. They are in documents but if I want to upload it somewhere I have a hard time finding them, it's REALLY annoying.
  28. [R110] 2/5 · US Complicated: Very hard to find documents once you’ve downloaded them. Very hard to transfer document documents to specific bio folders. Very hard to rename documents to a name that makes sense to you.
  29. [R369] 3/5 · GB It was good but now search doesn't work & files disappear: I have had this for a while but it seems to get messier and messier. What I see when I open the app directly is not what I see if I try to attach something to a gmail email for example. If I open the app directly I see the inbox and various other folders. If I click attach in an email and go to Readdle - it doesn't offer me the inbox or t
  30. [R29] 4/5 · US Video player: I primarily used this app for videos. Which irks me that years before they removed the player controls from full screen. You used to be able to swiped up and down to control brightness and volume and left and right for seeking and they completely removed those options. So disappointing
  31. [R36] 2/5 · US New issues: Great app for many different things. But now my videos I saved in my inbox do not launch anymore. When I try to play a video a white blank page comes up and nothing works. I was working fine couple months ago. Whats the issue?
  32. [R309] 3/5 · GB What’s up with button controls when watching YouTube videos through the browser?: Since the last update I have had issues with YouTube controls to either skip adds or slide through videos.
  33. [R95] 1/5 · US Delete doesn’t get rid of storage: Clearing Recently Deleted doesn’t get rid of storage. I have useless gigabytes stuck now please fix for next update.
  34. [R560] 3/5 · CA Taking much space after updating: I used to like this app for downloading a lot of files and not taking much space in my storage, it was about 300MB, but now it takes 6GB after new updating!!!😭😭
  35. [R7] 1/5 · US Objectively a terrible app: So much junk it’s unusable. And I’ve used this app for probably a decade.
  36. [R44] 1/5 · US Use to Love the app: Hate the latest update, very intrusive. Don't like the lightbulb thing. Took away ability to add hyperlinks without paying for it. Going to look for something else.
  37. [R59] 2/5 · US Just let me in: The FTUE for this app is awful for both updates with new tutorials and after reinstalling
  38. [R61] 1/5 · US Why?: I have iCloud and Dropbox. Another not needed and causes more confusion. I want to work without this always popping up.
  39. [R17] 2/5 · US I don't understand the hype: No folder color coding, no multi instance tab view, not a lot of useful features.. Everything is basically paywalled, built in bowser sucks at grabbing downloads. 🤷
  40. [R30] 5/5 · US iphone 17 pro max: The app, after its last two updates, has been experiencing unacceptably high temperatures during use.
  41. [R66] 1/5 · US Shame: I’ve been using it since 2021 and it WAS amazing. But now it requires money just to download a web document? No thanks! Deleted
  42. [R75] 1/5 · US Everything req $$$: All features locked behind a paywall. Do not download

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store