Leave a Review Notability
If you value your sanity and data, try the other popular note taker
I work out of Notability about 40 hours per week. It freezes - a LOT. If you view in the iPhone app a note that you took in iPad, about 10% of the time it will completely wreck the formatting in the note, and the only way to recover is to restore from a previous version (if you’re using the version history feature). And a note about the version history feature - Notability deleted an entire semester worth of lecture recordings from my note, and completely erased all previous backups (a feature that up until that point was working just fine). The test is all there, just no lecture synced with it. And this happened 3 days before my final exam. I trusted Notability with my grade and it didn’t just let me down, it lit my car on fire and pushed it off a cliff.
This was the last straw. I’ve dealt with the many, many bugs (like crashing mid-lecture and then not allowing me to open my note again because it’s “syncing”) for well over a year at this point but I’ve had enough. No matter how many updates they release, there are major flaws that keep popping up. The app looks very polished and feature-rich so it gives the impression of quality, but I promise you that if you rely on the app more than just capturing the occasional 45 minute business meeting, you will regret it. There are other high quality note taking apps that include voice/text sync and are much more stable.Show lesswHyTeCoUnTrY
Developer Response
Hello, When able, can you please update to the newest versions of both the app and your device as this may help resolve the issue. If you are still encountering issues, can you please submit a support ticket by going through the steps described here: https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/4414054941594-Contact-Support. We can take a look at your support/device diagnostics and dive deeper. Thanks!PUT ZOOM VIEW BACK ON THE PAGE PLEASE GOD
I’ve had this app for 6 years. I had to switch accounts a little over a year ago and now I have pay an additional 15 a year? Would be more accepting of the price increase if the app wasn’t getting objectively worse in the meantime. Thinking about switching to GoodNotes and if that doesn’t work I guess I’m going back to paper. This is borderline unusable. Most updates this app has undergone since I started using it have made it worse in one way or another but this last one is just kind of ridiculous. The new layout is awful, the interface is unrecognizable, the floating tool bar is a pain, all the useful features have been moved around or hidden to make way for a selection of significantly less relevant new ones. It all feels like change for the sake of change without real consideration for utility, and the app has been glitching constantly since. Genuinely pretty sad about it and really hoping at least a couple of the changes are reversed. Please don’t waste your money on it. And if anyone at corporate ever reads this- please, please, please take zoom view back out of settings. Or at least make adding it to the toolbar an option. It is such an unbelievable pain to have to go through multiple steps to get to it every time I want to write. Especially because you have to exit zoom to copy/paste, move things around, etc. It makes such a big difference to just have it out there on the screen.Show lessstopitplsidontubderstand
New Format Is Worse
I’ve used Notability since 2016, and while some of the smaller updates since then have been wonderful (like being able to add new colors, slight format changes, etc.), this totally new format is less easy to use. It’s not just about having to relearn a few things - that was expected - but the functionality is less intuitive and makes it more work to do simple things.
Before, I used to be able to easily press the little button on the bottom right corner for the zoom-in feature, now I have to go to the top right within a note to see settings, THEN press the zoom feature, every time? I know there’s another setting to be able to press and hold for it to come up, but it doesn’t work super well, and again -> less intuitive to figure out, especially for new users. Also, when zoomed in, it takes more work to change colors, utensils, undo, redo, etc. when the bar for those features is not automatically brought closer to the zoom-in section the way it used to be. I don’t understand why these updates were made when it makes every little thing take so much longer to write, draw, and edit by hand. The only thing that doesn’t take longer is typing, but there’s plenty of apps that can do that — the reason I chose to use Notability in the first place was to be able to hand write/draw over things quickly, which was working great…until this new format.Show lessicedcoffee33
New Notability is Not Good
Ever since they introduced the “New Notability!” the app has been lagging for me. It’s especially noticeable when I’m trying to write things with my Apple Pencil. It’s really annoying when I’m in a lecture and trying to take notes but I have to concentrate more on making sure I’m actually getting things on the page than on the content of the lecture. I also really really dislike the new toolbar. It is much more time consuming than it used to be to change utensils or even to change the thickness of the utensil to create headings, which is important for me when I’m taking notes. It is also very frustrating that the Undo button can no longer be moved. It is now on the other side of the screen from where I had it, and my muscle memory keeps going to the other side of the page, which again takes time away from what I actually want to be doing. I really like Notability, and I specifically chose it over competitor apps like GoodNotes when I first got my iPad because I felt like I could do more with Notability, but if the lagging continues to be an issue I may have to look elsewhere. I am a student with a learning disability, and time is really of the essence for me. It is not an exaggeration for me to say that every second counts for me, and this updated format has taken way more seconds (and minutes) from me than it should have.Show lessNot a Human, a Zoe
Would like controls that allow toggle of offloading documents
Update 11 aug 23 — a lot of the previously mentioned stuff has been fixed!!
