Review Insights · App Store
forScore
forScore, LLC · 41,993 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
41,993 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 43 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"music"
12 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
2
"ipad"
10 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "iPhone syncing fails often without notice. I have forscore on Mac iPad and iPhone. I do most of the Inuit on Mac, most playing using iPad, and use iPhone just because it’s handy at times. iPhone consistently stops syncing due to some vague “server date” problem. Restarting require…" - uinazi
3
"forscore"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "iPhone syncing fails often without notice. I have forscore on Mac iPad and iPhone. I do most of the Inuit on Mac, most playing using iPad, and use iPhone just because it’s handy at times. iPhone consistently stops syncing due to some vague “server date” problem. Restarting require…" - uinazi
4
"since"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
5
"update"
8 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
6
"version"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
7
"support"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
8
"been"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I love this app!!!. I’ve been a paid subscriber for years and I LOVE this app. Why 2 stars? The last update has made things so laggy the app is almost unworkable, and I have a major concert in two days. Please help!" - Bernard V
9
"sync"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "iPhone syncing fails often without notice. I have forscore on Mac iPad and iPhone. I do most of the Inuit on Mac, most playing using iPad, and use iPhone just because it’s handy at times. iPhone consistently stops syncing due to some vague “server date” problem. Restarting require…" - uinazi
10
"work"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "New version kills iCloud sync with old version??. TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing. Bought a new iPad last month and inst…" - Anonymous Coward 3
11
"pages"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Good app, started having issues…. Notes on pages randomly become invisible. This is unacceptable. It almost cost me a very special performance. Please fix your app." - Ocardena
12
"years"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Won’t sync with iCloud. I’ve loved having this app for my music library since the very beginning of forScore. It’s so well thought out and so useful that I recommended it all the time. That said my particular use, which may not be yours is that I have a MacBook P…" - ssssteve
📋 All 43 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
iPhone syncing fails often without notice
I have forscore on Mac iPad and iPhone. I do most of the Inuit on Mac, most playing using iPad, and use iPhone just because it’s handy at times.
iPhone consistently stops syncing due to some vague “server date” problem. Restarting requires choosing server or iOS.
Unacceptable. I’m deleting the iPhone app.
iPhone consistently stops syncing due to some vague “server date” problem. Restarting requires choosing server or iOS.
Unacceptable. I’m deleting the iPhone app.
New version kills iCloud sync with old version??
TLDR: DO NOT UPGRADE if you are using iCloud syncing with any older iPads. New version of forScore appears to transparently change sync data without warning, which prevents older versions from syncing.
Bought a new iPad last month and installed forScore on it. Set up iCloud syncing like normal. It’s not my sheet music iPad, but nice to have music on it for the occasional use.
Went to my sheet music iPad today and realized it hasn’t synced since last month. Dragged down in the dialog box to force a sync, and an error message pops up: “forScore Update Required.” Okay, went to App Store. No updates available - forScore requires iOS 17 or later. Sheet music iPad is an old iPad Pro, because hey it’s just sheet music and that doesn’t require much processing power. Was working great, until I have to upgrade iOS, and the iPad is too old to do that. And now I can’t sync my sheet music, so the iPad basically got obsoleted with no warning and no way to roll it back.
To be clear, my complaint is not that forScore got upgraded and now only supports newer iOSes. That’s fine and appropriate. My complaint is that setting up iCloud sync on a newer version apparently changed my sync data and has now rendered my previously functional iPad useless. There was no warning from forScore that they were going to do this. There’s no backwards compatibility. There’s no way to roll back either the forScore version or the old iCloud sync data. There’s no way to get my previously perfectly functional iPad working again. Really feels like a particularly customer-unfriendly approach. Wish I had literally any option other than buying a new iPad. 🤦♂️
Bought a new iPad last month and installed forScore on it. Set up iCloud syncing like normal. It’s not my sheet music iPad, but nice to have music on it for the occasional use.
Went to my sheet music iPad today and realized it hasn’t synced since last month. Dragged down in the dialog box to force a sync, and an error message pops up: “forScore Update Required.” Okay, went to App Store. No updates available - forScore requires iOS 17 or later. Sheet music iPad is an old iPad Pro, because hey it’s just sheet music and that doesn’t require much processing power. Was working great, until I have to upgrade iOS, and the iPad is too old to do that. And now I can’t sync my sheet music, so the iPad basically got obsoleted with no warning and no way to roll it back.
