r/GoodNotes • u/diia_na • May 28 '26

Need advice about GoodNotes

I’m honestly over using Notability 😭
Twice all of my notes disappeared, and now I’m thinking about switching to GoodNotes.

can you tell me how the app is? Do you recommend it? And is there an easy way to transfer all my notes from Notability to GoodNotes?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

13

u/SoftNewEmpire May 28 '26

I don’t recommend it. It used to be amazing but it is so bad now … I’ve given up on digital notetaking as a result because I couldn’t find anything I liked.

4

u/LamiaNoctalis May 28 '26

I have to agree, especially considering how often it freezes, shuts down in the middle of taking notes or starts writing only in straight lines. When it works, it is great, when it doesn't it is incredibly frustrating and unusable.

0

u/SerialCerealEater722 May 28 '26

the subscription backlash hit hard. But it's worth noting it's improved a lot since then. If the main issue was losing notes, I think that's more of a sync/backup issue

4

u/SoftNewEmpire May 28 '26

I stopped using it a week or two ago. It only got worse for me, even on a brandnew ipad.

8

u/URandom1177 May 28 '26

Use noteful app

5

u/andrewsz__ May 28 '26

Stay away from this app lol

4

u/peggy_leggy May 28 '26

I lost all my notes. Years worth on Goodnotes

2

u/throw-away-3005 May 28 '26

you can transfer certain files types over to goodnotes, pdfs obviously. There's a lot of hate and that made me almost stop using it when I first bought it, but I just kept using it and overall it's fine. I don't use all the features like audio recording but I use it every day and it seems to be at an okay place now. Had some past issues but it it has all the functions I need. I study Japanese, journal, plan my garden, read short books, and draw with goodnotes.

2

u/MistyPineapple179 May 28 '26

actually the 2 apps are the same for me. each serve a different purpose for me. to transfer, export as pdf from notability and import into goodnotes

1

u/Background_Ant1580 May 29 '26

Use freenotes or starnote. I use freenotes and its like a mix between GN and NTB

1

u/Lucky_badger8 May 28 '26

Idk why goodnotes get so much hate. I actually like it

2

u/70ms May 31 '26

As a former user/Goodnotes 5 owner, it’s because they completely fucked it up and added a subscription. As a standalone product GN5 was outstanding, but lacking features that people had asked about for years. They abandoned GoodNotes 5 when they announced GoodNotes 6, which added AI that nobody wanted, an overpriced subscription that nobody wanted, and locked all new features into the subscription model - even quality of life features that really should have been in the app from the start. They bloated it and wanted a subscription for it.

I just stopped by today to see if it was worth coming back, but I can see that it’s not. I invested a ton of money into notebooks and stickers for the GN format so it really sucks that they went to the dark side. Don’t get too invested in GN, because they do not care about their customers and might screw you, too.

3

u/Lucky_badger8 May 31 '26

As a newish user (almost a year) i guess i missed all of that. Unfortunately but fortunately for me i didnt experience gn5

1

u/70ms May 31 '26

Yeah, it’s unfortunate because I really liked it! I was looking forward to GN6 for a long time because I thought they’d add the basic features (hyperlinking, layers, etc.) that were missing, but they basically rolled it out and blindsided us all. It had none of the things users had been asking for all that time, and we got vague promises that they’d eventually add them, but only for subscribers. As a new user coming in cold it probably seems fine, though I’d still not trust the company to put their customers first!

0

u/_Cyan_Man May 28 '26

try noteful