How to Get Mendeley PDFs onto an iPad (Step by Step)

There are three ways a paper in your Mendeley library ends up readable on an iPad: you read it in Safari, you export the file and move it across, or you use an app that syncs the library onto the device. This article is the steps for each.

It is not a comparison — if you are still deciding which route suits you, that is in How to Read Mendeley Papers on iPad in 2026. This one assumes you have picked a route and want to know which buttons to press.

Route 1: Read It in Safari

The shortest path, and the one that needs nothing installed.

1. Open your Mendeley library in Safari on the iPad and sign in.
2. Tap the reference you want. Entries with a file attached show a PDF icon.
3. The PDF opens in the browser.

That is the whole procedure. It needs a connection, and what you can do to the page is whatever the browser offers.

Route 2: Export the PDF and Move It to the iPad

This one has two starting points depending on where you are when you decide you want the paper.

If you are on the iPad already

1. Open your Mendeley library in Safari and tap the reference you want.
2. The Info panel opens on the right. Under Files, tap the file name — it is a blue link.

Tapping the PDF icon at the left of the row does the same thing.

1. Safari asks whether to download the file from mendeley.com. Tap Download.
2. The file lands in the Files app, in a Downloads folder. Which one depends on your

Safari setting: by default Browse › iCloud Drive › Downloads, or Browse › On My iPad › Downloads if Safari is set to keep downloads on the device.

From there, open it in whichever PDF app you read in.

If you are at your computer

Mendeley Reference Manager has an explicit export that brings the annotations with the file. Mendeley's own instructions are:

1. Select the PDF file you want to export from your library.
2. Under the Info tab you will see Files.
3. Under Files you will see the PDF attached to it.
4. Click the three dots beside the PDF.
5. Select Export PDF with Annotations.
6. Click Save — you can save it locally or to the cloud.

Saving it into iCloud Drive, Dropbox or the equivalent puts it within reach of the iPad's Files app without a cable.

Both starting points end in the same place: a PDF file sitting somewhere on the iPad, waiting for you to open it in something.

Route 3: An App That Syncs Your Library

Apps in this category sign in to your Mendeley account and bring the library onto the device, so there is no per-paper download step at all.

1. Install the app and sign in with your Mendeley account.
2. Wait for the first sync.
3. Open any paper from the library view.

The setup is once; after that there is no step 2 for each new paper. What differs between apps in this category is which annotation types travel back to your library, which is the next section.

What Happens to Your Annotations

This is the part that decides how the workflow feels six months in, and it is different for each route.

Route 2 splits your copies. Once the file is downloaded, the copy on the iPad and the copy catalogued in Mendeley are two separate files. Anything you highlight in the reader app happens to the downloaded copy. Mendeley has no idea it happened. If you later export the same paper again, you get a fresh file without your notes, and now there are three copies.

Route 3 depends on the app. An app that syncs the library can also sync annotations back to it, so the annotated copy and the catalogued copy stay the same file — but whether it does, and which annotation types it covers, varies. It is worth checking before you commit a semester of reading to one.

Doing This for a Whole Folder

Everything above describes one paper. The arithmetic matters once there are more.

Mendeley's documented export procedure is written for a single file: select the reference, open its Files list, use the menu beside that attachment. The support article does not describe a way to export a folder's worth of attachments in one action.

For one paper, that is a few seconds. For a reading list of twenty, it is twenty rounds of the same four steps, twenty files in a Downloads folder named however the publisher named them, and twenty small decisions later about which copy has your notes on it.

That arithmetic — not any single missing feature — is what makes Route 2 wear out.

Where Rectoly Fits

Rectoly is Route 3. You sign in to your Mendeley account once and the library is on the iPad, opening in a reader built for reading: Apple Pencil annotation, two papers side by side, offline once synced. Highlights, notes and sticky notes travel in both directions, so the annotated copy and the catalogued copy stay one file.

It also runs the other way. A PDF that is already on the iPad can be added to your Mendeley library from inside Rectoly, either with Add PDF to Mendeley, or by pointing Rectoly's sync settings at a watch folder so that PDFs landing there are picked up for you. You confirm the reference details before anything is added, so papers do not get filed under whatever the publisher called the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do PDFs downloaded from Mendeley go on an iPad?

Into the Files app, in a Downloads folder — iCloud Drive › Downloads by default, or On My iPad › Downloads if Safari is set to keep downloads on the device.

Can I download my whole Mendeley library at once?

Mendeley's documented export steps work one attachment at a time, and the support article does not describe a bulk option. Syncing the library with an app avoids the question, because there is no per-file download step to repeat.

Do my existing Mendeley annotations come with the PDF?

Mendeley Reference Manager on the desktop has an Export PDF with Annotations option, which writes them into the exported file. Note that this is a one-way copy: notes you add afterwards in a reader app stay in that app.

Can I add a PDF from my iPad back into Mendeley?

Only if the app you are using supports it. Rectoly does, either one file at a time or through a watch folder.

Conclusion

The steps for any single paper are short in all three routes. What separates them is what happens on the twentieth paper, and what state your annotations are in by then.

If your library is going to stay in Mendeley — and for most people it should — the question worth asking is not how to get one PDF onto the iPad, but which route stops needing you.