Getting a PDF planner onto your reMarkable: four routes and the subscription question
The desktop app, the mobile app, my.remarkable.com, and the USB web interface, with what each one costs you. Plus the Connect rule that surprises people, and why planner links only answer to your finger.
· 4 min read
reMarkableTransfer guides
reMarkable keeps its transfer story simpler than most e-ink tablets, and then complicates it with one question people never see coming: does any of this need the subscription? Short answer, no. Longer answer below, because what Connect changes is what happens to your file months later.
Four ways in. Pick by what you have in front of you.
| Route | Needs | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop app (Mac/Windows) | The app installed, both on the same account | The everyday choice for a planner |
| Mobile app (iOS/Android) | The app, the file on your phone | A planner emailed to you on the move |
| my.remarkable.com | A browser, nothing installed | A borrowed or work computer |
| USB web interface | A cable, a setting toggled once | Offline transfers, no cloud involved |
Route 1: the desktop app
Open the reMarkable app on your computer, drag the PDF into the file list, and it syncs to the tablet over Wi-Fi. This is the route worth building the habit around: it keeps a copy in your reMarkable cloud, so a lost or replaced device does not mean a lost planner.
Route 2: the mobile app
Same idea from a phone. Open your planner email, share or save the attachment, then use the reMarkable app’s import or the iOS share sheet to send it across. Handy when the file arrived by mail and your laptop is somewhere else.
Route 3: my.remarkable.com in a browser
Sign in and upload. Nothing to install, which makes it the answer on a computer you do not control. Files uploaded through the web interface are capped at 100 MB, which no planner comes close to. A full year with daily pages runs under 2 MB.
Route 4: the USB web interface, for cable-only transfers
reMarkable has a small web server on the device itself, off by default.
- On the tablet: Settings → Storage, and turn on the USB web interface.
- Connect the tablet to your computer with the cable.
- In a browser, go to http://10.11.99.1.
- Drag the PDF onto the page.
Nothing touches the cloud on this route, and the same 100 MB ceiling applies. Worth setting up if the tablet lives off Wi-Fi.
The Connect rule that catches people
Importing, reading, and writing all work with no subscription. What you give up is unlimited sync: without Connect, files you have not opened in 50 days stop syncing, so the tablet’s copy becomes the only copy.
For a planner that matters less than it sounds, as long as you can get the file again. Keep the PDF somewhere you back up, or keep the download link from your Planned Pages email, which rebuilds your exact setup on demand. Either way, do not let the tablet be the only place your year lives.
After the transfer: four behaviors worth knowing
Links are a finger gesture. Tap the month tab with a fingertip and the planner jumps. Tap it with the pen and you have inked a dot. Every source on this agrees, and it is unanimous across the reMarkable 2, Paper Pure, Paper Pro, and Pro Move: the pen writes, the finger navigates. It takes about a day to stop reaching for the pen.
The toolbar strip eats one edge. The floating toolbar sits along one side, roughly 120 px wide on a 1404-px-wide screen, and it mirrors to the other side when you switch handedness in settings. Anything drawn or tappable under it is awkward to reach. Templates that respect that strip leave it clear; ours reads your handedness setting and puts the tab rail just inboard of it, on whichever side you chose.
Page turns are swipes, not edge taps. A swipe anywhere across the page turns it, and a swipe up from the bottom edge opens quick navigation. This is friendlier to a hyperlinked planner than tap-zone page turning, because a slightly-off tap near a link does not flip your page.
Adjust view is there when a file was sized wrong. Fit-to-width, fit-to-height, and a manual crop, per document. Useful for rescuing an A4 planner. Unnecessary if the file was built at your screen’s aspect ratio to begin with.
The 30-second version
Desktop app for the everyday case, my.remarkable.com when you are on someone else’s machine, USB web interface when you want the cloud left out of it. No subscription needed to import. Tap links with your finger. Keep a copy of the PDF somewhere other than the tablet.
One thing worth checking before you transfer anything: whether the planner was sized for your model at all. A 1404×1872 file on a Paper Pure fills the screen; the same file stretched onto a Paper Pro’s 1620×2160 panel does not, and an A4 planner wastes exactly the margin you wanted for writing. Planned Pages builds to your model’s native pixel dimensions, free while we are in early access, so testing the whole pipeline on your own device costs you nothing but the transfer.
Links behaving oddly after all this? The usual causes, in order of how often they bite.