Name: Goodnotes 6
Rating: 4.73715 (245160 reviews)

User Reviews for Goodnotes 6

4.74 out of 5

245.2K Ratings

2 years ago, Jewelsummoner

This is an excellent app! I only have one pet peeve…

Honestly, I really love using this app! It is very well thought out and I can use it for many different kinds of workflows. Great app if you are considering starting/ transitioning to digital note-taking/ journaling. I enjoy taking handwritten notes in it with my apple pencil and being able to easily import pdfs that I can mark up is great. I enjoy the elements feature, which allows me to add custom sticker that I use all the time as post-its or stickers for journaling. Plus there are som many other excellent features, such as being able to search in your hand written notes and the ability to back-up your notebooks, to name a few. I only have one pet peeve when it comes to this app. It does have a typing feature, but it’s a bit clunky and not very intuitive. When I am doing journaling, it is very nice to put text exactly where I want it, so I don’t want the feature to go away. But having to use the text boxes for more type-intensive tasks can be a bit annoying at times. I would be nice if there was a feature you could enable within the notebook where if you could type in a notebook like a normal word document. My work around is typing something ahead of time in a word document and then importing it into the app, but honestly, it would be nice if I didn’t have to do that (maybe I am being too picky)… Otherwise, this a really excellent, solid app that I recommend highly to folks for note-taking.

5 months ago, Darthking77

The Best App I’ve Seen, Can Still Go Farther

I’m very finicky when it comes to note taking apps; if even one feature I feel I need is missing I try to find a different one that better encompasses my needs. For several years, GoodNotes has been the strongest contender by a large marking! I love the mixture of tools, how easy it is to customize the tools and notebooks (not to mention how pretty they are), and something like adding a new page is made so seamless and intuitive! This is an edited review because, since my last review, they actually added a feature I asked for that involved editing the tools in the toolbar for a more customizable experience. Thank you so much GoodNotes team for adding this!!! The only things I can think of for the developers to add is: 1) a “softness” slider for pen tools so handwriting comes out a little smoother, because I feel my writing on a paper is more often smoother and more legible than the direct translation onto a screen; and 2) a way to add integrated text boxes into a page format that tracks perfectly with the lines on the page (some notes are much better taken typed rather than handwritten, so it would be great to be able to do both with ease). GoodNotes team, you’re doing great! You’ve got a great app on your hands, you’ve already implemented features that fans have wanted, so please keep doing what you’re doing and keep adding features to make your app the best on the market!

2 years ago, Swipe69

Amazing

I absolutely love this app. I use this more for pdf creation and personal journaling than anything else. If I were to add or change anything, it would be to include a colored pencil or crayon writing utensil among the hi-liter, and various pen-pen, brush-pen, etc. I may be mistaken, but doesn’t the primary photo used to advertise GoodNotes is, in fact, written and drawn with what looks to be a colored pencil. How odd that is not a function. Also, voice recorder that syncs with ur written notes, as similarly done by “Colla-note” and “notability” would be a highly desired note taking tool. Other features that would rock my world would to insert in-notebook hyperlinks so that, say for example, I nay make a table of contents at the start if my 300 page notebook. It would be fabulous if I could make some text or a insert picture that would hyperlink me to page 288 where I want to read my notes on socio-economic hierarchies. Something like Collanote did. And also the ability to embed videos or audio in a note would really be beneficial. Despite that slight suggestion party I just threw out there, GoodNotes, is the note taking app I continue to consistently return to. No other note app seems to so effortlessly and perfectly change, adjust, create, or mark up pdfs as well as GoodNotes. No other note app has such an amazing array of paper to write on. Thank you GoodNotes. You are some damned Good notes! You are my most used app among all my devices.

5 months ago, ysteven6

Great App But Needs Updating

Overall, this is my preferred app when it comes to note-taking for college. I find it that it provides me with almost everything I need for note-taking with maybe a few things here and there that I require from other apps. One thing that I have noticed is that it lates quite a bit when it comes to writing or drawing multiple things on a page. This can get a bit annoying especially for note-taking for heavy concept classes like microbiology where I need to draw microbiological processes that usually requires multiple drawings, colors, written annotations, etc. the only way I have found to fix this is by going out of the notebook and going back in. Additionally, I think there needs to be a sensitivity adjuster for the scribble-to-erase feature. I have been finding it very annoying when it does not erase and leaves the scribble. I understand that some people do not like this feature but they are able to turn it off. However, for people like, me that need this feature to keep up with fast paced lectures, it gets annoying when it takes me multiple scribbles to erase and sometimes I just give up and use the regular eraser. I have found that if it does not erase with scribbles after about 4-5 times, it just completely stops working. These are the only current complaints that I have. Overall, I would definitely recommend this app to others who are looking for a well-balanced note-taking app for school work or general work.

1 year ago, i_fkr

Good but needs some more work

It’s my first time using an app like this and overall it’s going great but the following additions could be considered: -option to clear all annotations/notes on a document instead of having to clear each page one by one -an undo shortcut like a two finger tap on the screen similar to how it is on Procreate -another general view that doesn’t entail having to open each folder one by one to see what’s inside it -positioning the tool bar to the right or left of the screen as well -being able to zoom out of the document page instead of just the default full screen fit. updated review: i love you goodnotes but you seriously need to fix a few major issues. i tried to switch to notability but goodnotes is really great so i came back. the first issue is the huge amount of battery consumption. another one is that i keep having importing issues from google docs every single time since the first day i started using this app. i’ll always have to import every file one by one which is really annoying and time consuming since it will give me errors even then. a possible addition would be to have different ways to view the current document you are working on like in notability. i want to be able to have an option to view it with 2, 4, 6, pages in a single page, etc. another one would be to have a list view with a e homepage also like in notability. please fix these issues goodnotes!! you’re too good to give up.

1 year ago, AlduinSlayer711

LOVE the app, just a few feedback suggestions

First and foremost, the fact that this app is a one-time purchase unlike other apps that require a subscription is the main reason that I bought it and on of the main reasons I still use it. The app has many customizable options, has a cool smart study feature, easy to use, and each facet this app offers is used in different ways for my college courses. I have a journal to keep track of assignment dates, flash cards to summarize points for tests, notebooks to hand write notes, and the option to import class slides that I can directly write on to avoid the stress of writing bullet points given in class and what professors lecture. My main feedback for the company likes in their new smart study feature. For one, if they made it possible in the type section itself to change formatting, fonts, use subscripts/superscripts, color, etc., I’d use it more often. I know I can technically do this in the draw section, but in the typing section it’d be more convenient. I also I think there should be an option to turn off night mode in the app itself versus only relying on the device settings. I also think there should be templates for the smart study flashcards that are either flash card style or graph paper style. Overall its a great experience, the suggestions above just peeve me a bit. I still definitely recommend this app!

