Last updated: July 16, 2026
Need help with myTools, found a bug, or have a feature idea? Email us at support@myblueboard.com and we’ll get back to you, usually within two business days. There’s no account to look up and no ticket number to quote — just tell us what happened and which device you’re on.
On this page: Getting started · General questions · PDF Merge · PDF Split · Watermark · Page Numbers · Convert · Compress PDF · Compress Images · QR Code · Password · Loan Calculator · Account & preferences · Troubleshooting · Still stuck?
Every tool in myTools follows the same three steps, so once you’ve used one, you’ve used all of them:
Nothing is uploaded anywhere. All processing happens on your device, and files are only written to the location you pick in the save dialog.
On iPhone and iPad, files you save from myTools go to the Files app, under On My iPhone/iPad → myTools by default — that’s where the save dialog starts, but you can navigate anywhere, including iCloud Drive or another app’s folder. On Mac, files go to whichever folder you pick in the standard save panel.
After saving, tap Open next to the confirmation banner, or find the file later under Recent Activity on that tool’s screen.
Each tool keeps its own short list of the files you’ve created with it — the filename and when you made it — so you can get back to a file without hunting through Files. The list holds the most recent 10–20 entries per tool, depending on the tool, and older entries drop off as new ones arrive.
Recent Activity records that you created a file, not the file itself. The file lives wherever you saved it. Deleting a Recent Activity entry, or letting it age off the list, never deletes your actual file.
The Recent Activity list syncs through your private iCloud account. If your device isn’t signed into iCloud (or iCloud Drive is turned off for myTools), this list will stay empty — your files are still saved normally, they just won’t sync or show up in history until iCloud is available. Check Settings → [your name] → iCloud to confirm you’re signed in, and open the Account tab in myTools to see the current iCloud status.
Recent Activity syncs across your devices, but the files themselves don’t — myTools doesn’t copy your documents anywhere. The open and reveal buttons only appear on the device that actually created the file, because that’s the only device that knows where it went. On your other devices the entry still shows, as plain text, as a record of what you made.
If you want a file available everywhere, save it to a folder in iCloud Drive rather than On My iPhone, and Apple’s own syncing takes it from there.
Yes. Every tool works with no network connection at all — the PDF, image, QR code, password, and loan features are entirely on-device. The only thing that needs connectivity is syncing your Recent Activity between devices, and that catches up on its own once you’re back online.
No. There’s no sign-up, login, subscription, or in-app purchase. myTools uses your device’s own iCloud account only to sync your data across your devices, exactly as described in our Privacy Policy.
No. There is no myTools server. PDFs, images, and everything else you open are processed on your device and written only where you choose to save them. The one thing that leaves your device is your Recent Activity list, which goes to your own private iCloud database, where it’s tied to your Apple ID and unreadable by us. See the Privacy Policy for the full details.
The PDF tools (Merge, Split, Watermark, Page Numbers, Compress PDF) work with standard PDF files. Convert works both ways between PDF and common image formats, exporting PNG or JPEG. Compress Images accepts standard photo formats and exports PNG or JPEG. QR Code generates a PNG from any text or URL you enter.
There’s no fixed limit built into the app — the practical ceiling is your device’s memory. Very large PDFs (hundreds of megabytes, or many hundreds of pages) take longer and use more memory, especially in Compress PDF and Convert, which render every page as an image. If a big job feels slow, leave myTools in the foreground until it finishes.
On iPhone and iPad, open the Account tab and toggle Require Face ID/Touch ID to Unlock. It’s off by default. When on, myTools locks whenever it’s relaunched or returns from the background, with a roughly one-minute grace period so quickly switching to another app and back doesn’t require unlocking every time. Turning the toggle off unlocks immediately.
This feature isn’t available on Mac, where your login session already protects the app.
The tools and their options are identical. The differences are all in how each platform handles files: iPhone and iPad use the Files document picker (defaulting to the myTools folder), while Mac uses the standard save panel — a rename dialog when you’re saving one file, a folder picker when you’re saving several. Recent Activity offers Reveal in Finder and Open on Mac, and a share button on iPhone and iPad. Face ID / Touch ID lock is iPhone and iPad only.
Deleting the app removes everything stored locally on that device. To also clear the synced Recent Activity history, go to Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage, find myTools, and delete its data. Files you saved are ordinary documents — delete them in the Files app or the Finder like anything else.
