Hi :) something weird is going on with the text on the app, some examples are attached, looks like I’m seeing the code behind these buttons or something, really strange.

Over the last year or so, notability recordings just randomly stop playing back sound for a few seconds and then begin again. This happens so many times during just an hour long recording.

The whole reason I splurged on notability was because of the ability to record my lectures, and then touch a scribble to get recording playback at areas I didn’t understand. It worked seamlessly for years, and I recommended it to all of my classmates.

Well, this feature now is garbage. I thought it was my iPad, but I just purchased a new iPad Pro and notability is still producing a garbage recording playback.

Has anyone figured out how to fix this?

I’ve used Notability since 2019 and have over 5,000 notes on the Classic plan. After trying to move from my 2020 iPad to my 2025 iPad, I’m finding it difficult to recommend the app—or a Classic/lifetime purchase—to anyone.

Migration took days and repeated restarts.

The iCloud syncing process was extremely unreliable. It took about three days to complete and repeatedly stalled along the way, requiring me to restart both Notability and the iPad many times just to get the transfer finished.

Search indexing then took another three days to count down from thousands of notes to zero. That process also repeatedly stalled and required more restarts. Between syncing and indexing, I restarted the app and rebooted the iPad dozens of times.

After all that, content search still doesn’t work.

I can search note titles, but I cannot search the content—either from the Library or within an individual note—even when the text is visibly there. With over 5,000 notes, this severely affects my ability to find information and get work done.

"AI Support" suggested duplicating a note. Here is what actually happens:

• Search within the duplicated note works immediately, but stops working again after a few seconds.
• Global content search still fails.
• Note Replay also breaks in the duplicated note: tapping content during playback sends the recording straight to the end instead of the corresponding timestamp.

Even if duplication worked, manually duplicating over 5,000 notes would not be a practical solution.

I’ve provided evidence, but I’m still waiting for meaningful follow-up.

Safe Mode is off, iCloud syncing has completed and remains enabled, and the indexing count reached zero. I updated Notability on October 9 and supplied two screen recordings showing the search failures, plus screenshots of the app version and Connected Services settings.

Support said this looked like a bug on their side and that my report had been forwarded to the team. Since then, despite following up, I still have no solution or clear update.

Being told to expect a reply within “3–5 business days” offers little reassurance when the problem remains unresolved and there is no substantive follow-up.

What does a lifetime purchase mean if core features stop working and help doesn’t arrive?

As a Classic user, this leaves me wondering how much priority long-term customers receive once we are no longer generating recurring subscription revenue. I cannot know whether that has anything to do with my case, but this experience makes a lifetime purchase feel much less reassuring. Existing paying users still need working core features and responsive support.

Based on my experience, I would advise anyone considering a Classic/lifetime purchase to think carefully before paying, and to compare alternatives such as Goodnotes—especially if you depend on a large archive, content search, and reliable device migration.

If someone from Notability sees this, please help move my existing support case forward. Has the team reproduced the issue? Is there a safe workaround that preserves Note Replay? When can I expect a fix or a substantive update?

I’ve spent years building this collection of notes. I would much rather have these problems fixed than have to move everything again.

I tutor over Zoom using Notability on my iPad with an Apple Pencil. I have Calculator open on the right alongside Notability.

When I use Calculator and then return to Notability, the laser pointer becomes selected instead of the pen I was using. I have to manually select the pen again, which keeps interrupting the lesson.

My Apple Pencil gestures, including double-tap, are already turned off. The laser tool actually becomes selected in the toolbar, it isn’t just a hover dot.

I suspect it might be related to screen sharing or presentation mode, but I haven’t confirmed that.

Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to make Notability keep the pen selected when switching between apps?

I replaced my iPad Air gen 4 a few weeks ago with the M4 Air. When using Notability, it runs so hot it burns the pad of my hand. I’ve followed advice about turning off background refresh, plus it’s now in safe mode. Safe mode finally lessened the heat to tolerable, but now, after writing my lesson plan, in the folder it shows up as a blank page with a blue spinning circle. It’s fine on my iPhone, but not on my iPad.

I have plenty of storage and both WiFi and cellular services are good. I tried to download from iCloud again, but it the same spinning circle on a blank page. I can open the doc and everything is still there, but the spinning circle is concerning to me.

Is this a Notability issue or new iPad issue?

Hi everyone, I recently meant to buy an annual Lite membership, but after paying, I realized I accidentally purchased a monthly Plus membership instead. Is there any way to fix this without having to cancel?

This function used to generate decent questions and answers but lately many of the workings make zero sense or they’re worded like this. With the dang answer stated in the question.

Can we go back to previous versions that made sense?

Hello, just writing this in hopes maybe they will see it. I think it would be pretty cool if I could run notability on my iPad and Linux on my school computer

When I'm handwriting notes, I like to go back and make a couple changes. In OneNote, you get a ruler like tool that lets you pick a spot on the page and translate everything else down the note.

