This version of GoodReader is designed for iPhone / iPod touch. If you're using iPad, GoodReader for iPad app would be much more useful.
GoodReader is a file viewer with many powerful features, most of which address PDF and TXT viewing.
GoodReader is a very complex application. It incorporates a lot of non-obvious features and solutions. We strongly encourage you to read all our manuals, otherwise it will be hard for you to enjoy the full power of GoodReader.
Here you will find a brief description of GoodReader's features with links to more detailed manuals.
There are two types of viewing engines - the ones that we wrote ourselves, and the built-in device's standard viewing engine. Our own engines provide great flexibility and many additional features not found in the built-in engine (for example, opening very large files). The built-in engine is very powerful and knows many file formats, but has many limitations and no additional features.
Using inter-app Document Interchange (a.k.a. Open In... functionality) to exchange files between apps (including Apple's Mail app to transfer E-Mail attachments to GoodReader). Works both ways - GoodReader can open files stored in other apps, and other apps can open files stored in GoodReader. Apple's Document Interchange works only with apps that explicitly support this feature. iOS 4 or later is required.
Accessing E-Mail servers via IMAP or POP3 protocol to download mail attachments
Accessing WebDAV Servers (MobileMe iDisk, box.net and any other WebDAV server on the Web) for both downloading and uploading files. Plus you can connect to any iPhone/iPod/iPad on your local WiFi network that has a file sharing and management application that supports WebDAV connections. You can also sync files and folders.
Accessing Google Docs via its proprietary protocol for both downloading and uploading files
Accessing Dropbox via its proprietary protocol for both downloading and uploading files. You can also sync files and folders.
Accessing SugarSync via its proprietary protocol for both downloading and uploading files. You can also sync files and folders.
Importing/exporting pictures from device Photo Album. Importing of recorded videos.
Automatic Synchronization
GoodReader can automatically sync individual files and entire folders to their remote versions hosted on online servers of the following types: MobileMe iDisk, Dropbox, SugarSync and any other WebDAV or FTP server. Please see our manual on this.
Tips for folder navigation
tap in the middle of the navigation bar (in the middle of a folder name) to see the stack of all enclosing folders and to quickly jump to those folders
swipe file or folder name to delete this file/folder (be careful - this can't be undone)
sort your files by name, date and size. Use ascending or descending sort order. The Sort button is accessible after pressing the Actions button in a file list view.
use Find Files feature in one of four modes: find by a name, recently read, recently added, starred
file or folder name shown in black means that you have opened this file/folder, shown in blue means that it is unread
mark your files/folders with a star to visually distinguish them
protect individual files and folders with a password
Managing files/folders, sending e-mail
There is a powerful set of features accessible by pressing the Actions button in a file list view. You can send files to other apps that support Apple's Document Interchange. You can create new folders, and rename/copy/move/delete existing files and folders. You can compress multiple files and folders into .zip archives, and you can unzip .zip archives. You can also send files via e-mail from GoodReader. You can mark files as read/unread, set/remove a password protection for individual files/folders, set/remove a star for a file or folder, extract files from PDF Portfolios, create new TXT files for further editing, and create a task in Appigo Todo app. You can also create a special URL link for integration with other apps. Read more here.
Password protection
There are three ways to protect your sensitive data:
by setting a password check at GoodReader's startup. Open Application Settings page, General Settings section for this (see Buttons on the main screen section below on how to open Application Settings page). This feature uses iOS's Data Protection API, which actually encrypts your files, keeping your data confidential, even if your device gets lost or stolen. However, there are special procedures to perform, and also there are some limitations. Please be absolutely sure to read the Data Protection manual, if you want to actually encrypt your files.
by setting password protection for individual files and folders. This feature uses iOS's Data Protection API, which actually encrypts your files, keeping your data confidential, even if your device gets lost or stolen. However, there are special procedures to perform, and also there are some limitations. Please be absolutely sure to read the Data Protection manual, if you want to actually encrypt your files.
by setting an opening password for PDF files during their creation (consult your PDF creation software manual for this)
You can combine all these methods for extra security, if you don't mind entering three different passwords to open a single file.
iOS 4 introduces multitasking, which redefines the application startup concept a little bit. Now real app startup is a rare thing to happen. More often you will be bringing apps from the background, which is not a real app startup. However, it is a very common thing for a user to send an app to the background and forget about it for a while. Which brings a need to re-enter a password when re-activating already running copy of GoodReader after a certain period of time. GoodReader defines this period of time as 10 minutes. However, there's the Paranoid mode switch available in settings, General section, which will force re-entering of a password after any app re-activation, if you prefer this.
Be careful not to forget your startup and protected files passwords, because no way of retrieving or resetting these passwords is provided. However, if you have forgotten your passwords, the only way to reset them is to delete and reinstall the app, which will also erase all your files and settings.
If you're really concerned about security, you may also want to encrypt your iTunes Backup files.
