I have some PDFs I want to read offline but the closest object to an eReader that I have access to is an iPad3 (A1396). Pretty old stuff, but it works, so why not (try)?
For the records, this A1396 runs iOS 9.3.5 (13G36) operating system - which is the latest version for this hardware and cannot be updated further - and the firmware is dated 2009.
I just want to (up)load my PDFs to the iPad storage and possibly keep it offline. Well, it looks like that with iTunes (old version, too, cannot update) I can only exchange pictures and videos.
The iPad has Safari 9, but surfing modern websites protected with recent https certificates and ciphers is a nightmare, if possible at all.
What I know is that as long as Safari can open a PDF, it can be transferred to the local iBooks instance.
I tried accessing a public Google Drive folder containing my PDFs but it looped. And no, I don't want to authenticate on Google Drive.
The situation is:
- iPad can access the local TCP/IP network and Internet
- Safari can "send" a PDF to iBooks, which is what I want
- Safari on the iPad is happy to open plain HTTP websites
The solution: fire up a plain HTTP webserver with directory listing enabled on local/home network, open each file with Safari and send it to iBooks. Not the fastest option, but still faster than all other failed attempts.
How to fire up a plain HTTP webserver? I did it with Python on the computer where I had PDFs:
- connect both the computer and the iPad to the same WiFi network
- copy all PDFs in a folder on the computer
- open a terminal in that folder
- run the command python -m http.server 8888 (could be python3 ...)
- discover the IP address of your webserver (ipconfig/ifconfig)
- open Safari on the iPad and dial the IPaddress:8888
If your computer's IP is 192.168.1.23 on Safari you'd open 192.168.1.23:8888 .
Why port 8888? Just because it is easier to type. Any number between 1024 and 65000 is fine.
Enjoy your PDFs!
