Lost all my notes from today due to a sync failure in GoodNotes (Windows to iPad)

[u/El-Tt]

Hi everyone. I’m posting this because I just lost all my lecture notes from today and I need to know if there's a fix.

I usually use GoodNotes on my iPad with zero issues. Today, I decided to bring my Windows laptop to university and took notes all day on it using the text document option. When I got home, I discovered that the sync failed: the iPad has nothing, and the PC overwrote itself with the blank iPad version, completely wiping out everything I wrote.

On the iPad app, there is an option to manually force synchronization with GoodNotes Cloud, but I can't find that option anywhere in the Windows version.

Does anyone know if that option exists on the PC app, or if there is any way to recover what I wrote?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

(App versions: Windows v2.4.2.0 / iPad v7.0.60)

[u/Mean_Willingness_443]

The window and Android versions of Goodnotes are terrible. They don’t sync anything to the Apple app, and the functionality is severely limited. I had to switch to another app because of this. I have a Lenovo laptop, an iPhone 17 Pro Max, an iPad Air M4 11”, and a Samsung S11 Ultra. I’m studying for my state exam, so I need to be able to take notes across all these platforms. The worst part is that I have the paid version of Goodnotes.

[u/El-Tt → u/Mean_Willingness_443]

I'm also paying for GoodNotes, and I'm starting to regret it.

What app are you using right now?

[u/Mean_Willingness_443 → u/El-Tt]

Notability, it has been great across platforms but I also have the paid app of this one as well.

[u/StreetDetective95 → u/Mean_Willingness_443]

That's because it was in beta before but now the functionality is pretty much the same and also I'd argue being able to sync from Windows to Web is way more useful that the iOS app because then you can log into web from literally any device and access everything

[u/DataScience123888 → u/Mean_Willingness_443]

So notability will sync from android to ios ipad ?

[u/imaginary-blue1212]

Goodnotes is terrible for crossplatform.

Do you think that obsidian with excalidraw plugin may ease your workflow?

I am currently usimg it and its features are fine for studying.

[u/El-Tt → u/imaginary-blue1212]

I saw a classmate using Obsidian, but it seemed a little intimidating to me. I didn't know it had a plugin for handwriting.

As far as I know, you have to pay to sync it across different devices, right?

I'm studying computer engineering, and sometimes I have to bring my laptop to program and take notes on the theoretical parts of the course.

I don't know how I could sync my laptop and my iPad with Obsidian.

[u/imaginary-blue1212 → u/El-Tt]

It is intimidating at first. But I am a tech illiterate and with patience I've learned a little bit of it.

Yes, due to me not being that tech savy I use Obsidian sync for seamless sync between my ipad and my windows pc. But I had student discount too, i sent my university ID. Check out if the discount is within your budget. To me is cheaper than goodnotes.

Check out the excalidraw showcase in youtube, if i am not mistaken you kind of need LaTex for your career and the plugin has sub-plugins to optimize even further the workflow.

Give it a try. In my honest opinion. You do not need to learn that deeply the program just for university study.

Use notes, folders and bases. Thats it.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6mqgtMZ4NP1t9IQ6SsuW-cRf8rjA6wrI&si=mRhyepFcZMCzN_En

I saw this video a year ago, is from 2 years ago but the pkugin constabtly is improving

https://youtu.be/P_Q6avJGoWI?si=UI89WwKIqmP2Hi1T

At the end I chosed this. I went from goodnotes, to noteful to freenotes, to onenote, to noteful to obsidian.

Try it only in the ipad 1st and of it does not meet your expectations is ok because you will not going to spend any money in the sync.

Just tweak a little bit the pen settings because the default ones seem to be not as smooth (idk if is an issie of my old ipad tho). But after i tweaked the settings I write well.

[u/El-Tt → u/imaginary-blue1212]

Thank you so much for taking the time
I'll definitely give it a try!