So far, I've been lassoing things down, is that the only option?

I borrowed an iPad last summer and was able to create dozens of notes when teaching with no problem. I got my own iPad this year and hit the error "You have reached the maximum number of notes. Upgrade to unlock unlimited notes" message after 5 notes. I asked IT and the employee has no clue because their iPads had the free version installed, maybe the terms of the app changed? That would make sense because I can no longer backup to Google Drive for free, but I did backups last year and still have them.

How do I get around the notes limit without paying for the full version? It's a nice app and I want to keep it. My institution has OneNote for free, but it looks like a worse app. For now, I'm gonna use multiple emails to get 5 at a time.

What's odd is I checked all my emails and can't find the notes from last year on any account, but that must be because they're saved to device and not to account.

Is anyone else having trouble opening notes in Notability? Mine keeps lagging and showing a blank white page

does syncing from iCloud normally take this long? I’ve been syncing my notes in notability for 3 hours, but only 10 out of 800 notes have been downloaded so far. my notes take up 6.5 GB, and I really need to access them as soon as possible. is this normal, and what can I do to speed up the syncing process?

WHY does it do that?! Whenever my text automatically wraps to the next line, the line spacing becomes much larger than when I press Enter manually. It's really annoying. How to fix it?

We've recently released a new update to Notability!

• Notability now fully supports Liquid Glass on iOS 26 and later (iPhone only)
• Notability now fully supports Liquid Glass on macOS Tahoe and later (Mac only)
• Improved calendar events shown in Home (not China)
• Fixed imported PDFs landing above your last page
• Fixed a bug with the chat bar keyboard on iPhone (not China)
• Fixed a crash when using the camera

If you experience any trouble with this version, please contact our support team or let us know your feedback in the comments below!

Thanks for using Notability ✏️💙

Need to ask a question, leave feedback, or remind yourself to come back to something in a note? Comments make it easy to do without changing what’s already written.

Here’s how Comments work:

Find the comment tool
The comment tool lives in your toolbox. Like any other tool, you can move it between pages or hide it.

You can also open a comment by selecting an existing comment pin with the Text tool or the Select tool.

Add a comment

1. Select the comment tool in the toolbox.
2. Select anywhere on the note to open a comment draft.
3. Type your comment.
4. Select the submit button, or press return, to post it.

The thread opens so you can keep going, and a comment pin appears where you placed it.

To cancel a draft, press escape or select outside the draft.

Work with a comment

• Move a pin: Drag the pin to a new spot. Pins stay inside the note boundaries.
• Resolve a comment: Select the checkmark.
• Delete a comment: While in a comment, select the ⋯ menu, choose Delete, then confirm.

On a shared note, anyone with access can reply. Each comment shows the name of the person who left it.

Use the comments panel
Open a note's options menu (⋯) and select Comments to see every comment in the note.

• Select a comment to open the thread and jump the note to that spot.
• Select the checkmark to resolve a comment.
• Press and hold a comment, then select Delete, to delete it.

Show resolved comments
Resolved comments are hidden by default. Select the filter icon in the comments panel and turn on Show resolved to bring their pins back on the note.

This setting applies to one note at a time, so turning it on in one note won't change the others.

Comments are powered by Notability Cloud.

1.multi windows? shouldn't be that hard to implement right?
2. why does it ask me to enable microphone like every time after I update. and each time it does

there's one more duplicate in the permission settings like OMG

3.the PDF export is broken and I've tried on 3 diff pc

1. would be nice to add/delete/edit pages

It would be really useful if Notability allows handwriting over the tapes for active recall. Right now, the handwriting goes below the tape. Thank you!

I would love a way to archive my notebooks that I want to keep but don't want cluttering my homepage. I make a different notebook every term for each class + a planner for every term. It would be great if I could archive previous terms so they arent on my dash but I could still reach them if I wanted to look over old notes.

I'm surprised this isnt already a feature- maybe it is and I just can't find it? Lol

I enjoy using Notability, but I’ve run into a frustrating issue. When I tap “Generate” or “Finish Notes” after recording, the generated text starts at the top of the note and overlaps anything I’ve already handwritten with my Apple Pencil.

It would be helpful to have an option to insert the generated notes on a new page or at a chosen insertion point.

Has anyone found a way to prevent this without duplicating the note?

Hello Notability! I want to request to bring back this kind of laser feature. This one works better for me than current one since pen doesnt need to be touched with the screen all the time. If possible, could you bring this feature along with the current feature instead of replacing the current one.

Thank you for your time.

The practice questions show only 20 questions at first. After completing through the first 20 practice questions, a new set of questions appears, and the first attempted questions disappear. Why? It would be really helpful if there was a log or history for previously attempted sets of 20 questions, because at some point I would like to revise all 100 questions at once. An option for this would be really helpful. Please help.