1 year ago, Sisisssssa

Amazing Note taking and file holder

I love this app so much. I don’t do reviews but this app definitely deserve it. I am in nursing school and this app makes my life so much easier from taking notes to uploading them, PowerPoint into pdf that I can take notes on, to saving files and having different files for different classes all condensed into one file….is just so amazing. All I do is take my phone, laptop and my ipad and I am good. It’s so amazing and most importantly it makes everything so simple and easy to use. One of my favorite features is being able to have it on my phone ipad and MacBook. I can upload pictures and multiple things on here and also it saves everything. It is definitely good notes. I want to Thank the creators so much for creating such an amazing tool for students and helping them succeed in their academics. God bless you. And I am wishing best of luck to everyone who are using this app to accomplish their academics goals! You will not be disappointed! Suggestions:;now that it has an audio record. I wish it gives you option to drag the different audios in one file into the notes. That way in each notes or writing you can have the audio right beside it and won’t have to guess what or when it was taken. It being up at the corner is pretty difficult trying to navigate it and not being able to tittle it.

4 years ago, Wobblehobbit

For the most part pretty great

I was looking for an app where I can annotate pdfs, and switch between the computer and an iPad while doing so. I love the capabilities, and the layout. I like that you can choose covers for notebooks, and that there are even so many different types of "papers" to choose from, from dotted, lined to even Cornell notes. And that you can add pages to pdfs, or can easily take photos and then export them as pdfs. Furthermore, whenever I edit a pdf on the iPad, it would automatically sync to the app on the Mac. My main problem is with the glitches on the Mac app. Often when selecting the highlighting tool, the highlighting has to be done manually, which is difficult to do on the computer without touch screen. You can also select text and then click highlight, but I would like that capability when I am using the highlighter specifically. The option to select the text would also often not work after a while, and I would have to quit Goodnotes and open it back up again. And finally, there is also no convenient way to underline, which currently would require manually drawing lines under text. The layout of the files is also sometimes not as intuitive for me, and I would like to have the option of seeing my file folders on the side bar as well. But other than that, I am enjoying using Goodnotes so far, and feel that the pros definitely outweigh the cons (which I hope will be improved soon with updates!)

2 years ago, stan skz uwu

Almost perfect!

After using OneNote for a while and finding it doesn’t have all the features I want like importing PDFs and PowerPoint slides or a really good writing experience, and then trying Notability but not wanting to use a subscription based service, I decided to try GoodNotes. First impressions, very clean app with good organization! Love how the notebooks are more like real notebooks with page separation (you can choose not to separate though) and different page colors and styles as well as some really pretty covers. Also love the writing experience, like all the pen colors and sizes are nice and everything feels smooth and adding pictures are super easy. I’m really glad there’s a search function as well to easily find stuff in my notes. Though, I do have some problems with this app. I wish that I could put more than 3 pen colors at the top, I feel like a few more slots would be great. I would also love if the pen size could stay on each slot if that makes sense, kinda like OneNote, rather than me having the change the pen size every time I switch colors. I think it would be cool if like Notability there could be a voice recording feature, and paper styles with texture like real paper added. This is a smaller issue but it would be cool if some different folder colors were added as well for even better organization :) Overall really like this app but there are some improvements that could be made!

4 years ago, emmasromo

I LOVE this app, best notetaking app out there!

This is the best notetaking app ever. I'm an AP and Honors student in highschool, and I live for this app. Since doing online school this year due to the pandemic, it has changed how I take notes and turned in assignment. I love how GoodNotes is uploaded to the cloud so you can look at your notes no matter where you are or what device you are on. I like typing my science notes on my computer, and I love that I can switch over to my IPad to draw graphs and symbols whenever needed. I love using my Apple pencil to take all my other notes, its perfect for hand writing notes. I love all the different paper types and the covers you can choose from. You can also organize all of your documents into folders. My favorite thing BY FAR is that you can download pretty much ANY pdf or worksheet into GoodNotes and write directly on the document. Especially because of online school, a lot of my teachers post their worksheets on GoogleClassroom, and being able to download the documents and write directly onto it, and then I can just drag and drop the PDF from my desktop into Classroom ITS AMAZING! It saves me so much paper, and has helped me stay so organized with everything in one place. The format and interfacing is incredible, you HAVE to try this note taking app, it's incredible. I would recommend this to ANYONE and EVERYONE. Please get it for yoruself and check it out!

3 years ago, Killer Fencer

Fantastic notetaking app that showed me reading and writing on screens was feasible

I love this app. Previously, I would print every single paper I read because none of the electronic tools I would use allowed me to mark it up the way I like to. GoodNotes essentially gives me all of the tools on my desk - pen, highlighter, etc. and allows me to read and manipulate a document as though it’s really in my hand. There is really no difference, and it’s actually even better because the highlighter can automatically snap to lines of text! I only have two wishes that would make this program better than it already is - which is near perfect: I’d like to be able to store more pen or highlighter colors on the top row of tools. I use lots of different colors for different notes, and it seems like there’s plenty of room (at least on the 12.9 inch iPad) for a few more options to allow for quicker switching. Second, it would be nice to have page hyperlink support. When you’re reading a 300 page manual, it’s a little annoying to swipe back and forth between pages, especially when the table of contents is right there. I know about the goto page feature, but that doesn’t always line up with the page numbers correctly, and it isn’t easy to determine the right page looking through thumbnails. Otherwise, this app is amazing!

4 years ago, saminer

My Favorite App: Best Replacement for a Notebook

I'd been searching for a replacement for a notebook for a long time before I found GoodNotes, paying for several apps that didn't deliver or have the intuitive controls of a pen and paper. GoodNotes delivers. I use it for EVERYTHING for work and my home life. It's my personal budget planner, my personal calendar, my lesson plan book, my gradebook, my PDF annotater...everything! It's replaced basically all paper in my life. As a teacher, I could not be more thrilled with this app's functionality. The ability to create different notebooks with specific templates (and upload your own) allows it to function as so many different things! As a teacher, I'm a big binder person so I can keep related notebooks and files near each other. With the ability to open new notebooks in tabs within the app, I can keep these files close at hand and jump between them--it's kind of like a big digital binder that stays organized and doesn't get overwhelming with the number of files. The organization of the app and the way you can navigate through it by flipping the pages like you would a notebook makes it my favorite app of all time. AND now that it has apps available for iPad, Mac, and iPhone that all sync up beautifully, I can access everything everywhere! Well done, GoodNotes; thank you!

5 years ago, Firstviceroy

Good notes 4 performs better than Good notes 5

I am writing this review to help the developers and potential buyers. First I’m providing this review in March 2019. Things may change later so if you are reading this review you should keep the date and version number in mind. 5.0.20. We are a large builder which use Blue beam, Procore, “go to meeting” and other related industry software. We found that Good notes 4 was simply the best vehicle for note taking and plan markups available. It truly was a “five star app”. We could be on a “go to meeting” with 15 consultants on a conference call and annotate plans instantly. (What I mean is hand write changes on the pdf plans to give direction. Not edit DWG drawings.) It was fast easy and simple. Superior to other products out there, even the industry specific ones. Now, with Good notes 5 the layout and folder structure have been improved. But, there is a big problem. If we open a set of plans and try to zoom in, the plans pixelate. Plus take an in ordinate amount of time to gain focus. Thus, most of us have stopped using this program. I have Good notes 4 and have gone back to it. I. Don’t know. If the developer is aware or working on a fix but it was a great program. If the developer is aware hope you can fix. I will check the App Store for updates. Will mark as 2.5 stars and revise rating if able to remedy problem. Good luck.

