Review Insights · App Store
Notability: AI Notes & PDF app
Ginger Labs · 447,175 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
447,175 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 63 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
"notes"
31 negative reviews mention this · 49% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
2
"notability"
18 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
3
"note"
16 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
4
"subscription"
14 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Garbage. Deleted all of my notes the day before my open note final completely screwing me. This stuff keeps happening and yet they don’t fix it and just raise subscription prices. Absolutely garbage" - Eli2357
5
"been"
13 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Many Issues. I had enjoyed several features of this app, including the AI components, and even paid for notability Pro (which is $100 a year). However, several of my classmates use Goodnotes and it was much better at adjusting handwriting, convenient er…" - LilRaider29
6
"years"
12 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Decline in Quality. I have used this app daily for university coursework and professional work for over 2 years. Anymore it takes me 10 to 15 minutes to get the app to open and display my notes. I clear cache and restart the app to only have the problem resurf…" - Dough002
7
"since"
12 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App Updates Suck. I’ve used this app for years now with its original use intended for school work. Then, updates happened and before I knew it they had a plethora of things you could use the app for that wasn’t just for note taking like, drawing and coloring…" - Jazzmin Watson
8
"work"
10 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
9
"ipad"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
10
"anymore"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cloud is slow. I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro." - Fujgrschy
11
"every"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unusable. Every time you close and reopen the app all the saved files need to reload before you can use the notes or create new notes. So you end up just waiting for several minutes while everything buffers. Used to love it but now it’s unusable. I’v…" - Kooph429429
12
"taking"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App Updates Suck. I’ve used this app for years now with its original use intended for school work. Then, updates happened and before I knew it they had a plethora of things you could use the app for that wasn’t just for note taking like, drawing and coloring…" - Jazzmin Watson
📋 All 63 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").
Cloud is slow
I used to love notability but it is so slow now and no longer lets you store notes locally. Forced cloud usage is the worst! It’s so slow it basically doesn’t work anymore, and I’m using it on an iPad Pro.
Decline in Quality
I have used this app daily for university coursework and professional work for over 2 years. Anymore it takes me 10 to 15 minutes to get the app to open and display my notes. I clear cache and restart the app to only have the problem resurface after closing and reopening throughout the day. This is terrible UX. The core product was amazing and all I wanted. But now I cannot even reliably take or open my notes.
Likely uninstalling out of frustration and hatred of the not-so-“AI” added bloat. The core product use case for me is completely gone.
Likely uninstalling out of frustration and hatred of the not-so-“AI” added bloat. The core product use case for me is completely gone.
Garbage
Deleted all of my notes the day before my open note final completely screwing me. This stuff keeps happening and yet they don’t fix it and just raise subscription prices. Absolutely garbage
Unusable
Every time you close and reopen the app all the saved files need to reload before you can use the notes or create new notes. So you end up just waiting for several minutes while everything buffers. Used to love it but now it’s unusable. I’ve paid $100 for this thing per year the last 5 years. I won’t be renewing.
Many Issues
I had enjoyed several features of this app, including the AI components, and even paid for notability Pro (which is $100 a year). However, several of my classmates use Goodnotes and it was much better at adjusting handwriting, convenient erasing, and better organization. The past 2 months, so right up before and now including when I’m preparing for finals in a professional program there have been several issues in the app that haven’t been resolved. The typed notes get randomly misplaced, overlapping them with pictures or handwritten notes on the same doc, the copy/paste functions haven’t been working, and now I’m unable to take screenshots of any of my notes, plus other frustrating things I’m sure I’m forgetting. I am very frustrated and apps for student’s notes are very high-stakes- so the management of these issues (or lack thereof) is extremely disappointing. Never renewing my subscription or recommending this app to anyone. Please fix these problems so students and professionals that rely on this app can continue to perform to the best of their ability.
Most disappointing app ever
i really used to love this app even purchased the lifetime subscription but then they decided to go back on their word and changed it to monthly\yearly subscriptions which i hate and i dont even how they could just take away my life time purchase they shouldnt be allowed to just do that, plus the app sucks now even with the subscription noting works properly its very glitchy and unresponsive and everything requires paying. such a sad end to what used to be an amazing tool due to greediness, will defenitely be switching to other apps
good intent trash execution
do not use for time critical note retrieval. WIll lock up and they add distracting features that you have to research to turn off!
Not for time critical note access!!
After being forced to update because the search function locked up in iOS, I have a duck waddling across the screen while trying to access time critical information.
Too distracting to access information that needs to be accessed accurately in a hurry.
