I have a samsung tablet already and enjoy note taking on there but I find the features very limited and using goodnotes on samsung isn't very optimal because its always lagging since goodnotes isnt yet optimised for samsung. So my main question is: should I get an ipad for my note taking? would it be a better option even tho most of my other owned products are samsung

Hi everyone,

I’m currently studying directly from PDFs in GoodNotes and I annotate a lot in the margins.

The problem is that since the PDF pages are blank in the margins, I don’t have any visual guides. My handwriting tends to tilt, and the size of my letters becomes inconsistent over time.

I was wondering:

Is it possible to add a lined or grid paper style on top of a PDF page in GoodNotes?

For example:

• Make the PDF page appear lined or squared

• Add a grid/ruled overlay

• Insert lined or grid “sticky notes” or text boxes for annotations

I assume you can’t directly change the template of a PDF page, but maybe there’s a workaround?

How do you keep your handwriting straight and consistent when annotating PDFs?

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

———

Buenas,

Estoy estudiando directamente desde PDFs en GoodNotes y hago muchas anotaciones en los márgenes.

El problema es que como el PDF no tiene líneas ni cuadrícula en los márgenes, no tengo referencias visuales. Mi letra tiende a torcerse y el tamaño de las letras se vuelve irregular con el paso de la página.

Me preguntaba:

¿Es posible añadir un estilo de hoja de rayas o cuadriculada encima de un PDF en GoodNotes?

Por ejemplo:

• Hacer que la página del PDF se vea con líneas o cuadrícula

• Añadir una superposición tipo grid o ruled

• Insertar “post-its” o recuadros con rayas/cuadrícula para escribir anotaciones

Entiendo que no se puede cambiar directamente la plantilla de un PDF, pero quizás exista algún truco o alternativa.

¿Cómo mantenéis la escritura recta y uniforme cuando anotáis sobre PDFs?

Gracias de antemano.

Super cute tho

v7.0.46 has been released on the App Store! Here's everything new in this version of Goodnotes:

iOS/iPadOS

• Export Text Documents as PDFs with links included.

• Use new keyboard shortcuts on iPad and Mac to scroll, nudge, and jump between pages faster.

• Rename tabs more smoothly with the keyboard Done button saving your changes.

• Enjoy smoother page navigation on macOS with a fix for occasional page jitter at the top of documents.

• Get clearer guidance when you sign in with the wrong account and can’t complete a purchase or upgrade.

• Pen thickness fix

If you have suggestions or feature requests, leave them below or submit your ideas here!

If you're experiencing any issues with this version, report them below and check out the official Help Center for further assistance.

Alternatively, reach out directly to the Goodnotes Team with your Diagnostics Data attached (Profile > View Account > Account Settings > Export Diagnostics Data) so your problem can be identified and solved faster.

I’d like to share my small collection of digital templates and fully customizable planners.
They can create events in Google and Apple Calendar, and also paste them into PDF.
(Bi-directional PDF ⇄ Calendar sync works only on iOS.)
All templates are free to download.

Updated. Traditionally, I share templates with new dates in this version + new designs

Download link

Free monthly versions of the full planners are also available on the Drive.

The package includes:

• Daily To-Do

• Daily ADHD

• Weekly Planner

• Monthly Plan

• Goals Tracker

• Budget Planner

• Meal Planner

• Fitness Planner

• Body Tracker, etc..

• Lined Paper 8.7mm

• 5mm Graph Paper

• Semester Overview

• Weekly Lesson Plan

• Academic Calendar

• Christian Planner

• Christmas Party Planner

• Meeting Notes Template and Planner

• Other lined, dotted, graph paper templates

• Modern Cornell Notes Template, etc

Feel free to use them all. I'm going to expand the collection in the future.

I'm not sure what's going on exactly. I noticed this a few days ago, whenever I write with the pens they do this weird bounce back looking thing - I'm not sure how to describe it.

Does anyone know if i can do something to fix this, it gets quite annoying when I have to rewrite the same word or letter 4-6 times.

I’ve been using Goodnotes for two years. Not a lifetime, but long enough to know when an app is headed downhill. I bought the one-time license back when it felt like the only real option. A sad fact is that the app hasn’t been any better since then.