11 months ago, AqSin702

2023 Update After Gooodnotes 6. (Love GoodNotes. But needs Record Feature.)

2023 Edit: Not only did they add the record feature, they added a slew of others. I’ve been using GoodNotes since version 3. While was hesitant to upgrade to 6, because 5 was more than enough, I’m glad I did. If they would have went to a subscription only system, I wouldn’t have though. But the ability to pay a one time fee was perfect for me. I love this app. My iPad wouldn’t be the same without it. As long as it’s worth it, I have no problem paying 20 bucks for an upgrade every few years. And Goodnotes 6 is worth it. The new handwriting recognition feature is amazing. Not only does it recognize when you’ve misspelled a word, it has the ability to correct the misspelled word and replace it IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING. 🤯The new dynamic notebook covers were something I didn’t know that I needed with so many notebooks in my app. And the ability to customize them by changing multiple colors on the cover make the possibilities infinite. All this app is missing is a record feature. With that added, it would end all other competitors. Someone please get on this. Other than that, outstanding app. By far my favorite must have apps on the iPad. I’ve gotten at least a dozen people to download it. Just please add the record feature.

3 years ago, kc4007

Would give a 5 star if the collaborative editing mode is stable and truly real time

I’m doing online teaching and would love a notebook app that can enable real time, collaborative editing for lecturing. GoodNotes does provide a feature that may work well. My setup is: I am doing white boarding on my iPad while sharing the screen of my laptop using Zoom. I open a GoodNotes session on the laptop and project the app to Zoom’s shared screen. While the fast collaborative ode works well for newly created document, it becomes really lagged when 1) the document has been opened for a while (20 min to 1 hour), and/or 2) I re-open an existing document that I created a while ago (with fast online editing mode enabled). The latency is too long—ranging from 10 seconds to sub minute— to be acceptable for real time editing. I have to switch to a different app in order for my lecture to proceed as expected. I love the user experience of GoodNotes’ other features; but talking about the collaborative editing feature, it really pisses the users off. I’d really demand the team to fix the lagging issue of this feature. I’m not sure if this is due to the backend design options like periodically moving a doc to a slower tier that syncs using the slow iCloud storage or not. But this issue does persists for at least few weeks. Thanks!

3 years ago, Cautious Poke

Closest to pen and paper I've found

For me it's all the little UI decisions that make things wonderful in this app. I like as minimal clutter as possible, hide the UI whenever possible, make it as much like a pad of paper I'm looking at. It feels like a pad of paper because I can swipe between pages. I CANNOT OVERSTATE how much this helps me to not have scrolling pages but instead a finite canvas size that the visual part of my brain can remember. For some reason scrolling I can't remember the shape and thus the location and then from that the information that's at each location. Same thing for swiping between pages to change them, it's probably just me but not being able to do this in the notes app or any other app drives me insane. I don't want to be looking at UI / the titles of other pages. I want a page that is adjacent / above / below my page and nothing else. I don't need any other information in front of me. I love that the Mac application bar at the top is basically hidden and it's only the stoplight in the top left. The fact that I can then move the UI to the bottom of the page so that it's out of the way make it look like I have my paper right there next to my main screen. THANK YOU for making these UI decisions that others may not appreciate but I certainly do :)

2 years ago, Wreni11

Great App. Please add audio recording!

I am a full time student and this multimedia platform is exactly what I need. It’s a way for me to synthesize all the hectic information coming from different places in digital and paper forms. Instead of having to get out my notebook, folder, binder, phone and computer to do one task, I can just scan anything paper and import anything digital onto my IPad! This way I can incorporate figures, worksheets, pdfs, lecture slides, hand written notes and typed essays all into one organized place. And because it’s searchable, I can go back and look at my learning process or to study. I can even turn anything in writing to typed form, which makes it easy to turn in essays or save the important stuff on a flash drive in simple text form. HOWEVER there are three things that I really want this app to do. First is to allow audio recording!! Lectures are a huge part of what I do and I need a way to organize them with the notes I take. Second, I would appreciate if the conversion algorithm could read written math symbols because that would be really helpful. Third, this app really needs a better hyperlink/table of contents situation. It is very impractical to use the goto feature or scrolling when quickly switching between pages or looking for something. Overall great app, I use it everyday. Please consider my suggestions.

1 year ago, Marlcat

Almost perfect!

I absolutely love this app. I’m currently a graduate student working on a capstone project, and this app has made notetaking and organization such a breeze. I do have the following suggestions: first, when typing, I would love if I could do subscripts under my bullet points; second, I think the page should continue automatically rather than asking me if I want an additional page (sometimes this is buggy as well, and it has duplicated an entire page when I add a new one); third, sometimes when using typing the page seems to freeze and won’t let me select a page to type on unless I go to another notebook or close out the former and reopen it; finally, the search feature doesn’t always work for me even with typed notes. The last one, in particular, is a big problem for my research. I can understand it not always catching documents that require OCR, but I had a notebook I was exclusively using for typing, and it wouldn’t let me search that notebook at all. So far, I’ve only noticed the issue in one of my notebooks. Overall, I would be lost without this app. These issues are a small inconvenience that have not affected my ability to use the app overall. It has been my primary notetaking app since day one, and indispensible to my studies.

2 years ago, Annie.N.S

Bookmark feature is no longer great

I loved the older version when the bookmark icon was right on the screen, above the tools bar. I could just go from one page to another then bookmark any page with just one touch. Now I have to go to the option on the top right where the bookmark feature is hidden in there (takes me two steps instead of one). Secondly, in the older version, because the bookmark icon was right on the main screen, I could see which pages were bookmarked right away (the icon would be red if the page as marked). Hence, I could choose to mark or unmark the pages easily. Lastly, in the older version, I could choose to read JUST bookmarked pages (among the other two options: Thumbnails, or Outlines). Now, when I’m in the “Favorites” option, if I select one of the those pages, then swipe left or right, it will not take me to the other bookmarked pages. Instead, it will just take me to the regular pages before/after the chosen bookmarked page. If I had a file that has 300 pages and only wanted to read 100 pages that I bookmarked, having to go to the Bookmark option to select each of them every single time (100 times in this case) would be a real big hassle (on top of checking which page currently on in order to choose the next one properly). This is such a bummer! I hope you will consider bringing the old bookmark features back! Other than that, I’ve been enjoying using the app. Thank you!