To be clear, my complaint is not that forScore got upgraded and now only supports newer iOSes. That’s fine and appropriate. My complaint is that setting up iCloud sync on a newer version apparently changed my sync data and has now rendered my previously functional iPad useless. There was no warning from forScore that they were going to do this. There’s no backwards compatibility. There’s no way to roll back either the forScore version or the old iCloud sync data. There’s no way to get my previously perfectly functional iPad working again. Really feels like a particularly customer-unfriendly approach. Wish I had literally any option other than buying a new iPad. 🤦♂️
Unresponsive app and No Support for help
This app, although great in theory, does not do anything it says it does in the screen shots. I Cant even find their phone or email for help. Way too difficult for a beginner. I'll request a refund through my CC since i can't get ahold of this company.
Doesn’t work at all
IPad Pro is up to date. Downloaded and -aid for the pro version of the software. I cannot make it work.
Not recommended!
Not recommended!
Higher Fee!!
Great app. Has been a great tool for organizing my worship music. Because you choose to raise your fee by $5, I’m out!
Where’s the nav?
This used to be a great app. For all the updates that are released, whatever gets fixed is not worth it. The latest updates have made basic functionality - like being able to see your song list! - impossible to find. Want to add songs to a set list? Good luck finding them! Please make it usable again - thank you!
So frustrating
forScore is easily one of the most counterintuitive, aggravating, and poorly designed apps I’ve ever been forced to use. The interface is a maze, the features rarely work as advertised, and I constantly have to force‑quit and reopen it-sometimes several times in a single rehearsal-just to get basic functions to respond.
My choir may swear by this app, but even they acknowledge how flawed it is. If this is considered the gold standard of digital music library tools, then the bar is buried underground. For the price I paid, I could have used a basic PDF reader and saved myself the time, money, and endless frustration this piece of garbage has caused.
Support is minimal, documentation is vague, and half the menus don’t behave the way the instructions claim they do. The whole experience feels unreliable, overcomplicated, and absolutely not worth the cost.
My choir may swear by this app, but even they acknowledge how flawed it is. If this is considered the gold standard of digital music library tools, then the bar is buried underground. For the price I paid, I could have used a basic PDF reader and saved myself the time, money, and endless frustration this piece of garbage has caused.
Support is minimal, documentation is vague, and half the menus don’t behave the way the instructions claim they do. The whole experience feels unreliable, overcomplicated, and absolutely not worth the cost.
Newer Versions Bugs
With the new iPad Air 2025 insert-text functions in upper and lower areas are barely manageable.
While in editing mode, as soon as the blue text brackets are inserted The Page skips upwards or downwards obstructing the text brackets, making it impossible to insert text closely to the upper or bottom areas.
Another persistent bug is the Toggle between the edit-text function and rectangle function. Every time an extra tap must be done for the Toggle between the two to happen.
Please Fix!
While in editing mode, as soon as the blue text brackets are inserted The Page skips upwards or downwards obstructing the text brackets, making it impossible to insert text closely to the upper or bottom areas.
Another persistent bug is the Toggle between the edit-text function and rectangle function. Every time an extra tap must be done for the Toggle between the two to happen.
Please Fix!
ForScore
Extremely user unfriendly
Any other app of this type would be much better
Any other app of this type would be much better
terrible new UI changes
The UI changes are awful. Many of the useful elements of the app are now hidden behind cute bubbly UI elements that like to bounce around and slide in and out. This is really unhelpful when you have a conductor staring you down and waiting for you to stop marking your part.
Getting worse
As a pianist this app has been my go to for years ever since I bought my first iPad. However, over the years it seems the developers have rested on their laurels a bit too much. The development has grown stagnant and the app’s performance has gotten abysmal. I’ve had crashes far more often than I’ve ever had, the app seemingly struggles to turn the page for even small scores, and now they want to significantly increase the subscription cost?? If the cost of operating this app has gone up, then okay, but we deserve to see actual improvements for our money. Do better.
Bad update
Dang why do all updates stink??? Hate the update. My music is difficult to find, pages hard to turn, can’t enlarge sections easily, the page is smaller than my screen and there is an extra step to enlarge the whole page. The window that says update or overwrite is no longer get available readily unless there is another extra step to find that.