Combine two or more PDFs into a single file.
Tip: merging preserves each source file’s pages as they are — it doesn’t re-compress or rasterize anything, so text stays selectable. If the merged file is larger than you’d like, run it through Compress PDF afterwards.
Pull pages out of a PDF, either as a single range or as one file per page.
Note: page numbers here refer to the PDF’s actual page order (the first page is 1), which may not match numbering printed on the page itself.
Stamp text across every page of a PDF.
Tip: low opacity is the point — it keeps the page underneath readable. If your watermark is hard to see on a dense page, raise the opacity or the font size rather than switching position.
Add page numbers to a PDF.
1, Page 1, or 1 of N), and a starting number — handy if this PDF continues numbering from another document.Note: with 1 of N, the total reflects the number of pages in the file you’re stamping. If you plan to merge documents together, add page numbers after merging so the totals come out right.
Converts between PDFs and images, in either direction.
Tip: higher DPI means sharper images and much bigger files — a 300 DPI export can be several times the size of a 150 DPI one. Pick the lowest setting that looks right for where the images are going.
Shrinks an oversized PDF by re-rendering its pages at a lower resolution and quality.
Compression helps most with scanned documents and image-heavy files. A PDF that’s mostly text is already small and efficiently stored, so converting its pages into images can actually increase the size. If you see little or no saving, your file was probably already well-optimized — try a lower DPI or quality, or just keep the original.
Resizes and recompresses photos to reduce file size.
Tip: the maximum dimension caps the longest edge and keeps the aspect ratio — nothing is stretched or cropped. For photos, JPEG at a moderate quality almost always beats PNG on size; PNG is the better choice for screenshots, logos, and anything with sharp edges or transparency.
Generates a QR code image from any text or URL.
Work through these in order:
Generates strong, random passwords in two modes.
O/0 or l/1 — worth turning on if the password will be read aloud, printed, or typed by hand.No. Generated passwords are never written to disk, never synced, and never appear in Recent Activity — once you leave the screen, the password is gone. Paste it into your password manager or the site you’re setting up before navigating away.
In Characters mode, length does more than anything else — enabling symbols on an 8-character password helps less than going to 16 characters. In Words mode, add words. Four or five random words with a number is both strong and something you can actually retype from memory when a device asks you for it.
Calculates monthly payments and interest for a loan.
6.5), and term in years to see the monthly payment, total interest, and total paid.What it assumes: a standard fixed-rate, fully-amortizing loan with equal monthly payments — the usual shape of a mortgage, car loan, or personal loan. It doesn’t model taxes, insurance, fees, extra payments, or variable rates, so the figures are an estimate for planning rather than a quote. Your lender’s number will differ if any of those apply.
The Account tab isn’t a login — myTools has no accounts of its own. It shows:
The file isn’t a valid PDF, or it’s password-protected or damaged. myTools can’t open encrypted PDFs — if the file asks for a password when you open it elsewhere, remove the protection first (in Preview on Mac, for example) and try again. Files that download partially can also fail this way; re-download and retry.
One of the images in your batch is in a format the system can’t decode, or it’s corrupted. Remove images one at a time to find the culprit, or open the image in Photos or Preview and re-export it as a PNG or JPEG.
Closing the dialog without picking a location cancels the save — that’s not an error, and nothing is lost. Tap the save button again and choose a destination. On iPhone and iPad, make sure you tap Save in the picker rather than swiping the sheet away.
Compress PDF and Convert render every page individually, so a long document takes real time. The save button shows a progress indicator while it’s working. Keep myTools in the foreground until it finishes — backgrounding the app can cause the system to suspend the work.
Check Settings → [your name] to confirm you’re signed into iCloud, and that iCloud Drive is on. If you’re signed in and it still shows unavailable, it’s usually temporary — the app retries, and your history syncs once iCloud is reachable again. Nothing is lost in the meantime, and every tool works normally without it.
The lock only engages when it’s turned on in the Account tab, and only on relaunch or after returning from the background. If you switched away and came right back, the roughly one-minute grace period may have skipped the prompt — that’s expected. Also confirm Face ID or Touch ID is enrolled and allowed for myTools in Settings → Face ID & Passcode.
Email support@myblueboard.com and we’ll help you sort it out. To get you an answer in one round trip, include:
Please don’t send us the file itself unless we ask — we’d rather not receive your documents, and we usually don’t need them to work out what went wrong.