5 years ago, Jess, a cellist

Love being paper free

I’ve been using this app for years, & recently upgraded to 5. There’s a lot of additional functionality, with more powerful tools, new objects, & way better templates. The only thing I miss is the way the app opens. Previously when opening the app it presented the view I left it int when closing the app. Now every time I start the app it opens to my folder list. I have a loootttt of notebooks, and remembering which one I was last using is sometimes difficult. Maybe I’m just not as organized as I should be, but it’s just annoying that every time I open the app I have to search through my folders & then my notebooks to get to the one I was in the middle of using. I open one notebook only to find that the page I’m looking for is actually in another one. Many of my notebooks hold similar data, but I keep the in separate books for specific reasons. I’d just rather not have to search every time I start, especially when I’m already used to picking up right where I left off with GN4. That minor thing aside, I love this app worthy of all 5 stars, & the upgrade to 5 was a great improvement. The developers seem to really pay attention to what additional functionality could be useful as the way we work evolves. So I’m always looking forward to the next version to see what new stuff I’ll get!

5 years ago, nanagiwa

love it, but a couple concerns

Love the app, convenient for college and holds a lot of storage, I wish moving around pages could be easier. And the ball pen seems too stiff, fountain pen is a little awkward to use, and the brush pen is fine, but again the pens are something I need to get used to. I wish the eraser marks could have an option to be smaller, and not erase a whole line but exactly what my pen touches. So pens are not as fluid as it could be and may make your handwriting either better or worse. Zoom ins are great and resizing also never pixelates my writing, which I LOVE. I never write reviews, so I hope the concerns I listed will be considered and that this review helps those deciding whether or not to use the app. I wish I could download it to my computer without paying extra so that I can see both on my iPad and computer. For an app meant for taking and saving notes, it is an easy and great app to use, but pens are hard to get used to. If you are a high school student, digital note taking is okay, but it honestly isn’t necessary and teachers and classmates usually feel weird about it. In university this app is perfect since in my classes there is a lack of space for desks and so many places to walk to so the portability of a tablet is more useful then (this app also allows for split screen which is convenient)

8 months ago, uaa2

Issues, Issues and more issues

I’ve been using this app since 2020 and I’ve recommended it to so many people who use iPads but now I think I’m going to stop. I don’t know what was done with the update but now my app crashes like nothing whenever I’m recording while taking notes. Please take note that I NEVER had this issue prior to the Goodnotes 6 launch. Now, every single time I record my notes, this app crashes midway making me lose my notes all the time. I already downgraded from Goodnotes 6 because it was happening even more frequently with Goodnotes 6 so I stuck with version 5 because why fix what was broken? But the same issue has persisted for months now. It hurts me to leave this bad review because I used to LOVE this app and I still use it for all my note-taking and so many other things—planning, presenting, you name it. But I cannot keep using something that time and time fails me because now I lose so much progress with all the notes I thought I’d kept recorded. I want to say that it’s my iPad but the same issue has also come up on my Mac when I record my notes. It really is frustrating because no matter how many times I update the app, the same issue occurs. I hate that now I have to find another alternative because I thought I found my forever app but I guess not. If this is a bug, I really hope it’s fixed soon because I don’t want to have to migrate but it seems like I will soon have no option.

5 years ago, jsherrer

Best App Out There for Writing & Drawing with Apple Pencil ESPECIALLY

I downloaded several different apps that were free for note taking and or drawing in notebooks, etc. After not being satisfied with any of them, I decided to pay for this one. It is so worth the price! You can easily organize notes and notebooks while customizing them for whatever you need! The Apple Pencil works flawlessly as if you are using real pen and paper. I use the 1st Edition Apple Pencil with my 2019 iPad. One of the best things about this app is the fact that you can set it so that it does not capture anything from your hand or palm resting on the screen and allows you to still use your fingers to zoom, scroll through, and navigate the app all while still connected to the Apple Pencil. Also, it can literally READ and SEARCH your own handwriting so you can find where you left a certain note on a page. I have found that it this feature is very accurate! You can also customize your notebook covers, create outlines for easy navigation throughout a notebook, and you can create folders to organize each notebook even further. My only suggestion to the developers is to make it easier to get different templates for pages/covers and also allow those pages to have more background colors than just yellow or white.

4 years ago, smileyxuan

Complicated iCloud Syncing Settings

I recently confronted a syncing issue on both my Mac and iPhone. I just downloaded the apps on my Mac and iPhone today, since I normally use iPad for notes only. However, the documents are only partially synced to my Mac and iPhone (some documents were synced and some were not). I’ve tried to diagnose and fix the problem by myself, such as turn off and back on the iCloud sync in Apple ID Settings on all 3 devices, and restart the laptop to activate the new settings. But all these operations didn’t help to solve the problem. I logged into my iCloud Drive which doesn’t have the GoodNote folder in it, and I think this may be the root cause of the problem, but it doesn’t explain why some documents were synced. After a few hours, I noticed that in the app Settings, there’s another iCloud Settings > Use iCloud inside of the app, and then I found the problem: it was turned off on my iPad. Although the issue was solved, but I don’t quite understand what’s this setting for? Normally, users want to manage iCloud settings at one place, but not in each app. If I enabled iCloud for the app already in the system settings, but it was turned off inside of the app, then what’s the point of this setting? So, I would suggest you removing this setting inside of the app, and using the general iCloud setting should be more reasonable.

2 years ago, Catsongs

Almost perfect

Some years ago a friend recommened GoodNotes to me. I couldn't find a use until I began a "commonplace book" (think scrapbook: favorite quotes, paragrpahs, images). My commonplace book, so far, is awesome. That said, GoodNotes could reall use some attention to details. Example: I import a selection of text and want to chant the font and color. But, I can't do it without deslecting what I just imported, selecting a non-text option, then re-selecting and making the changes I want. And that doesn't always work the first time. Unnecessarily time consuming. Sometimes imported text includes the HTML formating and loads as an empty block on the left and the text in a long thin column. The only solution is to pasted the text first in a text program, remove the formatting, then import to GoodNotes. Again, time consuming. A final example: if you import and image and then wish to change the size of that image more often than not your attempt ends up duplicating the image. This glitch is maddening. At times I've deleted 5-6 duplicates before--finally--getting GN to resize my image. Sadly, when I've asked GN for help, I get no response. All that said, I use GH every day and just live with the (ridiculous) issues that, I hope, will one day get sorted out.

11 months ago, KWACLSS

Worked great until it didn’t…

I’ve been using Goodnotes 5 for just over a month. The newer version, Goodnotes 6, recently came out and I had the option to try it for free. When I did that it locked all of my old notebooks and wouldn’t allow me to edit them without subscribing. So, when I tried to subscribe, a message appeared showing I was already a subscriber and could restore my purchase. I tried doing that and it says the restore failed. I got onto the website to look for troubleshooting ideas. It states if you receive that message it means you aren’t logged into the account that you originally subscribed from. Only problem.. I was logged into that account. I never changed my login or logged out. This is infuriating. It won’t allow me to subscribe or to restore my purchase. I tried several more things including searching my purchase history and found the charge on my Apple account from July then went to Apple’s helpdesk. Their suggestion was to report it or label it as a scam. I didn’t want to do that because I want to use it and to have my notes. So, I went back to the Goodnotes website to search for more help, but there was not a solution for this problem. I finally gave up and “downgraded” to version 5 again so that I can access my notes but now I cannot edit them. You would think since I just purchased this app a little over a month ago that it wouldn’t be such a hassle to upgrade. I’m hoping it’s a glitch and gets fixed ASAP.

