Annoying preview app on the iPhone: Deletion helps

With iOS 26, Apple has integrated a new program that sounds sensible, at least in principle: its own mobile version of Apple’s preview app aka Preview, which also reaches the iPad with iPadOS 26 for the first time. However, as users have noticed, the app does not work as well as it does on macOS. In particular, the interface on the iPhone is difficult to use due to the smaller screen. If you want to view PDFs regularly, you might be annoyed. However, there are several ways to prevent each document from being previewed.

Enable QuickLook in Files

The simplest is to use the Files app – as before – to display or preview PDFs. To do this, press and hold the PDF in files for a longer period of time and click on “Open with”. Here you can activate that a document can be displayed in files via QuickLook. If “Preview with overview” is checked, a PDF no longer opens immediately in the preview app, but in a simple viewer in files, from where you can call up previews if necessary.

Alternatively, you can also select another application that can display PDFs directly by long clicking on the PDF and thus also bypass preview. A default app for PDFs is also possible as a third option: To do this, select the “Information” area by long-pressing on a PDF and then “Always open with” and the desired app, if an alternative PDF viewer is already on the device. However, the Files app itself cannot be selected here, for this you have to use the QuickLook function described above.

Radical solution: Away with preview

If you don’t warm up to the preview app at all, you have a second option: As with almost all Apple apps, it is allowed to simply delete the program from the device completely. To do this, search for the app on the home screen or via the search and delete it via “Remove app”. After that, PDFs can no longer be previewed and the Files app works as before: PDFs are simply displayed in the application via QuickLook.

After that (or before) you can also install any competing PDF viewer. This will then take over the PDF file type. If you want to keep the direct preview in files, “Preview with overview” is checked as before (see above).