One of the many new features in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 is the new Preview app for the iPhone and iPad, an application that has been part of macOS for years and is now available on all our devices. It opens PDF files and images without relying on external apps, lets us edit, crop, annotate, and much more. Do we want to disable it and go back to the previous system? Let’s talk about it.
An interesting app, but one we can replace with Files
The features of the Preview app are certainly interesting, but not exactly new. Before iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, opening PDFs and images was done directly through the Files app. It’s true that some functions such as markup, PDF page reordering, or image cropping are not available in Files, but it also offers certain advantages.
The most important one, besides the simplicity of using just one app, is that we can open an image or a PDF document from among several in a folder and then swipe horizontally through all of them. Something that, for now, we can’t do when opening files in the Preview app.
We can, however, press and hold a file in the Files app and select Quick Look from the menu. This way, the app will display the file’s content, allowing us to move easily from one document to another. There is, however, another option.
How to disable Preview in iOS 26
To avoid having to select the Quick Look option from the menu each time we open documents from the Files app, we can simply remove Preview. How? By following these steps:
- Locate the Preview app on the Home Screen of our iPhone or iPad.
- Press and hold its icon until the context menu appears.
- Tap Delete App.
- Confirm the deletion.
Once the app disappears, Files will regain its original functionality, and any image or PDF document we open will display directly within the app.
If at any time we want to use Preview again —for example, to reorder a PDF or perform actions not available in Files— we just need to download it again from the App Store. Reinstallation is immediate and does not affect any of our saved files.
By removing Preview, we return to a smoother navigation experience. The Files app once again takes on the central role it had before, allowing us to open documents, move from one file to another, and manage our folder contents with ease. It’s an appealing option if we don’t plan to take advantage of the extra features in the Preview app, especially since we can always download it again whenever we wish to use it.
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