4 months ago, BlueSkyWithStars

Drag and Drop Feature Not Working with GoodNotes !!!!

I’ve recently encountered issues with the drag and drop feature not working between my MacBook Air and my iPad Pro, specifically with the GoodNotes app. This feature is crucial for my workflow, and suddenly, it just stopped working. Interestingly, the drag and drop feature works flawlessly with Microsoft Word, so I'm led to believe this might be an issue isolated to GoodNotes. I've already tried resetting my devices but had no luck in resolving the problem. To the creators of Goodnotes has anyone experienced something similar, or does anyone have any tips on how to fix this? This feature is a true lifesaver for me, and I'm really hoping to find a solution soon. Thanks in advance for your help! This app was a g*d send up until this issue occurred. I even took my MacBook Pro to Apple and even they couldn’t figure it out!!! Update: They have reached back out to me regarding the inability to use the drag and drop feature between my MacBook Air and IPad Pro. They stated that they’re aware of the situation and that’s it’s a known bug and that they’re working towards a resolution. I’m pleasantly surprised because I thought I wouldn’t even receive an answer. They still remain the best note taking app for me.

1 year ago, Bekah07!

The best app for digital planning!!!

I absolutely love GoodNotes! I originally bought it on my iPad Air because I was making the switch from paper to digital notes and several tutorials told me to try GoodNotes so I did and I fell in love with it! I’m a sophomore pre-law student so having an app that allows me to markup my lecture slides or any other handouts my professors give me is really useful and I can do all of that in GoodNotes. The app itself is really easy to use and it’s a great tool to have in classes since I can annotate my slides in real time while my professor is lecturing. I also love all of the color customization options that are available and it’s by far one of my favorite tools in GoodNotes to use when I digitally plan on my iPad. The only main issue that I have with GoodNotes is its organization system which is partly why I switched to writing down all my notes in notability instead because of the subjects and dividers included in the app which allows me to organize my classes more easy. Overall, a great app for anyone looking into switching to digital note taking or digital planning and it’s also great to use side by side with notability which is what I’m planning to do this semester. I’m looking forward to new updates in the future!

1 year ago, big head deli

Locking imported images

I’ve been using this app for years and it has really helped me study well since I can annotate the images I import from my camera roll. However, I’ve been getting frustrated lately with this feature because there is no option to lock images. Sometimes my finger or palm will get sensed on the screen to where it’ll highlight the image and go “on top” of the text I wrote all over it. If I happen to move the image one bit, it’s hard to put it back in place to line up with my annotations- which sometimes, the undo button doesn’t always fix this problem. I see there being 2 solutions that may please those that are having this problem as well. Main solution is to incorporate a “lock image” feature- giving us the choice to lock certain images on our screen without risking it moving and messing up the text alignment. The second solution could be lowering the image’s opacity when we move it around so we can at least see through it to be able to line it back up with our notes. This will get rid of the users playing a guessing game with the image, hoping that with each try, they will align it correctly. Other than that, this app is fantastic. Just please consider the image features to make things run more smoothly. Thanks

9 months ago, DrPeppermintt

Absolute Godsend

I've gone through several different notetaking apps including Notability, Sketch, GoodNotes (both the old and new one), and several other physical notetaking medias like the RocketBook, Moleskins, and TUL. GN/GN6 makes my iPad absolutely worth keeping; I love the compactness of the UI (Interface), and the variety of pen styles. I would love to see the top bar with the "Writing/Typing/Mic" button removed... I never use it. I also would LOVE to see a similar "hide your notes" function like Notability has started to use recently. I think that would be insanely useful for students. Another feature I would love to see get more appreciation is the microphone recording feature; it works really well, but its tricky to use, especially during class. I've accidentally started playback of audio during lecture when I was simply trying to erase an old recording. Lastly, I was a bit annoyed when the new 'subscription' model came out (as even Notability has done lately, too) because I had already purchased GN, and had no interest in the AI options. However, it limited my notebooks and thus my usability during my senior undergrad year, and the price was very affordable. I look forward to continued years in GN6! :)

4 years ago, cecearz

I don’t use anything else for notes anymore

This app definitely requires a stylus. Even better an apple pen because of the wrist touch problem, but my $10 stylus works fine. As the title reads, I no longer lug around notebooks that end up getting crumpled or lost or thrown out, contributing to waste. I’ll admit, I didn’t purchase this to save trees, but it’s awesome that it does, now that I think of it. I never buy apps either; that’s one thing that kept me from finally pulling the plug on this, but I’m glad I did. I REALLY like being able to use the dotted line tool thingy that allows you to just move a whole paragraph or drawing or chunk out of something to another area AND/OR to just simply copy and paste it somewhere else. That is my fave feature probably. Oh, AND you can change it’s size. That’s so much easier than erasing your notes and starting all over again when something was written to big or too small and you wasted a whole page. So again, 4 stars just cause sometimes it glitches and moves super slow, but that’s just cuz I’m usually using it for hours on end, and also I wish we could change the pen style to brush or pencil...maybe you can and I just haven’t figured it out yet. If so, I apologize but yeah I love this app and don’t use pen or paper or any other inferior app. I have yet to find a better one than GoodNotes

8 months ago, Mommy2atxprncs

Back after years away

I had this app years ago on my old iPad and decided to try it again with my new one. I decided to go all in and purchased the app. I love it on my new iPad but there are some improvements I would love to see. 1) Being able to password protect individual notebooks being one. That is a huge one for me. 2) I would also like it if when viewing the individual pages of a document it could be done in full screen. 3) Also I’m still having trouble using images as stickers for digital planning. But whether that’s GN or Apple I don’t know. I keep getting the option for a screen shot. 4) I would love to make hyper links without that weird little link image, why do we need that? Maybe just putting a smaller cuter symbol or allowing the I to see nothing at all. 5) being able to create a notebook with a set number of pages, so when creating a notebook having a place to put how many pages to start the notebook with. For example new notebook, pick cover, template style, and be able to put 50 pages or whatever you like when creating the notebook instead of having to go copy and paste 10 times. 6) being able to copy paste pages quicker and easier. Other than that I think this app is absolutely amazing and it’s nice using it on my new iPad.

