How to find a PDF by a word inside it on Android

You remember what the document said, not what the file was called. PageCat searches the text on the first pages of the PDFs on your phone, so typing "deposit" finds the lease even if it is named scan_0042.pdf.

Works on Android 8 and later · Free · 3 steps

Steps

1. On the Home screen, tap Search files.

   

2. Type a word. Matches inside files appear under Found in file text, with the line that matched.

   

3. Tap the result to open it.

   

Good to know

• PageCat reads the first two pages of each PDF, where titles, names and amounts usually are. The first search reads your files once; after that it is quick.
• Scanned PDFs have no text yet: tap Scan them too when PageCat offers, or run OCR on them.

Questions

Related guides

• How to make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR) on Android
• How to scan a document to PDF with your Android phone
• How to listen to a PDF read aloud on Android