How to View DICOM Files on an iPhone or iPad

An iPhone has no CD drive and doesn’t know what a DICOM file is. But it has a good browser and a Files app, and that’s all you need to look through your scans.

Step 1: get the files into the Files app

Pick whichever fits how you got your scans:

• From a patient portal: download the images in Safari. They usually arrive as a ZIP in the Downloads folder in Files.
• From a CD: copy the CD to a computer first, then send the folder to your phone with AirDrop (from a Mac) or put it in iCloud Drive.
• From an email or message: save the attachment to Files.

Step 2: open them in the browser

1. Open our DICOM viewer in Safari.
2. Tap Open files and browse to the files in Files. Pick the ZIP if they came as one: it’s unzipped in the browser. Otherwise select the images (tap Select, then select them all).
3. The images open as a series.

Using another viewer that doesn’t take ZIPs? In the Files app, tap the ZIP, and Files creates a folder with the contents next to it.

Drag with one finger to use the selected tool: Window changes the contrast, Scroll moves through the slices, Pan and Zoom move the picture. The Play button runs moving clips, like an ultrasound loop.

The files are read on your phone and never uploaded; Close and delete clears them from the page.

Tips for phones

• One series at a time. A full study can be hundreds of images; open the series you want.
• Turn the phone sideways for a bigger image.
• An iPad is better for long sessions: more room, more memory.
• Files a viewer can’t decode (JPEG lossless or JPEG-LS) show their tags with a note; why a DICOM file won’t open has the details.

What the phone can’t tell you

You can look, zoom and measure. What the images show is in the radiologist’s report. A browser viewer is for looking, not for diagnosis.

Key takeaways

• No CD drive needed: get the files into the Files app.
• A ZIP opens directly in the viewer (or tap it in Files to unzip it).
• Open the images in a browser DICOM viewer; no app required.
• Open one series at a time on a phone.

Open the DICOM viewer on your phone →

Run a practice or an imaging center? We’re glad to share what we know. When you want a portal that makes all of this easy for your patients, we’ll build it for you, and because we work with AI-assisted development, it costs far less than you might expect. Let’s talk.