Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF: What Users Actually Complain About
Overview
Users are primarily frustrated with app stability issues, forced subscription changes, and UI redesigns that removed essential features. The app's performance problems and data synchronization issues significantly impact user productivity, while the shift to a subscription model has alienated long-time customers.
Top complaints
1. App Stability and Performance Issues
cluster 1/6Users experience frequent crashes, glitches, and performance problems that disrupt their workflow.
“It glitches every time I use it- moving randomly between the different features and bumps me out of my notebooks.”
“the app crashes like nothing whenever I'm recording while taking notes”
“It now crashes every single day. Multiple times a day. I am having to restart my iPad, which is not even a year old”
2. Subscription Model Changes and Forced Upgrades
cluster 2/6Users are frustrated with the shift to a subscription model and forced upgrades without proper alternatives.
“they decided to make the process of writing notes much more tedious and unnecessarily difficult”
“they updated and changed goodnotes 5 to 6, adding a subscription feature”
“There was no way to get out of pushing the button to Upgrade to Goodnotes 6. Why? Are you going broke trying to keep thi”
3. UI and Toolbar Redesign Problems
cluster 3/6The recent interface changes have removed essential features and made the app less user-friendly.
“the new, overstimulating toolbar removed essential writing options”
“I find the new toolbar design ABHORRENT! It's very frustrating to use because now there's a bunch of floating elements”
4. Syncing and Data Management Issues
cluster 4/6Users encounter problems with note synchronization and file management across devices.
“constantly messed with my notes syncing and progress”
“I cannot paste large amounts of text that would require multiple pages”
“Documents on my iPhone and iPad do not match. I will highlight things in a document on my phone and they will never show”
5. Writing and Editing Tool Limitations
cluster 5/6Users face difficulties with pen performance, text editing, and other writing tools.
“the pen engine routinely leaves small tails on my letters”
“unable to make a quick change to my font while typing”
“The text tool is a nightmare to deal with as well. When I paste text in from another source it always comes out smaller”
6. User Experience and Accessibility Concerns
cluster 6/6The app has become less accessible for certain users and lacks expected features.
“This app isn't friendly for lefties. I cannot rest my hand on anything”
“the bookmark feature is hidden in there (takes me two steps instead of one)”
“I finally reached out to customer service and that experience has been wildly unhelpful. My first correspondence was 1 m”
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This page is rendered from the App Pain API — the same clusters, evidence quotes, and severity scores are available as JSON (or via MCP for AI agents) for any app on iOS, Android, or macOS.
Read the API docs Get a free API key — 20 analyses to startBuilt from public app-store reviews · not affiliated with Apple or Google · clusters are LLM-generated from real user quotes.