3 years ago, RWB123456789

Two reasons to like GoodNote, and one complaint

I use pdf apps almost every day on my iPad to both read, review, and mark-up technical papers, and to present college lectures. I use pdf apps on my mac for similar purposes. Having experimented with almost every pdf app available for iOS, I am excited about two features in GoodNote that have made it my primary pdf app. (1) Goodnote has an excellent laser pointer mode with delayed trails, that make if an excellent choise for giving technical presentations from pdf slides. It is easy to flip back and forth between laser pointer mode and mark-up mode. (2) Goodnote allows the iPad screen to be split into two sides, showing the same document on both sides of the screen. This is extremely useful when reviewing technical documents because one half can be used to read the document, and the other half can be used to refer to equations, citations, tables, etc., located on other pages of the document. To my knowledge GoodNote is currently the only app with these two features. The complaint: documents are synced between iOS and OSX using iCloud, but not stored in an iCloud folder (or any other folder as far as I can tell). Documents can only be viewed and accessed within the GoodNote app. There is no integration with Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

12 months ago, Kitkat72707

GoodNotes 5 Users getting Ripped Off.

So after seeing the giant pop-up and everything for GoodNotes 5; changing to version 6. It states that GoodNotes 5 users who had a paid lifetime subscription before would STILL HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THEIR PREMIUM PAID FEATURES from the previously purchased version. However that is not true; after updating it locked ALL my notebooks that I have created and uploaded and I have needless to say WAY MORE THAN 3! I am a doctoral student and I used GoodNotes almost daily but now they have basically stolen all my content that I created and locked it from me unless I pay to unlock all my notes. Almost 100% sure this is illegal and false advertising as I paid for the LIFETIME use of a product and the specifications of the product at that time. Taking my money for a lifetime user; then taking away what I originally paid for is point blank FRAUD. Especially since they have that blurb in GoodNotes about GoodNotes 5 users being allowed to still have their full features and access just not the new features. So, not quite sure what your end game is developers. Since sure people will buy the subscription or upgrade. Or someone that has the time will come for your app as the aforementioned items above violate the terms of use from apple. Along with again Fraud. So FYI devs may want to actually follow through on what you say your going to do and give the people who paid for lifetime GoodNotes 5 have their PAID for features back…. 🤓

1 year ago, JqMac

Game-Changing, Love this app.

I officially got Goodnote at the start of the spring semester for 2023. Taking 18 hours becomes much easier with all the notes easily uploaded and downloadable in one place. You know, that morning when you're running late and accidentally grab the wrong notebook, papers, or whatever and only realize once it's too late. This app makes life less stressful. All of my notes, documents, PDFs, and voice recordings are synced through iCloud, which means I can edit and access them on my phone, computer, and iPad. I wish I had this when taking physics, chemistry, and organic chemistry. I love all of the app's features, especially uploading any homework directly into Canvas without leaving the app. I also appreciate that I don't need to pay a subscription (one of the reasons I decided against some apps.) I love that I can have unlimited notebooks and every color under the sun available to write with. However, one of my problems with this app is that the folder colors can't be edited; I hope this will be in a future update. I'm a very visual person, and it would be great to organize the folder by color. Another problem I have is that the app likes to crash on me. Luckily I haven't lost any work or writing; however, it's annoying and worrisome.

3 years ago, olgesalex

Great, with a couple glaring missing features

This app is great and the sole reason I use my Apple Pencil. It’s got plenty of features to maintain its notebooks, but isn’t so feature-filled it gets bogged down and bloated. I’ve kept digital notes for years now; this is the first time I feel like I have all the benefits of digital note taking along with all the benefits of physical note taking, without any of the drawbacks of either. That said, there are two issues I would like to see added: iCloud drive support for auto-backup. This is seems like a weird miss, but at least you can manually backup to your iCloud via the Files app for now. Secondly, handwriting recognition is awesome, but it would be so much more helpful if it supported multiple languages in one notebook. When taking notes for language learning, it’s normal to take notes in your native tongue and in the language you’re learning (in my case, English and Japanese, respectively). As it stands, handwriting recognition’s usefulness for language study is limited. Still, there are plenty of other ways to organize and find your content. I use this app nearly every day, and I’m finding more and more uses for it all the time. Thanks for the great app!

2 months ago, lilyiswise

Amazing, but could be perfect with these added features:

Goodnotes is awesome, especially with its one-time purchase feature. For college, this app is great for taking notes, scheduling, and journaling. However, Notability and other similar applications compete closely with Goodnotes because of some features that they have that Goodnotes do not. First and foremost, Goodnotes needs to bring in more pens, something similar to Apple’s Pencil pen and Fountain pen. The Pencil pen would be perfect for notetaking and allows people to not be limited to Goodnote’s ball pen. And of course, Goodnotes has a fountain pen, but it isn’t anything like Apple’s Fountain pen which is perfect for calligraphy and gives a handwriting look. Another feature that Goodnotes should add, would be the double-finger undo option, similar to what Notability and ProCreate offers. This undo feature would make taking notes so much easier and more efficient. Furthermore, they should also offer a platform that allows other to be able to share notes easier. So, if the everyday Joe, like me, had a template I made that I wanted to share for free, I could post it and also use other’s templates for free. All in all, Goodnotes is great. If you added these features, it would be perfect and one wouldn’t even consider other platforms!

12 months ago, melhoweird

I’d be lost without this app! (One change from perfection)

I tried so many notes apps to find one I would actually use, with the features I’d appreciate, knowing I might not get everything I want, however, I was able to find it all in GoodNotes! This notes app helps me manage my ADHD better than I’ve been able to with previous apps. I utilize this daily for work and personal use. I rely on GoodNotes to keep me on track and store all of my information in one place, and I’m consistently checking back on my notes and easily editing and adding new pages as I go- there’s a wide variety of templates available to guide your entries available through the app and other sites. I now look for things I can add to my documents because I enjoy writing in this notebook so much. I am grateful to the developers for putting so much thought and effort into creating this app. The one issue I have is with the update to 6: the writing tools (redo, undo, zoom, etc) have changed places and it’s taking some time to get used to it. I’d LOVE to be able to customize the tools and put them in an order that’s more convenient to my personal use. Overall, it’s a 5/5 star app and definitely worth checking out.

2 years ago, Beccs2013

Technology Issues

The app is superb for taking notes, but when it is coming to the part of syncing goodnotes across ipads, phones, and laptops it is really junk. I have all apple products, all goodnote 5 updated for each technology and I use the icloud sync function for all my goodnotes 5 apps and it is very frustrating when I am trying to take notes and upload documents at the same time and it takes so long to sync that I am unable to eficiently take notes on powerpoints. I also think that adding a "recording" feature to the app just like how notability has, will make the app even greater. I also think reinventing the app were it accepts all types of programs will be really beneficial as well because there was one document that was created through pages on mac and the only way I could import it was through notability, then export the file as a PDF version, AND THEN import it to goodnotes. I think being able to have a variety of access to other apps will make things run a lot smoother and faster. Overall, I would love to see this app become a lot more faster and effincent. While in school professors don't talk slow. The rate at which the app should be functioning should be producing at the same speed as how fast we talk on average.

