Review Insights · App Store
PDF Reader Pro Edition®
iTECH DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS INC. · 1,725 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
1,725 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 83 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
"work"
17 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fake or not work with ipad.. finally do nothing, looks like a fake." - ComProGms
2
"money"
17 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Useless App. Complete waste of money. Nothing works." - DJag77
3
"ipad"
16 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fake or not work with ipad.. finally do nothing, looks like a fake." - ComProGms
4
"files"
16 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The app not working on ipad 10th. Can’t opened the pdf files, it’s a scam." - TracyDang9
5
"waste"
15 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Useless App. Complete waste of money. Nothing works." - DJag77
6
"file"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No file could be opened. Bad app experience" - Mizi8708
7
"doesn"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t work anymore. Can’t open PDFs that I’ve downloaded to my iPad. RIP. This app used to be cool" - LMNOP32123
8
"does"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t work anymore. Can’t open PDFs that I’ve downloaded to my iPad. RIP. This app used to be cool" - LMNOP32123
9
"pdfs"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t work anymore. Can’t open PDFs that I’ve downloaded to my iPad. RIP. This app used to be cool" - LMNOP32123
10
"waste money"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Waste money. Waste money" - Dongmnaa
11
"nothing"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fake or not work with ipad.. finally do nothing, looks like a fake." - ComProGms
12
"trying"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "iPad Pro 11 4th gen iOS 17.0.3 App crashes. App crashes whenever trying to open a PDF." - Islandremix
📋 All 83 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").
fake or not work with ipad.
finally do nothing, looks like a fake.
Buggy, Non-Intuitive UX
The lack of typical Apple ecosystem UX conventions (swipe to delete, press and hold for context menu, etc) is off-putting. Add in the bugs (encountered multiple within the first 5 minutes of usage, including a consistent crash that renders doc scanning completely broken) and this app is just a jarring experience. I want a refund.
Stopped accepting additional PDF's
Disappointed after many years of excellent performance. Was 5 stars now 1.
No file could be opened
Bad app experience
Scam
Cannot open file
This app is a paid scam
This app is a paid scam
The app not working on ipad 10th
Can’t opened the pdf files, it’s a scam.
I wasn't able to add Google Drive to this app
The main reason why i need this app is to be able to add cloud drives, for some reasons Google didn't like app refused to complete integration
Doesn’t work anymore
Can’t open PDFs that I’ve downloaded to my iPad. RIP. This app used to be cool
File management failure
Unable to move, delete, edit or annotate files
Is this app still supported?
After using for years on my iPad, upon updating to iOS18.1 on my iPad I can no longer email .pdf files from this app. Many other features missing.
iPad Pro 11 4th gen iOS 17.0.3 App crashes
App crashes whenever trying to open a PDF.
Difficult
It seems impossible to move a file out of the folders to Dropbox. Dragging does not work. I need to move this file.
Used to work …Doesn’t work now
Update: doesn’t work anymore. I wish we could file a complaint to remove this app from the store.
During annotation, highlighting is done over the text, making the highlighted text gray. Just because of this, I ended up switching to iannotate. If they fix it, I will update my review.
During annotation, highlighting is done over the text, making the highlighted text gray. Just because of this, I ended up switching to iannotate. If they fix it, I will update my review.
This app is horribly designed.
Apps so poorly designed it’s not even funny. Want to zoom in and out? Well I have to exit drawing mode for that then renter. Want to scroll around? Well You’ll have to wait a few seconds for that part of the document to load, as apparently it is unable to remain loaded if it’s not on your screen for some reason. Want to erase something? Well the eraser size is locked with the pencil size, so if you don’t want to erase one pixel at a time, you have to increase pen size and erase, then decrease pen size again to start drawing again. It also won’t stop turning my text green. Apps so bad I feel like I’m a beta tester trying out the very first iteration of the app made by someone who has never made an app before.
Useless App
Complete waste of money. Nothing works.
Waste money
Waste money
Does not work
I added Dropbox folder, and it worked fine for that session. After restarting the app and going to Documents-Dropbox, I get an error saying “Error - could not load info”. This was a waste of the few bucks I paid for it (I purchased the app when it was on 80% sale-wouldn’t even download for free). Useless.
Useless
Waste of money. Can’t even insert typing word edits.
Does NOT work with Apple iCloud
Although this application does work with sugar sync and other back up online storage providers, it fails to flawlessly integrate with Apple iCloud like the Preview App for Mac computers. Apple failed its users in NOT continuing the Preview app from Mac OS to iPad and iPhone IOS. In addition, this app does not offer a “help” section for users to figure out workarounds. Don't waste your money.
HOW DO I OPEN A LOCAL FILE???
Nothing seems to work. How do I get a refund?
Garba
no good
If Your Time is Valuable - Don’t Buy This
Annoying, not user friendly or efficient, and I’ve used a lot of productivity tools (Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, and numerous open source types). I’ll make this review short. I had a terrible time saving documents, retrieving documents from other applications, and the list goes on. You will waste a lot of time messing with this app. My recommendation, spend the money and buy a more developed and supported app if you truly need to edit and create PDFs on you iPad.
Does nothing
This product will not open any PDF I have tried to open. Nothing works, and I would like to know why?
Adobe knock off
Surprised logo image made me think it was Adobe until tried to use. Cannot control font size and when tried to save the blue high light area remained making document useless ONE star to leave review warn others
Nope
This app may have been useful once, but now it is not. I suspect the company that created this no longer exists. Find something else.
Did not work for me
The 800 phone number is not working. One of the photos shows you can fill in text. That did not work for me however, to be fair I only waited five hour and needed to complete the task. I have deleted the app and will request money back.
