While we work hard every day to improve the app with frequent updates, the app might quit unexpectedly in some rare cases, depending on your device and/or usage. We are sorry for such frustrating interruptions, and in order for us to provide prompt assistance, it's important to let us know as many details about the crashes as possible.
Things to try first
Please try each of the following first, especially when the crashes seem random:
- Force-quit the app and relaunch it.
- Restart your device.
- Update your GoodNotes version. (The App Store might not be aware there's a newer GoodNotes version.)
- Update your iOS/iPadOS version.
- If you often work on imported PDFs that are huge in size, try temporarily disabling these options to see if the crashes stop:
- "Auto Backup" in GoodNotes ⚙️ menu > Settings > Auto Backup
- "PDF and Handwritten Notes Indexing" in GoodNotes ⚙️ menu > Settings > Search Indexing - Offloading the app (your data will be saved): Open the Settings app > General > iPad/iPhone Storage > GoodNotes > Offload App. This will take quite a while. After that, tap "Reinstall App."
If none helped, please proceed with the steps below.
The app crashes when opening / exporting any document or importing any file
Please send us the Diagnostic Data.
The app crashes when opening / exporting a specific document
This is most likely due to memory issues while the app's exporting that document to PDF, which is a CPU-intensive process.
If you have a Mac, you can use GoodNotes for macOS (which you can redownload for free) and retry the export there, assuming you have "Use iCloud" enabled in GoodNotes on both devices so that you can see the document on your Mac. If you don't have a Mac, please export groups of pages, and use an online tool to merge them back together.
Otherwise, please send us:
- The Diagnostic Data.
- That document in .goodnotes format. If it's over 50Mb in size, use a service like WeTransfer. We'll try to export the document to PDF for you.
The app crashes when importing a specific file
If it's a large file, your device has likely run out of memory (RAM) during the process. If you have a Mac, which has much more RAM and computing power to handle this operation, you can try importing that file to GoodNotes for macOS. If successful, the PDF document will be downloaded to your GoodNotes library on your iPhone/iPad via iCloud.
If that didn't help, please send us:
- The Diagnostic Data.
- The file you're trying to import. If it's over 50Mb in size, use a service like WeTransfer.
The app crashes on launch
Please send us the following for investigation:
Crash logs:
1. Launch GoodNotes so the latest crash event can be logged to the system.
2. Open iPad Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements > Analytics Data.
3. Tap the line that starts with "GoodNotes" and includes the latest date-stamp of the crash plus a number, for example GoodNotes-2020-04-31-xxxxx.ips (see screenshot).
4. Tap Share in the top-right corner and email it to us.
iTunes logs
1. Connect your iPad to a computer via a USB cable.
2. Launch iTunes and locate GoodNotes' internal files in the File Sharing section. If you're on macOS Catalina, instead locate GoodNotes Files section.
3. Select the Logs folder from GoodNotes and drag it out of iTunes to your local desktop.
4. Send it to us in a .zip file.
The app crashes with or without a pattern
Please send us the following:
- The Diagnostic Data.
- The exact steps, if any, that are needed to reproduce the crash. For example:
- Open the app.
- Open an existing document.
- Bookmark the page from the icon on the toolbar.
- Any documents that seem to cause the crash.
Exporting the Diagnostic Data
The Diagnostic Data contains valuable information that can give us clues about the crashes. To get this file, please open GoodNotes menu (Gear icon) in the top-right corner of the Documents tab > About > Export Diagnostic Data.