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Updated
How to Scan a Document in a Shortcut on iPhone
With Actions
- Install Actions, and open it once.
- In your shortcut, add the “Scan Documents” action. Turn on “Use PDF” to get one PDF and not one image for each page.
- Below it, add the “Wait to Return” action, and then the “Get Clipboard” action.
- Add what must happen with the scan, like the “Save File” action.
- Run the shortcut. The Actions app opens with the scanner. Scan the pages. The Shortcuts app then comes back, and the shortcut continues.
The scan replaces what was on the clipboard. The action is not available on the Mac.
Get Actions
Additional actions for the Shortcuts app
Free
- Platforms
- macOS, iOS, visionOS
- Requires
- macOS, iOS, or visionOS 26 or later
- Category
- Utilities
- Released
- October 2021
- Privacy
- No personal data collected
- Updated
- June 2026
- Version
- 4.2.0
- Size
- 29 MB
- US App Store rating
- 4.8/5 (529 ratings)
Without an app
To only scan a document, you do not need a shortcut:
- Files: In the Files app, tap the More button, and tap “Scan Documents”. After the scan, choose a location, and tap “Save”.
- Notes: Open a note, tap the Attachment button, and tap “Scan Documents”.
Apple’s instructions. If a scan in Files or Notes is enough, use that. The Files app also has a “Scan Document” action for Shortcuts, but it only opens the scanner of Files and gives no result to the next actions. The action of Actions is for a shortcut that does more with the scan in its next actions.