Data Protection (File Encryption)
GoodReader takes advantage of iOS's Data Protection API. This API encrypts files, to make sure that your data will be secure, even if your device gets lost or stolen. While this feature is designed to be as transparent and effortless as possible, there are some procedures that need to be performed to enforce data encryption. Also, some limitations apply, so please be sure to read the following section, if you want to use this feature.
Data Protection provides a fairly strong level of data security. If you use it properly, it will continue to protect your files even if an attacker jailbreaks your device and uses various hacking techniques to access encrypted files. You can also use Apple's Remote Wipe feature to erase all data remotely from a lost or stolen device.
Data Protection works in conjunction with the passcode that you use to unlock your device. If you don't lock your device with a passcode, your files will NOT be encrypted. However, locking a device with a passcode doesn't automatically mean that your files will be encrypted. The following conditions must also be met (we have divided them into two categories - Apple's prerequisites and GoodReader's usage rules).
Apple's side of protection:
Since Data Protection relies on a special hardware to encrypt files, it doesn't work on older iOS devices. It does work on the following ones: all iPad models, iPhone models starting with 3GS and newer, iPod touch models starting with 3rd generation and newer.
iOS 4.0 or later is required
Data Protection is active only if you enable Passcode Lock in main device Settings, General section. If you don't use passcode lock, your files will not be encrypted.
The trickiest part of preparing your device to use Data Protection comes to play when your device previously used to work under an older version of iOS. Data Protection requires disk drive of your device to be fully reformatted in a special secure mode. This automatically happens when you fully restore a device to iOS 4.0 or later, but it does NOT happen when you simply upgrade from iOS 3.x to iOS 4.x. During a simple upgrade process your disk drive is left in the older insecure mode. In this case you will have to perform a full restore (“full-erase install”) of your device to iOS 4.0 or later. The following paragraph describes how to check if your device is fully prepared for Data Protection or not.
To check if your device is fully prepared to encrypt your files, go to main device Settings, General section, and select Passcode Lock. Make sure that Passcode is turned on. If Passcode is on, and your device's disk is properly formatted, you will see the “Data protection is enabled” label at the very bottom of Pascode Lock settings window:
If you see this label, your device is fully prepared to encrypt files. The rest of setup is done in GoodReader.
As an additional security measure, tell iTunes to encrypt your backup files
If you represent a company that manages a set of iOS devices via Configuration Profiles, enforce a certain policy on your managed devices: require that Data Protection is enabled, require password length and complexity, require maximum passcode grace period, require encrypted iTunes backups. If a device is compromised, instantly use Remote Wipe.
GoodReader's side of protection:
In GoodReader there are two passwords to restrict the access to physical files - app startup password and password for protecting individual files and folders. Both of them are set up in GoodReader app settings, General section. Both these passwords apply encryption to files.
It is important to understand that GoodReader itself doesn't encrypt or decrypt your files. It does two things - restricts the access to protected files via GoodReader's own user interface, and asks iOS to encrypt certain files (or all of them, if you're using app startup password). iOS, in its turn, locks these files within a few seconds after you lock your device with a passcode, and instantly unlocks them when you unlock your device with a passcode. It means that when you unlock your device with a passcode, all your files become decrypted and fully accessible, even if GoodReader app is not being run at the moment, and you haven't entered any of GoodReader's passwords yet. So, if your device is unlocked, GoodReader will prevent the access to protected files via its own user interface, but nothing prevents from copying these files via, for example, File Sharing section of iTunes (USB transfer), without knowing GoodReader's passwords. So please be sure to ALWAYS lock your device with a passcode, even if you leave it just for a minute. This will turn the physical hardware-based protection on. And while Auto-Lock option in main device Settings may be of great help with this, it never hurts to manually lock your device every time you leave it.
GoodReader must explicitly tell iOS about files it wants to encrypt. This brings up an issue when you transfer files to GoodReader without GoodReader's direct participation, for example, using File Sharing in iTunes, or using some other undocumented technique. GoodReader takes care of everything when it directly participates in transferring process (when using documented WiFi transfer, or downloading files from remote servers via GoodReader's user interface). But if you have transferred files to GoodReader's protected zone using techniques that do not involve direct GoodReader's participation, you must make sure that GoodReader learns about these new files and explicitly asks iOS to encrypt them. You do it by simply launching GoodReader and browsing to a folder where these new files are located. Once GoodReader opens that folder and shows you this folder's list of files, it instantly discovers all new files being shown in a list, and tells the system if these files need to be encrypted or not.
Things to consider:
Your data protection is only as good as your passcode. If you use “1234”, your name, your birthdate or your zodiac sign for a passcode, rest assured - an attacker will crack it in a minute. Choose strong alphanumeric passwords consisting of random characters, not words. Enter your passcode only when nobody's looking. And don't forget to change your passwords periodically.
GoodReader can work with files on a locked device under certain circumstances. For instance, it can play audio when locked, or upload/download files for a short period of time (until WiFi module shuts down). However, if you use Data Protection, and a file you're working with is in a protected zone, iOS will physically block the access to this file within several seconds after locking, so don't be surprised if playback of a protected audio file suddenly stops when you lock a Data Protection-enabled device.