My whole library disappeared. Very very disappointed
My whole library disappeared. Very very disappointed
Just a toy, not for pros
Slow to load and advance pages, leaves streaks on the screen when annotating, generally a very poorly-designed app. It allows duplicate files under the same name (?!) so if you add a new version of a score, you better be careful to have the right version. Also when airdroppjng, the score opens in Files and not forscore-which could be Apple-but then it opens in an alternate version of forscore, not the main program but a sub program??? Bizarre. I was an early adopter of forscore, and it was not always like this. For years it was swift, but at one point the developers decided features were more important than functionality, and that was its downfall. Oh, and of course the developers blame Apple for their woes, even though no other pen-enabled app has these problems. I still use forscore only because I am heavily invested in it, but for any serious musician, this app should be avoided.
Not reliable.
Constant freezing during annotation on latest iPad hardware / current software. Reboots don't help. PDF size isn't a factor, happens on 20MB files and 1MB files. Work is constantly lost when tabbing out to other apps, clicking "checkmark" to lock in changes (since those don't save automatically) can take 2+ minutes... this app's a mess. Sure, it's fine for basic viewing of PDFs, but so is the free Preview app.
Wasted 24.99 + tax - can’t access the pro features. Very very unhappy.
I purchased a subscription over 4 months ago, have been trying to access the pro features ever since then without success, despite doing everything suggested in the forScore Support faq section many times over that time, and Apple says this app isn’t eligible for a refund. So now I’m out many hours of aggravation in addition to 24.99 + tax.
Buggy on Mac
The Mac version is very buggy. If I use the app and keep it running in the background, it will not open up when I got back and try to use the app again later. I have to force quit the app, then reopen it. I have to to this every time I use the app.
Latest Update is Clocking
Updated 2 weeks ago and ever since the app is clocking for seconds. I don’t have that kind of time when I’m in the middle of a piece.
Crashing
Can’t open the app. It keeps crashing. My iPad Pro OS is up to date and there is no reason that I can find. None of my files are accessible and there is no real time support
Sync
I ve been a member 2-3 years. I love the program however I’ve had a issue syncing 3 devices that I use. It will not sync. REACHING OUT TO SUPPORT WAS USELESS. VERY LITTLE INPUT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM Totally discouraged
The horror
File handling is ruining the experience. Imported song are not listed by file names, but by synthetic names the app makes from meta data in the pdfs. Total mission
kill right off the bat, as everything is Untitled
kill right off the bat, as everything is Untitled
Crashes all the time!
Since macOS 26, this is a real crasher! As in: crashes all the time.
Terrible subscription app
Can’t do anything without the pro version, even though you buy it for $24 you still have to pay a monthly fee lol stay away from this.
Absolute greediness
how could you charge premium features on an app that is already overpriced?
Bad sync issues
The app will occasionally not sync, can erase most recent versions, and is prone to errors. I wouldn’t use this app on multiple devices if you can avoid it - it is just not reliable.
Syncing 2 devices is a mess
I love your product except I had a TERRIBLE time on my MacBook and then syncing with my iPad didn’t work and kept getting error messages. I would much rather be able to synchronize with any cloud service I would definitely encourage that because it is really frustrating!
New user
Frustrated - haven’t found digital books of standards in lead sheet form
Sync is impossible
This should be easy. I’m many hours into this, and have gotten nowhere.
No Face gesture
Purchased for face gesture page turning and you have to spend even more money for that feature. Should have just gone with music notes.
Good app, started having issues…
Notes on pages randomly become invisible. This is unacceptable. It almost cost me a very special performance. Please fix your app.
Need a PhD to operate it
Maybe it’s my frustration early on
But don’t expect to get this and start right away.
But don’t expect to get this and start right away.
Won’t sync with iCloud
I’ve loved having this app for my music library since the very beginning of forScore. It’s so well thought out and so useful that I recommended it all the time.
That said my particular use, which may not be yours is that I have a MacBook Pro, a 13 inch iPad and an iPad mini that I use for different purposes at different times. All my efforts to sync with iCloud as advertised has failed over a period of years. I’ve reached out to support and they sent me a very long explanation, which I appreciated but didn’t really fix my problem. They described how difficult it is to sync things using iCloud and it wasn’t forScore that was bad but that iCloud was bad. So for me adding scores to this app on one device means that I will not have it on my other device when I reach for it.
Bottom line: if you only use this app on one device, you are all set. It’s great and it will work for you and you’ll have all your music in one place. However, if you have forScore on more than one device, this app falls frustratingly short.
I hope they work this thing out at some point, and I will look forward to revising my rating for the five stars that it will deserve.