Too distracting to access information that needs to be accessed accurately in a hurry.
CANT ADD IMAGES TO NOTES :(
Before, I was able to insert images and position them close to the related text. Now, whenever I try to place an image near the text, the text shifts far away or the layout becomes distorted. NEED TO FIX IT ASAP!!!
I would give it 0 stars if I could
I’ve been using notability for years and I’ve always loved it until this year. Recently my notes have been disappearing once a day and don’t show back up for several hours. It also crashes frequently and stalls. I even paid for the premium subscription and it’s still awful. Not sure what’s going on but very disappointed. Additionally the AI questions won’t even recognize my notes anymore.
差
经常出现文件丢失
优化做不好
更新时把我的文档吞掉，找不到
Continuous note retrieval issues
Crashed and wouldn’t download majority of my notes
Unreliable and untrustworthy
Notability has been nothing short of a nightmare. This app constantly deletes my notes and shows “no notes available,” no matter what I try to fix it. For months, it will continuously DELETE my notes and they are no where to be found. They will randomly pop up for a few days and completely disappear again. As someone who uses this app daily for academics, it has become unreliable and I have not been able to access my notes when needed. Please save yourself the frustration and look elsewhere-this app cannot be trusted with something as important as your notes.
Also it glitches SO MUCH and sometimes it doesn’t saver your work
Also it glitches SO MUCH and sometimes it doesn’t saver your work
Fees/cost
Years ago I bought this app when there was a free version and then a paid version. Thought I paid for this app, it continues to need payment in order to continue using it. I feel scammed because I’m now paying for it over and over if I want to continue using it. And unpopular opinion: as a teacher this should be free for educators. We’re your biggest sales and marketing strategy and you’re wasting it.
Paywall features for grandfathered users
I have had notability since 2020 and it has gotten significantly worse since I first purchased. The original purchase allowed me to backup and sync to iCloud no problem. It is now a paywalled feature. What was the point in buying it back then if I was going to lose key functionality. Sucks to see the creators degrade their product.
The more you try to improve it, the worse you make it
I used to LOVE this app. Now I’m over it. I used to be able to lock a subject, which I needed for work. It used to sync between devices but not since the latest update. I’m over it!
Very slow on iPad
I’ve noticed a significant delay in generating my recordings. It used to be much faster, but now it takes a very long time to load. This has been quite disappointing.
Unable to download/access med school notes for 4.5 **YEARS**
Update 2026.
I’ve used this app since 2016. I’ve been trying to download my notes for 4.5 years. Yes, years. I have not been able access them on my device nor from the cloud for 4.5 years. The wheel just keeps spinning on every single note. Yes, I always have the most updated version. Yes, I have enough storage. Yes, u have good WiFi connection. Yes, I will prevent my iPad from locking for literal weeks at a time trying to download my notes. The moment something downloads, it just undownloads itself within minutes. And now they charge $20 to have a subscription. LOL. It’s a scam.
This app is not meant to handle a professional degree volume of data. I spent $400k on an education I will never be able to access again. You WILL lose access to your entire education. Developers do not GAF. Many doctors have this same problem and are considering banding together to sue the developers if this is not fixed. ;)
Update
This app forces syncing of the ENTIRE LIBRARY which takes HOURS. Even the screen locking for one minute is enough to shut down the entire app for 1.5 days to inappropriately sync every single note in the library for no reason. All my work is inaccessible and the app has been unusable for 3 years.
This is never fixed because the app is trash and so are the developers who intentionally ignore this problem. Check Reddit.
I’ve used this app since 2016. I’ve been trying to download my notes for 4.5 years. Yes, years. I have not been able access them on my device nor from the cloud for 4.5 years. The wheel just keeps spinning on every single note. Yes, I always have the most updated version. Yes, I have enough storage. Yes, u have good WiFi connection. Yes, I will prevent my iPad from locking for literal weeks at a time trying to download my notes. The moment something downloads, it just undownloads itself within minutes. And now they charge $20 to have a subscription. LOL. It’s a scam.
This app is not meant to handle a professional degree volume of data. I spent $400k on an education I will never be able to access again. You WILL lose access to your entire education. Developers do not GAF. Many doctors have this same problem and are considering banding together to sue the developers if this is not fixed. ;)
Update
This app forces syncing of the ENTIRE LIBRARY which takes HOURS. Even the screen locking for one minute is enough to shut down the entire app for 1.5 days to inappropriately sync every single note in the library for no reason. All my work is inaccessible and the app has been unusable for 3 years.