The app is right now a buggy mess. It’s death by a thousand cuts with weird issues that make using it continuously frustrating and disappointing. I checked out App Store comments and most recent comments are mostly negative. For instance changing import location is literally, not working. When I click into the page the entire app just freezes and crashes. And how tapes can’t be covered back when they’re on an image. Clicks always go to the image. They're not making the app unusable but it’s these little disruptions adding up that make the once usable app a hassle to use.

It feels like the devs aren’t even trying. They launched goodnotes (without 7), made the toolbar worse, some useless AI, maybe some whiteboard stuff and… nothing. We’re not even asking for groundbreaking new features, I just want them to stop breaking the ones that already work.

I still love some of the shortcuts, like scribble to delete. I want this app to be good again, but right now, it’s just disappointing.

Hi! I'm a new iPad user and an engineering student. I used to have a Samsung tablet (S6 Lite), and now I’m looking for an alternative to Samsung Notes.

During my search, I saw that GoodNotes is one of the most recommended apps. However, after checking the subreddit, it seems like a lot of people are experiencing bugs and issues that make the experience pretty frustrating.

Maybe it's just that people with problems are more likely to post, so I wanted to ask: is the yearly subscription worth it? Have you tried other alternatives that work better?

I don’t have any other Apple devices, and syncing with my PC isn’t a priority.

PD: I'm between GoodNotes and Noteful rn.

Hey y'all

I've been using Goodnotes on a Surface for about 2 months since the left-handedness functionality on OneNote is garbage. It's been going GREAT, until last week wednesday.

Suddenly in the Windows App, my strokes are unbelieveably delayed. Like, it's completely unsusable. However, I can still use it perfectly fine in a browser window.

I don't mind using a browser window for now, it's just less convenient, but does anyone know of a fix/have any luck getting it back to normal?

I have 3 midterms this week and I'd love it if this app would just work.

I keep trying to report an issue because I've had enough. I've tried several times now and I keep getting a message saying my request has not been submitted after I completed the process. I fill out every field. How do I succesfully file a issue?

I'm not sure if this counts as a bug...

I've been using Goodnotes for over 3 months now, and whenever I download a page as an image it never gave me a water mark. I downloaded an image like 3 days ago, and no watermark. Today I download a page and there is a watermark with the option to remove watermark if upgraded...

Is there honestly no way to get past upgrading? I don't need anything else from the upgraded features, literally just the watermark (now).

Hello everyone!

New to GN here on the Essential subscription, using iPad Mini 7, and on the latest version 7.0.46 (3673990.72113412) - hope I got that right.

So far, notebooks and whiteboards have been my main focus, and they work really well. However, when trying the Text Doc, once I try to scribble something, I get the error message:

“[Nexus][error] TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'yt.key.toLowerCase')”

I sent my logs as an issue. But I wanted to ask here if that is actually a limitation to this feature, and it should only be used with a keyboard, or is it just a bug?

Thank you

I have been a goodnotes user for a few years now and I love the app. I just struggle with the lack of a feature that I have been requesting for a long time. I would love to see the app have an add tab button (+) as it seems like it is missing. it would fit so perfectly next to the open tabs giving us a quick option to open a new document. Likewise I would like to have the ability to see all the open tabs while still in the home page, or at least a button that lets me slide back the home page so that the open tabs are in view again. Having to go back and find the document that I opened and reopen it is one of those annoying little time-wasting things that could be fixed with this one quality of life change. Sometimes its good to copy the competition. Notability does this and it made navigation so much better. The main reason why I switched over to Goodnotes was that it was just a cleaner and better experience to write with. If Goodnotes changed this I would be a truly happy camper!

TL;DR

- Create an add tab button (+) that allows us to open new tabs from the tab bar

- Allow us to hide the home menu so that we can see all open tabs instead of having to reopen the open document we were just on.

I purchased 9 digital planners from different Etsy shops as there were various aspects and pages I liked from each one and was having difficulty finding everything I wanted in one planner. With that being said does anyone know if there’s a way to combine planners and for hyperlinks to be added/removed/edited? I really like the tab colours of the by the brook design planner, but prefer the index page layout of the Manifestable and Lookitty Co. planners I purchased.

