Download files

Amplify iOS v1 is now in Maintenance Mode until May 31st, 2024. This means that we will continue to include updates to ensure compatibility with backend services and security. No new features will be introduced in v1.

Please use the latest version (v2) of Amplify Library for Swift to get started.

If you are currently using v1, follow these instructions to upgrade to v2.

Amplify libraries should be used for all new cloud connected applications. If you are currently using the AWS Mobile SDK for iOS, you can access the documentation here.

There are three ways of getting data that was previously uploaded:

Download data

You can download to in-memory buffer Data object with Amplify.Storage.downloadData:

let storageOperation = Amplify.Storage.downloadData(
    key: "myKey",
    progressListener: { progress in
        print("Progress: \(progress)")
    }, resultListener: { (event) in
        switch event {
        case let .success(data):
            print("Completed: \(data)")
        case let .failure(storageError):
            print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")

let storageOperation = Amplify.Storage.downloadData(key: "myKey")
let progressSink = storageOperation.progressPublisher.sink { progress in
    print("Progress: \(progress)")
let resultSink = storageOperation.resultPublisher.sink {
    if case let .failure(storageError) = $0 {
        print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")
receiveValue: { data in
    print("Completed: \(data)")

Download to file

You can download to a file URL with Amplify.Storage.downloadFile:

let downloadToFileName = FileManager.default.urls(
    for: .documentDirectory,
    in: .userDomainMask
)[0].appendingPathComponent("myFile.txt")
let storageOperation = Amplify.Storage.downloadFile(
    key: "myKey",
    local: downloadToFileName,
    progressListener: { progress in
        print("Progress: \(progress)")
    }, resultListener: { event in
        switch event {
        case .success:
            print("Completed")
        case .failure(let storageError):
            print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")

let downloadToFileName = FileManager.default.urls(
    for: .documentDirectory,
    in: .userDomainMask
)[0].appendingPathComponent("myFile.txt")
let storageOperation = Amplify.Storage.downloadFile(
    key: "myKey",
    local: downloadToFileName
let progressSink = storageOperation.progressPublisher.sink { progress in
    print("Progress: \(progress)")
let resultSink = storageOperation.resultPublisher.sink {
    if case let .failure(storageError) = $0 {
        print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")
receiveValue: {
    print("Completed")

Cancel, Pause, Resume

Calls to downloadData or downloadFile return a reference to the operation that is actually performing the download.

To cancel the download (for example, in response to the user pressing a Cancel button), you simply call cancel() on the download operation.

func cancelDownload() {
    storageOperation.cancel()

You can also pause and then resume the operation.

Note that pause internally uses the suspend api of NSURLSessionTask, which suspends the task temporarily and does not fully pause the transfer. Complete pausing of task is tracked in this Github issue - https://github.com/aws-amplify/aws-sdk-ios/issues/3668

storageOperation.pause()
storageOperation.resume()

Generate a download URL

You can also retrieve a URL for the object in storage:

Amplify.Storage.getURL(key: "myKey") { event in
    switch event {
    case let .success(url):
        print("Completed: \(url)")
    case let .failure(storageError):
        print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")

let sink = Amplify.Storage.getURL(key: "myKey")
    .resultPublisher
    .sink {
        if case let .failure(storageError) = $0 {
            print("Failed: \(storageError.errorDescription). \(storageError.recoverySuggestion)")
    receiveValue: { url in
        print("Completed: \(url)")