This is never fixed because the app is trash and so are the developers who intentionally ignore this problem. Check Reddit.
Unreliable
I've had so many issues with notability. So many times my notes have randomly disappeared or had issues with syncing to when my notes here inaccessible. I've lost so much information and time, and to top it all off, these are all issues that have existed for years. Their customer service is never helpful. Use goodnotes instead.
Why just one star ?
Because of limited note
Annoying ad infestation
The incessant ads are too much. Nearly every time the app is opened, they try to push their cloud service (I prefer iCloud). These creeps need to sod off.
Notes disappeared
Notability seems to have an issue with notes loading and even when my iPad has storage, iCloud is synced and backed up, and everything is checked, my documents are still not coming back. This is a waste of time for students and people who rely on notability for their jobs. It used to be a good app but now I hate it with a passion.
Freezes all the time
Writing notes for my engineering courses. I ONLY use this iPad for note taking. Everyday, without fail, my app either; crashes, lags, or won’t register my Apple Pencil. I’m paying the subscription too. Completely unacceptable.
Hero to Zero
Been using since 2019. This app has gone downhill fast in the past couple of years. Constant note syncing problems, AI features no one wants, all for a subscription. This app is now trash.
Very bad performance recently.
After the last couple of updates, the app became extremely heavy, lagging a lot and crashing too much!!
user for 9 years, steer clear
update:
App randomly decided to crash for no reason and offload all of my notes in the middle of me studying for a midterm. It’s been 12 hours and they still aren’t accessible. How in the world an app I PAID for to take notes just decides to quit doing that, I have no clue, but I’m fed up with the amount of bugs and crashes I’ve had to deal with since the switch to a subscription model and the focus on AI features. Every update breaks the app more, and I’m sick of being in class, taking notes, and just praying that it won’t crash. I shouldn’t have to do that with an app that I spent money on, and it’s completely ridiculous that the team knows about all of these issues and refuses to do anything about them.
original review:
I’ve been using Notability for about 7 years. For most of that time, it was really great for taking notes in class and keeping things organized. The move to a subscription model scared me, but since I was grandfathered in, I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. I was wrong. The app constantly crashes now, and it seems like pretty much every recent update breaks the app more. Even something as simple as switching to another note causes the app to glitch out, which is inconvenient as a college student who often switches between notes to study or get work done. It’s extremely frustrating as someone who paid money for this app and has been satisfied for a long time. This is ignoring the fact that the team is slowly moving more and more features to be subscription only, despite the fact that I paid for the app. I’ll be looking into alternatives.
If you’re a new user looking for a note taking app, skip this one. With all of the bugs and crashes, it’s not even worth the $10 I paid anymore, and definitely isn’t worth the hundreds of dollars for a subscription.
App randomly decided to crash for no reason and offload all of my notes in the middle of me studying for a midterm. It’s been 12 hours and they still aren’t accessible. How in the world an app I PAID for to take notes just decides to quit doing that, I have no clue, but I’m fed up with the amount of bugs and crashes I’ve had to deal with since the switch to a subscription model and the focus on AI features. Every update breaks the app more, and I’m sick of being in class, taking notes, and just praying that it won’t crash. I shouldn’t have to do that with an app that I spent money on, and it’s completely ridiculous that the team knows about all of these issues and refuses to do anything about them.
original review:
I’ve been using Notability for about 7 years. For most of that time, it was really great for taking notes in class and keeping things organized. The move to a subscription model scared me, but since I was grandfathered in, I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. I was wrong. The app constantly crashes now, and it seems like pretty much every recent update breaks the app more. Even something as simple as switching to another note causes the app to glitch out, which is inconvenient as a college student who often switches between notes to study or get work done. It’s extremely frustrating as someone who paid money for this app and has been satisfied for a long time. This is ignoring the fact that the team is slowly moving more and more features to be subscription only, despite the fact that I paid for the app. I’ll be looking into alternatives.
If you’re a new user looking for a note taking app, skip this one. With all of the bugs and crashes, it’s not even worth the $10 I paid anymore, and definitely isn’t worth the hundreds of dollars for a subscription.
Went downhill
NOT reliable at all. Recommend another app. Regardless of sync settings, notes CONSTANTLY fail to load. An endless sea of loading circles is not reliable when you need to quickly access information. I have held off writing this review but the app just closed while I was reviewing a note and upon re opening, the note is still trying to load and won’t let me open it even though it was just open.
Notes just disappeared
A lot of my notes just disappeared and the ones that still appear are unable to load.