Buttons on the main screen
Actions
opens up additional menu to work with files and folders. See Manage Files, Send E-mail for more details.
enters the WiFi-transfer page used for WiFi file transfers. For security reasons and to save your battery power, transfer is allowed only when you're on the WiFi-transfer page. This button opens this page. See WiFi File Transfer section for more details.
rotates interface. GoodReader lets you choose between autorotation and manual rotation of the screen. If you feel that sudden screen autorotations are a little annoying when you're reading in bed, you can turn autorotation off in General section of Application Settings and then you can always rotate the screen manually with this button. Manual rotations can be done in 2 or 3 ways (selectable option on the Application Settings page).
Find File. Use it to find files/folders in one of four modes: find by a name, recently read, recently added, starred.
enters the Application Settings page, where you can change many GoodReader settings.
tap in the middle of the navigation bar (right below the clock) to see the stack of all enclosing folders and to quickly jump to those folders
Video out adapter
GoodReader supports Apple's Video out adapters to show your documents/movies on an external computer display, TV or a projector (iPhone 4 is required). There's a dedicated button on the main screen of GoodReader that may appear in one of three states:
Video out adapter is not connected, button is disabled
Video out adapter is connected, but the feature is not activated. Press this button to activate the feature.
Video out adapter is connected, the feature is activated. Open a document or a movie to start sending video signal to an external display. Press this button again to deactivate the feature.
Wireless printing (AirPrint)
GoodReader supports AirPrint capabilities of iOS for wireless printing (iOS 4.2 or later is required, works on devices with multitasking capabilities - iPad, iPhone 4/3GS, iPod touch 3 gen. or newer models, requires AirPrint-enabled printers). To print a file, open it and use this button:
Disabling device auto-lock when reading
Usually your device uses the auto-lock feature (after a certain period of inactivity screen dims and then turns off). You can let GoodReader temporarily disable device auto-lock while reading (it will be restored once you close a file). This option is configured on the Application Settings page. Disabling auto-lock may discharge your battery faster.
Integration with other apps
GoodReader fully supports Apple's Document Interchange feature (iOS 4 or later). It works both ways:
Files stored in other apps can be copied directly to GoodReader. This includes Apple's Mail app - now you can open email attachments by simply selecting GoodReader in the Open In... menu in Apple's Mail app. The same approach also works with any other app that supports Document Interchange.
GoodReader also supports Document Interchange from the other end - you can select any file in GoodReader, and ask GoodReader to open this file in any other app that supports Document Interchange for that type of file. This is done in Actions menu on the main screen, with the Open In... button.
GoodReader also offers integration with other apps via mechanism of custom URL addresses. Other applications that support opening URLs can use a special URL generated by GoodReader to launch GoodReader and to open a file encoded in this generated URL. For example, it could be a to-do app or notebook app. Basically, any app where you can paste an URL generated by GoodReader and later click on that URL to open it.
GoodReader provides an easy 1-click integration with to-do app called Appigo Todo.
Integration with other apps can be achieved by using the Link button in Actions menu. More information here.
Known limitations
GoodReader heavily relies on iOS capabilities. Some features that are related to file viewing are limited on iPhone/iPod/iPad. Here are some limitations that we know of:
JPEG2000 image compression used in some modern PDF files is not supported (you will see an empty space instead of a picture). There's an easy workaround for this issue.
256-bit AES PDF-encryption is only supported by iOS 4.2 or later
Some PDF eBooks are protected by DRM technology (Digital Rights Management). This is a piece of software embedded into a PDF file, that asks for your user name and password upon file opening and then checks if you have the right to view this particular file. This is different from general PDF password protection, which usually only asks for a password, not your user name. DRM-protected PDFs are not supported, while general password-protected PDF files are supported.
PDF's 3D, audio and video content is not supported. PDF layers and fillable forms are also not supported at this time.
PDF Portfolios are supported, but not for a direct reading, like it happens in Adobe Acrobat 9 or later. PDF Portfolios are complex PDF files with a very simple first page (usually it says something like "This file can be opened with Adobe Acrobat 9"), and a set of many PDF files embedded into this file, which is used simply as a container for other PDF files. GoodReader lets you extract those files from a PDF Portfolio for further reading them as normal PDF files.
iOS contains only a subset of certain fonts (Asian, Arabic, special math symbols, etc.), so to display PDFs with those characters correctly, those fonts must be embedded into a PDF file itself. Please read our detailed guide for an explanation on how to fix this issue.
MS Office files with password protection are not supported
Some Microsoft Office files are shown a little bit incorrectly (converting them to PDFs solves the problem)
iWork'08/09 files must be saved with Include Preview option
Help us to help you
GoodReader was dramatically improved since its earlier versions. The only thing that made it possible is user feedback. Our customers sent us a lot of problematic files, we studied those files, came to certain conclusions, and finally we were able to write a better code. We can't improve our application if you don't talk to us. We might actually solve the problem if you tell us about it! So we encourage you to send us as much feedback or feature requests as possible. Help us to help you!