How to Scan a Passport or ID with Your iPhone

You don’t need a scanner app to scan a passport or ID. The Notes and Files apps on your iPhone both have a built-in document scanner that finds the page edges, straightens it, and saves a clean, readable copy as a PDF. Here’s how to do it in under a minute, and where to keep the scan afterwards.

Scan with the Notes app

1. Open Notes and create a new note.
2. Tap the camera button (or the paperclip button on newer versions) and choose Scan Documents.
3. Open your passport to the photo page and lay it flat. Hold your iPhone above it so the whole page is on screen.
4. Your iPhone captures automatically once the page is in focus. To take it yourself, tap the shutter button.
5. Check the corners. Tap the thumbnail to adjust the crop if needed.
6. Scan more pages if you want them in the same document, then tap Save.

To send it as a PDF, tap the scan in the note, then the Share button.

Scan with the Files app

1. Open Files and tap Browse.
2. Tap the More button (three dots) at the top and choose Scan Documents.
3. Scan the page the same way, then tap Save.
4. Choose a folder, and Files saves the scan as a PDF there.

Tips for a clean scan

• Use daylight or a bright, even light. Avoid harsh lamps that cause glare on the plastic page.
• Use a dark, plain background so your iPhone can find the edges.
• Hold the phone flat above the page, not at an angle.
• Scan both sides of a card. For a driver’s license or ID card, scan the front and back into one document.
• Check that every number is readable, especially the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the passport page.

Where to keep the scan

A passport scan is valuable to identity thieves, so be careful where it ends up:

• Avoid the camera roll. Photos there sync to every device with iCloud Photos, and anyone who unlocks your phone can scroll past them.
• A locked note is a good built-in option. In the note, tap the More button and choose Lock, ideally with a separate Notes password.
• An encrypted vault keeps it behind its own passcode. Our guide on storing passport photos securely on your phone compares the options.

Easy Vault is built for this. You can take the photo with its private camera, so it never lands in your camera roll, or save a scanned PDF from Notes or Files straight into it with Share → Easy Vault. Everything is encrypted on your iPhone or iPad behind your own pattern or password, and an encrypted iCloud backup means a lost phone doesn’t mean a lost passport copy. See how to keep IDs and documents private.

Keep the original safe too

A scan helps when you need to show or replace a document quickly, for example if your passport is lost while traveling. It doesn’t replace the passport itself. Keep the original somewhere safe at home, and know how to report it lost or stolen in your country.