How to Download Your Turnitin Similarity Report as a PDF (Student Guide)

Open the submission in Feedback Studio, click the down-arrow download icon in the toolbar, make sure the Similarity layer is active, then select Current View. The PDF is a snapshot of what you had on screen: active layers are included, inactive ones are not. The final page lists the matched sources, color-coded to match the highlights, and the file also carries your submission date, submission ID, and word count. Reports can only be downloaded one at a time.

Turnitin's official student guide, "Downloading a Similarity Report as a student," defines the mechanics:

"You can download your report in PDF format for ease of viewing or printing."

"The downloaded report will include a snapshot of the current view of the submission you have open."

"You can tailor what is included in the downloaded report by changing which layers are currently visible."

This is the key mental model: the PDF is not a pre-made "report file" stored somewhere; it is rendered from the view you are looking at. Change the view, change the PDF.

The same guide explains which layers count:

"Check which layers you currently have active. To download the Similarity Report, you must have the Similarity layer active."

"Layers that are colored are active, and will be included in the Current View download. If you want to download the Similarity Report without QuickMarks, for example, make sure to only activate the Similarity layer."

Concrete combinations students actually use:

• Similarity layer only → a clean report with highlights and no instructor comments.
• Feedback layer (and similarity) → a copy that includes comments, QuickMarks, rubric links, and voice-comment indicators.
• In the "current view" download, the comments show their locations and the rubric appears if one was used (per university LibGuides on downloading graded work).

The official guide describes what is in the file:

"The final page of the downloaded Similarity Report includes a list of the sources found in the submission. The sources are color-coded, and can be used to compare against the highlights in the rest of the document."

"The download will also include some extra information about the paper, including the submission date, submission ID, and word count."

Two practical uses: the last page lets you check which source drove a match without clicking around the online viewer, and the embedded submission ID gives you a paper-level identifier in the same file — the same ID you would quote when asking support to trace a submission (see our guide on submission IDs and the digital receipt).

The official guide states the limitation plainly:

"Similarity Reports can only be downloaded individually. There is currently no option to download Similarity Reports in bulk."

Turnitin's help center confirms the assignment-level nuance: in a Standard (Classic) assignment, bulk download is not available; in a Standard assignment, an instructor can download all similarity reports from the inbox at once — "This will download all Similarity Reports from the assignment. You will not be able to select specific Similarity Reports."

So if you are a student, "save each report individually" is the designed behavior, not a missing feature. If you expected a "download all" button, it does not exist on the student side.

University LibGuides consistently describe the graded-with-comments download:

• Dundee: "Make sure you have the feedback layer visible... Then select 'current view'. Turnitin will create a pdf for you to download, this includes information about the work (when you submitted etc), will show the areas that are similar, and the locations of the comments."
• Lincoln: "To download the work, first click on one of the blue icons, and then the download icon, and choose Current View."
• BLE Moodle note: when you print a graded submission with the printer icon and pick "Download PDF of current view for printing," the feedback is listed at the end of the document.

So the same "Current View" action serves two goals: a plain similarity report when only the similarity layer is on, and a full feedback copy when the feedback layer is active.

The official guide's closing steps:

"Select Current View to start the download of your Similarity Report."

"We'll now prepare the file for download. Large files may take a few minutes. Once the file has been processed, the download will start automatically."

"Do not navigate away from the viewer while we prepare the file for download. Should you have to leave the page, you'll need to restart the download process."

And from the Document Viewer page, the print icon at the bottom left produces the print-friendly PDF version as an alternative entry point.

Three things students trip on: leaving the tab while the file prepares (restart required), expecting bulk download on the student side (not available), and downloading with the wrong layers active (a "missing comments" PDF is usually a layer problem, not a file problem).

Downloading your Turnitin similarity report is a current-view snapshot, not a fixed report file. Keep the Similarity layer active for a clean report, add the feedback layer for a comments-included copy, and remember the file always carries the source list on the final page plus your submission date, submission ID, and word count. Reports are single-download only on the student side. If the output is not what you expected, check the layers first — that is where most surprises come from.