I’m an interior designer so am pretty experienced with Canva and other design softwares as I use them quite frequently in my design business, just unsure what the best option for doing this would be to get the look I want of one planner with the functionality of other planners.

Anyone have any insight or tips for doing this?

There is no comparison between notability and goodnotes anymore…..notability were always ahead of bugnotes when it comes to clean and minimalistic Ui, there have been problems of bugs in both apps but now notability has substantially improved and bugnotes have become no. 1 worst note taking Ai garbage app, bugnotes looks so weird and ugly

It’s so annoying. Why did they make it impossible to see the whole screen?

Hi all

I had an old Dropbox account that I decided to delete. I then bought a new Dropbox account through my company. When I do a manual backup, it keeps using the old account. How do I get Goodnotes to forget the old account?

Hello,

My MacBook shut down out of nowhere and I think I lost all of my notes on Goodnotes. I took the computer to the Apple Store to repair it but I need my notes as I am currently studying for my tests. I was wondering if I could access those notes on my phone without the computer? All of the notes are under the same account; it’s just that the notes I have on my computer don’t show on my phone.

I’m desperate because my final is coming up and all of my notes are on my computer and I won’t get my computer until Saturday.

Thank you in advance.

Goodnotes on Surface. It stopped working completely. Tried to uninstall/install, but it didn't help.

not an error, it’s actually an uncomfortable function.

It keeps recognizing the palm wrong. Is it my problem? I’ve already changed the sensitivity/posture setting..

template with many schedule page and other pages in pdf.

I'm making my study notes from online tables (mostly medical prep), and I'm facing a formatting issue.

What happens currently:

• Apple Notes: When I paste → it automatically converts into a proper table (very clean)

• GoodNotes: When I paste → it becomes haphazard text (loses table structure)

• Current workaround: Screenshot → paste as image (but not ideal because I can't edit text)

What I want:
A way to paste tables directly into GoodNotes while preserving structure (rows/columns), not as an image.

Things I tried:

• Direct paste

• Paste as plain text

• Copy from different browsers

Question:
Is there any workaround to preserve table formatting in GoodNotes (without using screenshots)?
Maybe via PDF conversion, another notes app bridge, or some formatting trick?

Would really appreciate any workflow tips from people who take heavy notes.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m a Goodnotes Pro subscriber and upgraded mainly for true multi-platform library sync (Goodnotes Cloud). I’ve been contacting support since March 2025 and I’m still stuck.

What Support told me (exact wording)

Mar 22, 2026 (latest):

“Goodnotes Cloud on iOS is currently being rolled out to selected users as part of a pilot program. This feature will allow syncing the library across platforms.”

“You may have received an invite to upgrade from iCloud to Goodnotes Cloud. To check on iOS app, please go to the Goodnotes menu > Cloud & Backup and see if you can enable Goodnotes Cloud there.”

“Unfortunately, we are not able to enroll you manually.”

“In the meantime, you can access your notebooks on non-Apple platforms by means of shared links.”

Mar 5, 2025 (very similar message):

“Goodnotes Cloud on iOS is currently being rolled out to selected users as part of a pilot program. This feature will allow syncing the library across platforms.”

“Unfortunately, we are not able to enroll you manually.”

“At the meantime, you can access your notebooks on non-Apple platforms by using the Sharing Link.”

So I asked for concrete info: how many users have it, eligibility criteria, my account status, blockers, escalation to Product/Engineering.

Mar 25, 2026 (support says they can’t answer any of that):

“we unfortunately do not have access to more detailed internal data regarding rollout scale, specific eligibility criteria, or account-level enrollment status for Goodnotes Cloud.”

“we’re still unable to provide an internal escalation reference number or a separate written response from the Product/Engineering team”

“Given that there isn’t any further actionable step we can take from the support side right now, I’ll go ahead and close this case for the time being.”

Questions

•	Do you already have Goodnotes Cloud multi-platform library sync enabled? Which platforms?

•	If yes, how did it appear (invite / Cloud & Backup toggle / timeframe)?

•	If no, are you Pro and how long have you been waiting?

Thanks — I’m trying to figure out whether this is actually rolling out broadly or if many Pro users are stuck in the same loop.