10 months ago, massa jabateh

Lost my notes

I was using the free version which I’m totally ok with and have no need for the updated version, but today I tried accessing my notes and it was not allowing me, it kept saying “good notes 5 is no longer available please update to Good notes 6”. Which I DID, but I still have NO ACCESS to my prior notes and to be completely honest, I like the app but I’m not in any place to pay for it because I don’t NEED anything from the “advance” version. 3 notes books is absolutely enough for me and the pages are unlimited (as far I as I know ), so that was great. Some of the features like the copy and paste + adding images and stickers were great too, and honestly that was all I needed, but now I’ve lost all my notes and honestly that’s a pretty low thing to do, I really just wished I had access to some important things I wrote so I could transfer it to my files but I guess I’d have to pay to gain access to something that was free literally yesterday 💀. Overall I’m not paying and I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t get access to my former notes. But if you do NEED he advanced features than yeah I can see why you’d pay and I’d definitely say go for it, I mean if I needed it than I’d pay too, but I DON’T 😭 and that’s the thing like just let me access my old notes and I’d delete the app like what…

10 months ago, JasonWhitaker

Hit or Miss - worse and wors

The app is pretty buggy since the most recent update with symptoms varying symptoms. In my case, documents aren’t appropriately exporting to an email. There’s no error message, it looks like it should have sent but nope. I’ve had other issues with syncing across devices. A classmate is having issues with the app randomly shutting down on her while taking notes. Just a lot of little things that should have been caught before launch. Customer service is pretty meh when you report a bug. Oh, and they’ve added templates you can PURCHASE. After already buying the premium membership. If you haven’t it may be worth comparing closely to other options. This one has been a standout in the past but they seem to be trying to cash in on that good reputation for a short term money grab. Edit: goodnotes 6 is not an effective solution. The lifetime license they previously sold is being scrapped for a subscription based service. The actual app has significant issues including a bug that cause me to lose a pretty important recording. I emailed customer service two weeks ago and just received an auto-response saying that they’re dealing with a lot of requests right not. They have been the big name in this space for a couple of years because they had a fairly strong product with fair pricing. Unfortunately, it seems that they’re making some choices that could jeopardize that position.

1 year ago, Halicon5

A simple update made me drop two stars.

Update: the dev has apparently fixed this issue. Back to 5 stars! Today this app went from 5 star to 3 star. I use this app every single day, often for hours every day. Unfortunately GoodNotes has decided to hide a feature that I used constantly behind a multi-click process that has ruined my regular flow. Prior to the update that was forced on me this morning, I could quickly select between 3 different thickness settings that were clearly visible and available in a single motion. Now changing the pen thickness is ALWAYS hidden behind a small drop-down/pop-up style window. Instead of a quick tap to change pen thickness, I must now tap to open the pop-up window, tap to select the thickness, and tap once again to close the pen thickness selection. There was absolutely no *good* reason for this change. There was plenty of screen real-estate available when I was able to select from all three thicknesses. Now there is a bunch of empty unused space at the top of the tool bar and every single time I change line thickness the process is literally 3 times as long. Please give us the ability to see multiple line thicknesses again.

7 months ago, fjordfish

Not So Goodnotes

Im sad to write this, because this app used to be great. Instead, the creators have put their focus in the wrong place. Previously they made a good product, now they’re beginning the phase where they screw you over. New features have been added with things like AI that reek of “just do something to create growth” instead of thoughtful consideration for what the user actually wants. The same useless smart features that spread like a cancer in the tech industry these days. The app expects users to buy it again at a higher price, and is more restrictive on files available free. I just want to take notes. New updates have corrupted all of my previous notes I had, years worth of thoughts and research that I wont get back. I spent days googling how to fix it (and I consider myself quite tech savvy as a CS major) but nothing worked. Even my backups are useless because the file format is unique to this app, not something accessible like pdf. (You can choose to use PDFs with this app, sure, but thats not the default.) This was all done to justify a subscription model with deceptive methods to hide bad reviews, since the new app just replaced the old one on the app store. I cant remember another service I’ve used that has fallen so far and left such a bad taste in my mouth. Don’t make the same mistake I did, use a different app and save all your documents in a third party cloud provider in pdf format for portability.

4 years ago, Sugggaaadoooo

This is the greatest app I’ve ever purchased

I’m in nursing school and I can’t tell you how this app changed my study routine because you would be here all day. Not to mention, I essentially will never have to purchase multi-colored pens, highlighters, no more erasers, or other odd items like stickers. Everything in this app allows you to creat fun, engaging, and detailed content. You can import documents (easier than any program I’ve ever used), you can export to any format you’d like without any additional conversion programs or making sure the order and format are correct. It makes everything easy! You can take photos and crop as you need, add text, move your notes around if they’re in the wrong place rather than having to re-write them all together. My favorite feature is drawing on things you can import to the app: need to take notes on diagrams? You can do it. Need to draw on a photo and export? You can do it. Everything is so intuitive and super simple to figure out/organize. I know $9 seems a little steep for the app but I promise you, you will get the full value of this app. Retrospectively, even if this app was $30 I would still purchase it. If you’re on the fence, don’t be! Get. The. App. You’ll be glad that you did.

3 years ago, Nephilim_13

Wonderful!

I LOVE GoodNotes! It's great for rewriting or taking notes. I like to use it's quick note feature to solve math problems if I don't have scratch paper. Also, I didn't have a journal on hand, so I used GoodNotes for my bullet journaling this year. I love it's simple design, especially how I can customize my colors without an overwhelming amount of colors to begin with. The tools make it so nice to use and I love the different types of pens. The only thing I'd change is some parts of the flashcard feature. I think it's thought out really well and I love being able to add diagrams, pictures, etc. However, I would love being able to select the flashcards I want to study. Like maybe when you click on the flashcard feature, have a pop up ask whether you want to study all flashcards or some. Then, if you click some, you can select the ones you want to study. I appreciate being able to make flashcards so quickly, but I don't want to study all flashcards every time. However, I like to have the flashcards for each class with my notes to review for exams. Overall, it's a great app and with the apple pencil, it's probably the best note taking app out there.

11 months ago, Do .not .Download.

Goodnotes v. Notability

Personally, I favor Goodnotes over notability. Note taking with an apple pen is easier and more straightforward on Goodnotes. I can tap anywhere to create a text box, write anywhere on the screen, and the text goes into the text box. On notability, I create a textbook, but when I write somewhere else on the screen, it creates a new text box. Setting the font and keeping it on the set font in notability was harder than it should have been. On good notes you can set and forget. However, I do like certain aspects of notability. I like the file/divider organization on notability more than the folder organization of Goodnotes. I have managed to work around that by creating a folder for the semester, another fold within for each class, and creating quick notes per chapter rather than notebooks. This gives me the ability to see my notes first page without having to click on a notebook and scrolling through endless chapter notes. ‼️ I also like the feature to zoom out on notability, allowing users to view multiple pages at a time, for quicker document navigation.‼️ overall, I like Goodnotes more and will continue to use it. Hopefully, in future updates, they will consider adding the zoom out feature.

