ISO easy way to photograph documents on iOS and upload to Google Drive

January 30, 2022 1:13 PM

I'm looking for an easy way to photograph single and multi-page documents on my iPhone and upload them to various folders in Google Drive.

The main use case is as a low-friction way to digitize paperwork like mail, receipts, etc. instead of keeping the paper copies in a filing cabinet.

Desired features:
* Can take a picture of a single page document and upload as a PDF.
* Can take pictures of a multi-page document and upload it as a single PDF.
* Can easily upload to various Google Drive folders (e.g. receipts, taxes, car stuff, etc.), ideally letting you favorite commonly used folders so they're easy to find.

I would definitely consider alternate approaches but the main priority is low friction enough that I actually use it. For example we have a Brother printer with a (single-page) scanner but the workflow of scanning a document in using the computer and then manually uploading it to Drive is more time consuming/annoying than I'm looking for. I have an iPhone and a Mac computer.

posted by unus sum to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Adobe Scan app. Share -> Share a Copy… If you have the Google Drive app installed it should be one of the options on the share sheet.
posted by supercres at 1:26 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

For a very low-key solution: The Notes app on the iPhone can do this. You can choose between one page and several pages. I don't know Google Drive, so I can't speak to that aspect of your question, but there should be a way to upload the saved PDF.
posted by amf at 1:31 PM on January 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Notes app built into the iPhone OS allows you to scan things and it works well, I have found so far. Unsure if the product is a PDF but may be worth a look.
posted by kiblinger at 1:33 PM on January 30, 2022

You can also use the Files app in iOS for this.
* Click the ellipsis in the top right corner of the Files app and select “Scan Documents.”
* Hold the document in frame and the camera will detect it and scan it.
* Save it, then export it to Google Drive.

It’s not super elegant, but it does all happen in a single app. If you’re fancy and ambitious, I imagine you could automate at least part of this process using the Shortcuts app.
posted by malthusan at 1:42 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

TurboScan app
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:46 PM on January 30, 2022

I like the Scanner Pro app. You can connect it to a cloud service of your choice, including Google Drive, and then set it to auto-upload, so getting the scan into Drive doesn’t even take an extra click. You can set a default folder it uploads to, but I’m pretty sure you can change that to some other folder each time you save a scan, if you want (not sure about favoriting folders, though).

I’ve been happy with the options for creating, saving, and editing scans - a reasonable set of choices (format, color/b&w, cropping, etc) but still intuitive to use. You can definitely save multiple photos as a single file - by default it keeps going building up one file until you save.

Here are the instructions for setting up the auto-uploading: https://support.readdle.com/scannerpro/connect-to-cloud-storage/auto-upload-scans-to-cloud-storage
posted by somedaycatlady at 1:46 PM on January 30, 2022

Genius Scan for iOS. I use it all the time for my expense reports.
posted by Master Gunner at 2:19 PM on January 30, 2022 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Some promising suggestions so far, thanks everybody! (I will keep checking back for more though.)
posted by unus sum at 4:00 PM on January 30, 2022

I recently discovered the Google incubator made Stack PDF scanner (which works wonderfully as a free alternative to CamScanner) and was quite disappointed that there isn't an iOS version, because it integrates SO nicely with Drive. (And organizes things nicely in Drive!)

Since it accepts uploads, not just pics taken in-app, I'm considering running photos taken with my iPad (which takes better pics than my phone) through it via Google Photos & my (android) phone. At least, long enough to see if it speeds up my digital paperwork workflow anyway. I suspect (hope?) it will expand from "Currently only available in the US on Android" in the not-too-distant future.

But then, I'm going to be looking through the apps mentioned to see if there's something else that works for me in the meantime, too.
posted by stormyteal at 5:44 PM on January 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Looks like the Google Drive app for iOS is missing the most useful feature it has on Android: all of the three desired features that the OP wants.
posted by scruss at 7:04 PM on January 30, 2022

I've been using JotNot Pro on iPhone for ages. You can scan something, then send it to the Google Drive app for uploading.
posted by hanov3r at 3:43 PM on January 31, 2022

Response by poster: I decided to try Genius Scan first as it seems to have the features I want and I appreciate that it's a flat $10 for everything except storing documents on their cloud (which I don't need) instead of a subscription. So far I'm quite happy with it. One nice bonus feature I like is the document name templates.
posted by unus sum at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2022

I couldn't find the command to do this in Notes on my elderly iPhone, but did in the Files app.

I couldn't find a scanner app that didn't seem hinky somehow for security -- I want to put the phone into airplane mode, do the scanning, upload the scans by using the phone as a USB drive (different app), and delete them before airplane mode goes off. And I won't use an app that says "may share user-created content" in its privacy policy.

The Files document scan app will do that! Excellent.
posted by clew at 8:50 PM on March 9, 2022