Cannot swipe down to close PDFs on iPhone

Hi everyone,

I've noticed a change in how PDF files behave on my iPhone. When I open a PDF, I can no longer swipe down to close it like I used to. Now the only way to close it is to tap the X button in the top-left corner.

By comparison, images still work as expected: I can open a photo and swipe down quickly to close it. It's only PDFs that don't respond to the swipe-down gesture.

This worked fine on iOS 17. Since updating to iOS [your version], it's different.

Device: iPhone 18 pro

iOS version: ios27x

Where I open the PDF: [Files app / Mail / Messages / Safari]

Is this an intentional change in the new iOS, a setting I might have changed, or a bug? Is there any way to get the swipe-down-to-close gesture back for PDFs?

Thanks in advance!

Posted on Oct 1, 2026 4:17 AM

2 replies

Rudegar

Level 10 (187,102 points)

Oct 1, 2026 5:30 AM in response to SwipePDFfilesbyFINGER

if I open a pdf in files I also can't close it by swiping down, I have to swipe upwards to return to the home

pretty sure it was always like that

lobsterghost1

Level 10 (233,174 points)

Oct 1, 2026 5:37 AM in response to SwipePDFfilesbyFINGER

I don't ever recall swipe down to close files or photos. There may be some 3rd party readers, which have this, but natively on iPhone, this, to my knowledge is not, nor has it ever been supported.