2 years ago, Joannalynne

There’s always room for improvement

I really enjoy this app BUT I wish they would add an option to do typed notes in addition to having a text box. With typed notes, it would be nice to be able to do bullet points. The text box sometimes doesn’t work. I’ll click on the document and it wouldn’t let me type. Also, I’ve been having issues where when I would copy a picture/image from my laptop and try to past it in my ipad into Goodnotes. It wouldn’t load all of the time and then the app would freeze up. I would have to restart the app to get it to work again and it is not very efficient when I’m trying to take notes quickly. But other than those things, it’s a good app for taking notes especially when having so many slides to annotate. *update* Still hoping that there would be improvement on the adding text feature. It would be nice to be able to switch from using a text box to being able to type like a normal document. It would be nice to be able to do bullet points and have features as writing a word document. The text box has been working but recently, when I would change the size of the text, the spacing would be off. Hopefully this would be fixed soon!

7 months ago, Asia💩💩

Recent Updates:

With the recent updates that have been made to the app, I keep experiencing this “glitch.” It happens when I am writing something and for some reason, it just disappears. My writing/drawing does not stay on the document at all. It mainly happens when I am attempting to color/fill something in. This also leads me to ask why the new update didn’t include a paint bucket tool that will allow people to just drag and drop so that they can fill empty spaces with color easier. It also made me sad when they got rid of the community sharing option where everyone would upload/share their notes/templates. This gave people the option to even download the shared notes/templates and use it as a guide to hep them explore/develop their own sense of self/creativity. I think that this app should specifically have an academic section similar to the original community sharing option. This would allow students to upload their notes on the platform to help other students study for various subjects (STEM, social sciences, etc). If the app is worried about plagiarism, the use of AI, etc; they can absolutely set up a guideline and have it so that before the notes officially get uploaded to the database, they are processed via pre-screening. (Might add more/write another review soon)!

10 months ago, DrMatt123

I'm sure Goodnotes does not care about its consumers.

I get it. A platform like this which is trying to expand across multiple Operating Systems needs a cash inflow. But the options they're giving to current consumers and their awful customer service are indicative of a larger apathy toward the people that have been using the platform for a long time. I bought Goodnotes 5 back in 2020 for full price, and have gotten terrific use out of it. Recently, however, the team forced the upgrade to Goodnotes 6 upon everyone and my apps uploaded automatically. Suddenly, I had to choose between paying more for a subscription with AI features (sounds cool, but not what I need) and using a "unpaid" version of Goodnotes 6, which capped me at 3 notebooks total. I was shell-shocked. I tried to reach out multiple times to their customer service (which has no phone number) via email, and never got a response. Thanks to Reddit, I finally found a way to downgrade back to Goodnotes 5, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until Goodnotes 6 is fully forced upon us and I have to pay more or jump ship. If you're considering purchasing, just be aware. If you don't mind subscription fees and/or would get a lot of use out of the AI features, go ahead. Otherwise, I would save your money and try a different app, only because it's probably inevitable that everyone on Goodnotes will be forced to upgrade eventually.

11 months ago, Alec Fleschner

An app with a big organizational hole

I just started using GoodNotes 6 with my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and it’s a dream to use—I was a writing teacher for years, and GoodNotes makes the iPad into the paper editing and note-taking machine I always wanted it to be, but the iPad just couldn’t seem to reach. However, as I use it for creating personal notes, I find it very limiting that there is no way to create links between pages or documents you have. It makes taking lots of notes very difficult because there is no way to easily reference anything you’ve written previously. In a physical notebook, you could at least number the pages and write in that reference, but with the ability to add pages into a notebook wherever you want (which is good, and I like :) ), any sort of reference system becomes an exercise in simply trying to reference what you’ve written before. So I like GoodReads, but it looks like I might be in the market for another app that can handle a large amount of text and allows me to create my own reference links to help keep information organized. If you’re looking to do a lot of writing, either typed or handwritten, you might want to look at other apps as well, because your notes can become a bit of a mess in GoodNotes otherwise.

Description

Replace your paper notebooks and reimagine digital note-taking with Goodnotes. Introducing Goodnotes 6! *Existing Goodnotes users can continue to use Goodnotes 5 or upgrade to Goodnotes 6. Either way, your notes are safe!* Digital notebooks. Unlimited notebooks for the price of one physical one. ■ Combine both handwriting and typed text on one page, alongside images, stickers, diagrams and doodles. ■ Create digital notebooks with customizable paper templates, including Blank Paper, Ruled Paper, Cornell Paper, Checklists, Planners, and more. ■ Navigate long documents with ease. PDF tables of contents are automatically imported; otherwise create custom outlines yourself. ■ Backup all your notes to Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive and use iCloud to sync across iPad, iPhone, and Mac so your notes are always safe. ■ Draw perfect shapes and lines that snap into place with Shape Recognition technology. ■ Edit your writing by resizing it, changing the color of your text, or moving it to another spot on the page. AI note-taking. Your notes just got way smarter. ■ Write freely on paper that catches every typo or mistake. ■ Always find what you’re looking for. Search your handwritten notes, typed text, PDF text, document outlines, folder titles, and document titles. ■ Forget how to spell a word? Word Complete will give you suggestions to finish your sentences. ■ Use AI to summarize, shorten, change the tone of your words, and otherwise perfect your typed text. Science-backed learning. Master any topic. ■ Study and practice straight from your notes with Study Sets — flashcards built on active recall and spaced repetition. ■ Find relevant study material like revision notes or textbooks from the in-app Marketplace. For students: Ace your exams with ease. ■ Record audio notes that are magically synced to the moment you write, perfect for lectures or presentations. ■ Scan any physical notes to import them straight into Goodnotes, where they’ll be indexed using OCR technology. Perfect for past exams, handouts, or miscellaneous pages. ■ Import all your lecture slides, textbooks, and past exams and annotate them directly on your iPad. ■ Ace your math exams with SAT and DSE math prep courses, with built-in AI Math Assistance to catch any mistakes. ■ Search and instantly find any of your notes from any of your classes. For planners: Let your creativity flow and create notes you can’t stop looking at. ■ Create aesthetic notes with customizable pen color, thickness, pressure sensitivity, and style (fountain pen, ball pen, brush pen, and highlighter). ■ Customize the size and color of your paper templates to create the template you want. ■ Add, create, or import your stickers, stamps, washi tapes, images, and more to reuse again and again. ■ Easily discover and download new digital stickers, paper templates, planners, and more on the in-app Marketplace. For professionals: Increase productivity at work. ■ Present your notes, slides, and content directly from Goodnotes when you connect your device via AirPlay or HDMI to an external screen. ■ Use Laser Pointer on your iPad to guide your audience’s attention during your presentation. ■ Export your notes to email, print, or share them anywhere as PDFs. ■ Send a link to your notebooks to work on the same notes directly, perfect for asynchronous work or collaborative brainstorming. ■ Import documents by emailing them to your custom Goodnotes email. For the price of one paper notebook, get unlimited digital notebooks that are backed up, synced across your devices, and searchable for an entire year. Try Goodnotes today. Privacy policy: https://www.goodnotes.com/privacy-policy Terms and Conditions: https://www.goodnotes.com/terms-and-conditions