A view controller for browsing and performing actions on documents stored locally and in the cloud.
SDKs
- iOS 11.0+
- Mac Catalyst 13.0+
Framework
- UIKit
Declaration
class UIDocumentBrowserViewController : UIView Controller
Overview
With the document browser view controller, users can browse through and access their documents. By default, the document browser can access both the system’s local file provider and its iCloud file provider.

The local file provider grants access to all the documents in the app’s Documents
directory. Users can also access documents from another app’s Documents
directory, if that app declares either the UISupports
key, or both the UIFile
and LSSupports
keys in its Info
file. When the user opens a document from another app's Documents
directory, they're editing the document in place. The changes are saved to the other app's Documents
directory.
The iCloud file provider creates a folder for your app in the user’s iCloud Drive. Users can access documents from this folder, or from anywhere in their iCloud Drive. The system automatically handles access to iCloud for you; you don't need to enable your app’s iCloud capabilities.
Third-party storage services can also provide access to the documents they manage by implementing a File Provider extension (iOS 11 or later). For more information, see FileProvider.
Important
Don't assume that the files you access are local. Files can be stored in iCloud Drive, or on any cloud storage that provides a current File Provider extension.
Remember that the system (or other apps) might modify the files provided by the document browser at any time. Therefore, you must coordinate your access to these files using either a UIDocument
subclass or NSFile
and NSFile
objects.