Unusable
I don’t care what awards it claimed to win. Any app in 2021 which is so inscrutable that you need assistance with it is a waste of money. I will ask for a refund.
Won’t open files
Doesn’t open files.
Terrible - no documentation and no way to combine docs
I don’t see how this got any good reviews. There is no documentation. The menu is extremely limited. No way to combine pages into a new pdf, etc. they should be ashamed to charge for this. I got it because of the great reviews, those must have been for a previous version and now the app is worthless.
I can select pages and then tap “Make PDF”, then it looks like maybe something happened but it’s well hidden if so. No new pdf files are there. About all one can do is scan and there are better apps for that.
I can select pages and then tap “Make PDF”, then it looks like maybe something happened but it’s well hidden if so. No new pdf files are there. About all one can do is scan and there are better apps for that.
Won’t open anything
Bought it, then wasted time trying, with no success, to open any PDF whatsoever with it. Go to files, click a PDF, and then open with PDF reader pro? Ha! Nothing. Think you can click on anything in the app to navigate anywhere? Think again. Deleted it. Waste of time and $$.
App is crashing
I am not sure what the issue is, but the app crashes all the time and I cannot use it at all. Very frustrating
TERRIBLE
I downloaded this app and it doesn’t work. I have attempted multiple times to reach the Developer and they’re ignoring me. I’ve asked for a refund from them with no response; my order is listed as “pending” from Apple so I can’t stop payment. I’ve spent more time and energy trying to clean up this mess than I paid for this dang app. Don’t waste your money.
Doesn't Work with iCloud
I have pdfs on my ipad in my icloud folder. This app can only open those if I first email them to myself and download them. This is a critical problem.
1 star
Can’t figure out how to download and print patterns
GARBAGE
I PAID FOR THIS CRAP TO DO SOME IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS FORMS THAT NEEDED TO BE SENT TO THE GOVERNMENT, I HAVE A BRAND NEW IPAD AIR AND CRASH EVERY TIME I TRY TO SAVE OR EXPORT MY FILES, WASTE OF TIME ANS MONEY
ITS CHEAP FOR A REASON, DONT BUY THIS!!!!
ITS CHEAP FOR A REASON, DONT BUY THIS!!!!
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY
I regret not looking at the recent reviews before purchasing because this app is not up to date and NOT user friendly!! Definitely go with another app :/
Not intuitive enough to eliminate help
Most apps are not very intuitive but they do have a help button to at least get you started. What I failed to look at is that most of their good rating was more then 2+ years ago. Their last update was for iOS 12. Developer’s website is just as bad as their app for support.
PLEASE UPDATE!
I used to love the app, but now with iPad version 14, it crashes when you go to overwrite changes. It needs to be updated. I paid for this app and really would like it to continue to work.
No instructions.
This app sounds good and has good reviews. But, user interfaces should be clear, have easy to follow steps for using the app, and should include instructions for new users. This PDF reader has none of those things and is very difficult to figure out. Waste of money
I should have read the reviews...
I’m always willing to give people a second chance... but, at this point, I can’ even open a PDF in the app.
Totally disappointed.
Totally disappointed.
Doesn’t work
I am not able to open PDFs from my iCloud with this reader!
I want my $4 back
This app is awful. I want a refund immediately. This app is worthless and does NOTHING that they claim it does. Can't even import PDFs, let alone edit them. Avoid at all costs.
Very misleading
It advertises that you can edit PDF files. After trying and trying you cannot edit. For example if you need to change a number in a particular field I can highlight it. I can add a strike over the number or scribble over it. Thats it. Waste of money for me.
Stinks - Impenetrable
Impenetrable. Can’t even figure out how to load a doc. Completely non-intuitive. And I’m not calling customer support.
Waste of time. $3.99 for a reason.
Waste of time. $3.99 for a reason.
Don’t buy this
App is not editing pdf docs, just adds stuff on existing ones, is poorly designed, unresponsive, with no menus, complete disaster.
I hope he will choke on my $4.
People really hurt in these times when they put their confidence in an app advertised that may save the day, but it ends up instead infuriating them being useless.
I hope he will choke on my $4.
People really hurt in these times when they put their confidence in an app advertised that may save the day, but it ends up instead infuriating them being useless.
What’s wrong
I can’t even send emails, and when I did send them, the person or people that I’m sending, doesn’t even receive nothing. What’s going on. Can someone help me to take care of this issue
Worst ever
Worst ever app, regret paying for, no instruction what so ever. You can create folders to save files but there no way to save any file to the app, no way to open any file in this app and save to the app, never saw app without at least some instructions, don’t know how Apple allows something like this
Doesn’t Work
Can’t get a pdf to open in the app
Can’t open any documents
Not a satisfactory app at all. I know my way around technology but really couldn’t find a way to use this. Not even the website was able to provide a tutorial and this was not user friendly. Wasted $4.
Love it or hate it...
I have not yet encountered an app that requires a purchase and doesn’t stand behind its product to the point of making refunds to dissatisfied purchasers. This app is hard to use a few ways such as, hard to select and highlight text, can’t enlarge and recently text in reader panels, very inadequate help function.
I wouldn’t be writing this poor review if a request, accompanied by specific issues I encountered, for my purchase price wasn’t refused. I’m trashing this app having learned a good buyer beware lesson to make sure you can try before you buy.
I wouldn’t be writing this poor review if a request, accompanied by specific issues I encountered, for my purchase price wasn’t refused. I’m trashing this app having learned a good buyer beware lesson to make sure you can try before you buy.
+ 33 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
85%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
12%
Negative (1-2★)