I don’t like the new ui as far as aesthetics and the search bar location and also am now having trouble sorting my notes into their subjects. I want to be able to select multiple notes and move them into subjects as needed
Would still also appreciate a tagging system as well, or the ability to put one note in two notebooks ie put a note in my ‘to do’ notebook as well as my ‘long term projects’ notebook Would also love love love the ability to store video in the notes—even as a link that’s still backed up to a video stored on my notability g-drive? Something like that Update29 apr — keeps crashing Would like controls that allow toggle of offloading documents As well as a control that lets you choose the number of recent documents to keep on phone vs offload to cloud. I’d also like to prioritize a document the way you can with app download prioritization on iPhone, like by tap and holding a doc and selecting download first, or prioritize download, something like that, instead of downloading all documents and having to wait for the doc you need to be loaded. I’ve got 100 doc that I need constant access to, the rest can go up to the cloud, but it keeps offloading all of them, and it takes forever to get them back. Any of these features would make the app more usable.Show less11232453
Developer Response
Thanks for reaching out and sorry for the trouble. Are the crashes continuing to happen on 12.1.5? We are concerned about this issue and we'd like to investigate this further for you. Can you submit a support ticket by tapping on the "?" icon in the left hand side of your library? Then, tap "Contact Support." We will keep a look out for your message. Thank you!UPDATE - NOT the best notes app any more
UPDATE: I went through a difficult few months recently, and during that time, did not use Notability. When I came back today, Notability's look had changed drastically. It now seems cold and drab and blah. I just discovered that, among other things, the lovely "themes" (spring, summer, fall, winter) that I BOUGHT had been scaled back so the art work THAT I PAID FOR was gone, and they were each just a dull, graded color. SO I'M MAKING THE SWITCH TO GOODNOTES 6. There have long been abilities in GoodNotes that I needed (esp. related to layering of small PNGs on large PNGs) but I stuck with Notability because of the beauty. Now the beauty is gone. So I'm switching to GoodNotes 6 which I already have as well..........PREVIOUS REVIEW: In Notability, I love the ambience (I use several "themes") 🎨 and it's a pleasure to work in such a wonderful, colorful atmosphere. I love this app and have used it every day for a few years 🥰 I use it for a lot of things, including trying to learn Spanish and French 😅 For me, new languages aren't exactly a snap, but Notability makes it so much easier, and more fun. I also love looking up at the stars, and then taking a few quick notes about what I saw. I can add screenshots from SkySafari that show exactly what was visible at the time I was gazing. Even though I've got lots of dividers, and tons of subjects, with gobs of notes, I can find everything. Organization is a breeze in Notability.Show lessBlue Pine
Developer Response
Hi, thanks for using Notability and for your feedback. We will keep your comments in mind and appreciate knowing of your interest in custom colors for paper.Taking two stars off for the new update
Historically, my experience with this app has been excellent, 5 out of 5. I have over 600 individual notes, all of which are multiple pages. This app is also my app of choice for reading and annotating scientific papers. This is all to say, this app has been one of the best things about owning an iPad for me.