Notes wont load
I have been using Notability since 2018 and suddenly none of my notes will load. My iPad is updated and so is the app. I have loved Notability but i cannot wait over 20 minutes for my notes to load every time I need to access them. If this problem does not resolve i am switching to good notes.
Update
I’ve been using this app since I started nursing school. I loved it at first but now it glitches all the time. It will download my things and the next day they’re completely blank pages. It needs to be fixed. I’m thinking about moving to a different app but don’t want to have to move all of my notes and I already paid for a year subscription again.
Worst customer service
iPad is not syncing data with web an android app. More than a week complained did all troubleshooting no change. Please return the subscription. Thanks.
Rising Prices, Lower Quality
I cannot believe that I pay for such a buggy and unreliable app. So so irritating
Doesnt work anymore for anyone
I see so many other reviews of the same issue ive been having for months. This app USED to be my absolute favorite. I held my life on it. I’m devastated that my notes are disappearing and unable to open them. Cancelled my subscription and Switching to another app now. I would not recommend this app at all. Just read the reviews
When I logged in, everything loads too long
I was working in notability fine till I noticed today that somewhere on the road I was logged off, so I logged back in and now my big files doesn’t show up right away. It seems like they are being constantly redownloaded from a cloud, I’m unable to work on my file. It is a nightmare. When I log off now all my files disappear….
Never ever rely on it
Forced me to “upgrade” to notability cloud then all of me 300+ notes from the last 10+ years disappeared, even removed them from my iCloud backup. I had to restore my entire iPad from a device backup to get them back. This is no longer worth the money at all and if you rely on your notes DO NOT trust this app.
Great until they started pushing AI
Notability was a perfect app for annotating PDFs. I loved using it for keeping track of knitting patterns. It was my favorite app, and I didn’t mind paying for it. I thought the price was fair and the updates useful and timely. And then they started pushing AI. I don’t want AI. I never want AI. I want to be able to turn off all AI. But instead I’m getting inundated with unwanted, unasked for AI. I want to make my own annotations and notes. I don’t want AI to summarize anything. I want the app I liked back. I don’t want AI.
App no longer usable
I’ve used this app since 2012 on and off. I am no longer able to use it. The app opens and freezes to an empty note, and remains unresponsive. Hard shut downs and turning my device on and off doesn’t resolve. Disappointing.
I don’t want a subscription
I don’t want a subscription to my note taking app. Just let me purchase the dang thing.
Quality down the drain
Was daily workhorse for around 5 years, was great in the beginning but slowly becoming more and more annoying to use, freezes starting to be more common, go to goodnotes instead, all my colleagues use it and I’m about to switch
Stop updating
You guys are making it harder to use
They keep making the app worse
I have been using notability since high school, and now in grad school I can tell you it has NOT improved in that 10 year gap. The latest update does not even let you create files for organization anymore. I have HUNDREDS of notes from my health grad program, and how am I supposed to keep these notes in order without the ability to virtually file them? On top, this app has gotten expensive when it was originally a few dollars for its full capabilities. I know things change over time, but to keep updating just to let the quality of the product become mediocre? Don’t both wasting time or money downloading it.
Worst
It was my FAVORITE taking notes app but the new updates suck and the notes constantly downloading and it deletes notes by itself and there are missing notes
Won't even let me get past the login.
I need to login, but literally nothing responds to my touch screen. Don't even bother
Recent updates caused issues
Not working, keeps freezing, with recent updates. Notes are not saving anymore either. Would NOT recommend it at this point. Used to be a great app.
Missing essential feature
Bring back the goose I’m not kidding
TERRIBLE AND UNRELIABLE
Notes keep disappearing, there’s so many bugs and glitches, app keeps crashing. WORST NOTE TAKING APP EVER
Nagging
I don’t enjoy using Notability anymore because I’m constantly nagged to subscribe, ignoring the fact that I have a lifetime license.
If I’ve declined the first offer why constantly bug me? So yeah, very poor treatment from the developer and support is trash.
If I’ve declined the first offer why constantly bug me? So yeah, very poor treatment from the developer and support is trash.
Notes Don’t Load
Absolute failure by the team running this app. The iCloud issues with loading notes is getting worse. Not only do notes still take forever to load, but they’ve started deciding they cease to exist, denying I’ve even accessed my notes in the past 3 months (I’m a student and it’s April). Add AI and charge us per month just for the app to be unusable. 0 steps forward, 5 steps back.
It does not support the Arabic language.
It does not support the Arabic language.
+ 13 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)