Thx, -steve
That said my particular use, which may not be yours is that I have a MacBook Pro, a 13 inch iPad and an iPad mini that I use for different purposes at different times. All my efforts to sync with iCloud as advertised has failed over a period of years. I’ve reached out to support and they sent me a very long explanation, which I appreciated but didn’t really fix my problem. They described how difficult it is to sync things using iCloud and it wasn’t forScore that was bad but that iCloud was bad. So for me adding scores to this app on one device means that I will not have it on my other device when I reach for it.
Bottom line: if you only use this app on one device, you are all set. It’s great and it will work for you and you’ll have all your music in one place. However, if you have forScore on more than one device, this app falls frustratingly short.
I hope they work this thing out at some point, and I will look forward to revising my rating for the five stars that it will deserve.
Thx, -steve
I love this app!!!
I’ve been a paid subscriber for years and I LOVE this app. Why 2 stars? The last update has made things so laggy the app is almost unworkable, and I have a major concert in two days. Please help!
I lost all my music pieces 😔
I don’t know how to get it back
Lag time with update
With last update there is a huge lag time when searching different libraries, playlists etc. and there is a noticeable amount of time delay. Zero customer support with this app.
New update causes scanned score to be blacked out
Scanned 150 pages of a 162 page score, when the pages slowly started disappearing, and being replaced with black png files. I tried saving the score hoping I could add more pages after, but it instead removed EVERY PAGE i had scanned and turned them all into black pngs. 2 hours of scanning completely lost to the void. Until an update is released I will stick with my unruly music folder- the app isn’t currently conducive for a fast paced music environment, and isn’t as reliable as I’d hoped.
Review
The constant changing of foreshore is driving me mad! I have thousands of pages of music that I cannot arrange in “set list”, it keeps alphabetizing the list. Not good as that is not the order in which I play them during a secession.. There is no clue as to how take this feature and turn it off! There is no need to alphabetize these list!
Glitchy and Slow
The amount of lagging and glitching going on in unbearable. As far as organizing music this app is great. But note taking is awful. It frequently lags leaving streaked marks across the score, glitches into a low resolution and then notes are distorted. On occasion it completely freezes. Especially compared to great note taking apps like Goodnotes, this feels archaic. The iCloud sync feature is also really slow and often fails to sync.
Bring back the old version of this app!
The app overall is good but the latest version has made it worse and much more annoying to access anything in the menu. The old version before this update worked so much better and it was easier to access my music. Also, pages have started turning slower overall which makes it hard to use music in rehearsals.
MP3 upload is not working in iPad latest version in 2026
Please help fix mp3 upload issue
Worse and worse
Every time they update this app it gets less reliable.
Bewildering interface
I get the feeling they hired an artist instead of a user interface person. The goal seems to get a “clean look” with cute meaningless icons that you can only find by (for real) touching the screen in the middle - not on the side, not on the top, not on the bottom - just the middle. You have to look up how to do everything. There is no label option on the menu items. You find out what is is when you click it. There is no need for an app that requires training in 2027. Just give me a menu of options with words I can understand. I will figure it out. Now excuse me while I go watch a youtube video to figure out how to import my songs from iCloud. A dog in clothes should be able to figure out how to import files without looking it up.
Too “powerful” for its own good
Some people just don’t need their sheet music all that “turbocharged.” I have found that learning to use the myriad features of this app is just endlessly time-consuming and annoying. Especially the laggy, frustrating apple pencil pro implementation (on a fast M3 chip!) and the infinitely convoluted annotation layers panel. I can’t tell you how many practice sessions have been wasted and ruined reading through the dense user manual hunting for answers on how to navigate the over-complicated interface. It can really put me in a bad mood. I had actually been very happy using the (free!) IMSLP app before purchasing this, and now I regret spending so much time/energy adding music to Forscore. Having invested that time, I now feel like I’m a captive user. But on a positive note, Forscore is a powerful tool for those (very few, I’m sure) power users who annotate heavily and insist on an infinite number of features. And I do applaud the developers’ hard work to debug it and make it as useful as possible. It does become more intuitive once you get past its rather daunting learning curve, but it has robbed me of a lot of time that I’d much rather have spent practicing!
App only gets worse
The quality of this app has steadily declined over the last few years. Crashes are frequent (which could be catastrophic in a gigging situation). The text annotation is glitched out so that it’s often impossible to see where the text will fall. Rearranging songs in set lists has also gotten worse. The “Q” “follow program changes” function virtually never works.
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)