However, they pushed a recent update (their “new notability” update) that, in my experience, has significantly degraded the quality of the experience. Favorited pen colors and sizes were removed, and they added a pencil for some reason. To be clear, I appreciate some of the new features (additional multi gesture support, the ruler, etc), but they have integrated these new features and existing features into an experience that feels clunky at best to navigate and somehow manages to run slower on an M1 iPad Pro to the point where it lags when accessing the quick note switcher (something I use heavily). One of the best parts of this app was how snappy it was to use, and how out of the way of what you need to get done the interface was. That is the big downgrade of this update; the interface now gets in my way of using this app to get what I need to do done.
Notability team- I know you have people reading the reviews of your app. Take my feedback and make it right- you can have your cake and eat it too if you put some polishing work into it.Show lessHoopla_PRO
I LOVE version 14! Keep up the great work Ginger Labs!
Every change that was made for versions 14 clearly has a distinct and effective purpose and execution. I just have 1 suggestion. When I read about version 14 having individual presets I thought it meant that you could have individual “profiles” of tools that you could switch between, but it means that each tool has its own set of size/color combinations that you can save, which is definitely a welcome change. However, I’d love to see this taken one step further where you can save different “profiles.” For example, sometimes I take what I like to call “chalkboard” notes which is just a black background and using white and neon colors, but when I’m not using a black background I rarely if ever use a white or bright color, so it would be amazing if I could save different sets of colors and other tool settings as their own preset and switch between them on the fly, or better yet, allow me to set a profile of colors for a given notebook, so I can have black on white assigned to a given notebook and have white on black for another notebook. Just an idea, I’m incredibly impressed and satisfied with version 14 and I’m very excited to see what Ginger Labs comes up with next! Keep it up guys!Show lesssteV3nom
Great for note taking and organization, but…
I really do love this app. It’s very easy to use, the gallery has endless formatting options, it’s easy to keep your stuff organized, and the pen/ pencil/ highlighter color options are great. I currently use this app for PA school and love it. I do have a few critiques, but none that would make me not want to use it anymore:
1. I wish there were more options for embedded folders. For example, you can create a divider that contains multiple subjects, but there is no way to further organize the dividers. I would love to be able to have a folder that says “Fall semester” with different dividers for each class, with each divider containing multiple subject folders.
2. In the latest update, they changed the page count on the bottom right corner to disappear when youre in 50/50 split-screen view, and I have to say this is what drove me to write a review. When I’m studying I like to constantly know how many PowerPoint slides/ pages I have left, and I am often in the split screen view to read on one side and write notes on the other. Please please please change it back so that you can have page count in the split screen view in the 50/50 view. There is plenty of room on the page to have that !Show lessPAsmk46
My Most Used App Ever
I have used this app for over 3 years at the time I wrote this review. I used it everyday and have nearly 1000 separate articles and notes within it. I am at the end of my doctorate and have found that I nearly live out of my iPad and mostly this app. I average between 4-6 hours a day in the app. I have helped many people to come to use this app in their daily lives. I prepare my lectures, classwork, attendance, and nearly anything else I would otherwise put on paper all through Notability. If you have an iPad and an Apple Pencil, then Notability is a great contributor to success. I want to help the makers of Notability for the development and a continued improvement of this wonderful app that I bought the yearly subscription and I don’t even use the stuff in it. That is not because the stuff in there is not good, rather it is well made, I am just stuck in my ways of how I use the app. Lastly, I would like to thank the developers of Notability, as I am so grateful for their hard work and intuitive improvements. Keep up the great work and I will continue to use this app al long as iOS supports it.
***April 2023 update*** This app is still the best app I’ve ever used. I’ve got so many people to use it, and I use it every day. It is the most useful iPad app ever! I plan on continuing to use it, and definitely, and I am amazed by how many awesome updates and things that keep adding to it, great job Notability! Keeping innovating!!!Show lessDeovalor
