I’ve been using GoodNotes for nearly five years, and this new update is by far the worst one I’ve ever experienced. It’s not just me — all of my fellow students are on the brink of a mental breakdown. Everything related to engineering drawings and technical plans used to work perfectly before. Now, it’s an absolute pain.

The “draw and hold” function is especially terrible. In the old version, you could draw a rectangular shape and edit it while still holding the pen. The resizing started from one corner of the shape, and you could make it bigger or smaller from that point. Now, when you draw a shape, it expands in all directions — it’s always too big, and you can’t make it smaller.

You also can’t extend a line anymore. If you try to draw a new line in addition to an old one, the new line doesn’t keep the same angle and is never aligned correctly.

If you activate shape filling with “draw and hold,” you can’t delete the filling. That’s really disappointing. I used to love this feature, but I can’t use it anymore because it fills areas even when you don’t want it to. Normally, you could just delete the filling and move on — but now, that doesn’t work.

Another big issue is with shape recognition. I draw a line, and GoodNotes turns it into an ellipse or some completely random shape.

And one more thing: if you want to write a quick note — in the old version, you just clicked the button and could immediately type with the keyboard on the whole page, like in a Word document. Now, you have to long-tap and select the function from a second menu. That’s three extra steps for something that used to take one. Why?

On top of that, you can’t rotate shapes anymore, and you can’t draw rectangular shapes unless they’re perfectly aligned with the page lines. That completely ruins flexibility for technical or engineering sketches.

This just goes on and on — it’s such a mess. I honestly don’t understand why they changed everything from a perfectly functional, engineering-friendly tool into this chaos. I’m so frustrated.

I hate this update so much and the worse part is that I cannot change it back to good notes 6, I was so used to it
now everything is confusing, the tools make note taking impossible bcs I stg I take so much more time to make my notes it’s genuinely getting in the way of my studies, if it doesn’t give an option to downgrade I’m going to erase my account and change apps, this sucks and they aren’t listening to their customers

Thank you for sharing your feedback! We hear you, and we are working hard to continue building on what you love and make the necessary refinements and improvements on the new version.

Here’s a list of what we’re currently working on. Please take a look, and stay tuned for upcoming updates:
https://support.goodnotes.com/hc/en-us/articles/14029000789519-Goodnotes-Updates-Upcoming-Improvements

We’ll let you know once these changes go live! 💙

Thats the thing we all want… I had to get another app for college because of that but if they could add that little option I would resubscribe but for now I canceled because off this garbage update…

Like some other people here, I'm not a fan of the new UX:

- Writing toolbar floats on top of the page which is annoying
- The actual writing area is reduced in size
- Drawing tools don't work well and create loops / circles randomly

Most of all, it's messed with what was a pretty much perfect product in Goodnotes 6.

Can you *PLEASE* enable reverting to Goodnotes 6 for users who want to do so?

The new toolbar update completely disrupts note taking now, as everything is switched around and it is way less organized. I had muscle memory established for where everything was but now that is totally erased. It looks and functions way worse, the old layout was much better. I loved Goodnotes 6 and there was no reason to change the layout. At least make it an option to change back to 6.

I loved Goodnotes 6, for a new-be, it was easy to use. I loved the fact that I could set a default font and could just start typing when I opened a new page and could continue to the next page without having to set up a new text box . Bring back Goodnotes 6 or make it ann option like you did with Goodnotes 5 and bring back the old tool bar, this new one is NOT user friendly. IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT! Change is good but this change was horrible.

I completely agree!

Its driving me crazy that the lasso tool is default. I don't mean to be that person but I hate the new update.Why was there a change to the toolbar at all? There are sooo many new clicks for simple copy and paste.I loved the previous copy and paste for taking notes quickly and moving what I am copying from my bible app or online easily and fluidly to the notes page. I paid a lot of money for goodnotes based on the product it was. If it would have been like this (with the new update) when I first started using goodnotes, I wouldn't have continued to pay a higher price. I have found myself using the notes in apple more and more the last week or so. I also can't find where you edit presets for the textbox anymore. I am really confused by the new update and very dissatisfied.

I have been using goodnotes to model arc flash studies for 2 years now. This last update is 10 steps backwards. you've LOST screen real estate by adding a second useless toolbar that I now MUSt use. before i could switch between ever function i need from one toolbar without having to go into another menu. You've ADDED more keystrokes to switch between chapes and eraser. BACKWARDS. literally just revert it back to 6 and fire whatever new intern was trying to make a name for himself. REVERT TO 6. REVERT TO 6 REVERT TO 6.

I've loved goodnotes but I’ve never even considered changing note taking apps before this update. It’s so upsetting because I thought they were doing ok with 6 even though it was a subscription now, but somehow they made the most basic features incredibly glitchy. I really want an option to revert because it feels like we traded all UI for AI and I won’t be using any of that.

I want to go back to the order where the tool bar is a single line. Also, don't keep choosing lasso all the time. And I don't use tape and standard pencil. I want to remove them. This new version officially ruined goodnotes. These should be corrected first. Already me and my other friends who use goodnotes have started looking for an alternative. I would like to let you know this directly, but the report and issue button does not work. I wonder how much more you could ruin it!

I cried about this update and it switched mid-class!!! I was so confused and lost and couldn't keep up with my normal color coding. PLEASE HOW TO FIX IT BACK TO THE OLD TOOLBAR. THIS UPDATE SUCKS. I'm ready to cancel my subscription and try Noteability!!!!!!`NOTEABILITY PROBABLY WOULDN'T DO THIS AND CAUSE EVERYONE ISSUES. MAYBE WE SHOULD ALL SWITCH

I cried about this update and it switched mid-class!!! I was so confused and lost and couldn't keep up with my normal color coding. PLEASE HOW TO FIX IT BACK TO THE OLD TOOLBAR. THIS UPDATE SUCKS. I'm ready to cancel my subscription and try Noteability!!!!!!`NOTEABILITY PROBABLY WOULDN'T DO THIS AND CAUSE EVERYONE ISSUES. MAYBE WE SHOULD ALL SWITCH

Agreed! I'm debating on downgrading to Goodnotes 5 but I really don't want to lose marketplace. Either that or its time for a new app

I absolutely agree! I am so frustrated with the new UI.

Basically undo the new update to version 7.0.4. No one likes the update and there were too many changes to just put that in there as an update. let people have the old version of goodnotes back before the update or let them have a choice of features you add in. I do not want to use AI or have my toolbar changed without a choice. This isnt a little update its a huge change to the way the app works.

The recent update, 7.0.4 has made it impossible to draw any other shapes especially for classes like Organic Chemistry. Every shape becomes circles and even triangles adjust themselves into a weird position. Overall, has greatly decreased in quality and become impossible to use efficiently.

Please go back to the old version. I have no idea what happened but the new version as of October 2025 sucks. I can even make the shapes that I used to be able to, I am unable to erase the filled in part of the shape after I make it. The new toolbar looks so weird and takes up screen space. When I make a triangle it glitches so hard and continues to turn into a shape I simply do not want. In conclusion, the new update sucks and I am about to revert back to paper.

I have found that the update makes the app so much more difficult to use. Instead of focusing on the lecture I am in, I am fiddling around with the app, trying desperately to keep up with note taking. I really do not want to have to use a new note taking app because I am in the final year of my degree and would thus have to transfer years of notes on to new software. Plus, I really enjoyed using Goodnotes for both its typed and handwritten features, which have both been messed up by the update. Please allow us to downgrade to GN6, which is what I paid for.