I am writing this suggestion as a response to how obnoxious it is to set up a workflow that mirrors the Goodnotes Library across different, external applications.

The current system has obvious limitations; the automatic Backup to Google Drive (or DropBox, OneDrive and WebDAV) is very useful for keeping an up-to-date PDF copies of Goodnotes documents, however it behaves solely as a backup rather than a true mirror (this is fine, but there is an audience that desires a true mirror that isn't accommodated for, even if they themselves don’t fully know how useful it would be). Currently:
- creating a document creates the corresponding backup file
- editing a document updates the backup file
- renaming or moving a document/folder updates the backup structure
- however, deleting a document or folder in Goodnotes DOES NOT delete the corresponding backup file.

This makes it impossible for external applications to determine whether a PDF still corresponds to an existing Goodnotes document, or whether the original document has been deleted.

My proposed solution?"Mirror Mode". How would it work? Enabling it would make GoodNotes maintain an exact one-way representation of the current Goodnotes Library in the selected cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive). For example, if I had the note "Functions" in a folder called "Mathematics", deleting "Functions" or the folder itself in Goodnotes would delete it from Google Drive as well.

I believe an optional "Mirror Mode" extension for Automatic Backup, in addition to the existing Backup, would be an incredible addition to Goodnotes.

The synchronization should be STRICTLY one-way though; changes or deletions made in the external storage should never propagate back into Goodnotes (unless an additional feature to turn it into true “two-way mirroring”).

This would make the feature suitable for archival, backup, document-management and third-party integrations without the risk of accidentally deleting or altering the original Goodnotes document.

Obviously, it would be ideal if the official API, webhook, or machine-readable manifest describing the current Goodnotes library were publicly available.

An external application could then reliably determine which documents currently exist; their folder hierarchy; their unique IDs (← surprisingly invaluable); when they were last modified; whether a document was renamed or moved; or whether a document was deleted. On the note of a unique, persistent document ID, it would be very useful because it would allow external applications to distinguish a renamed document from a deleted document followed by the creation of another document with the same name.

Why exactly do I believe this would be useful? It would enable direct, seamless integrations with applications such as:
- Obsidian
- Notion
- OneNote
- document-management systems
- cloud archival systems
- personal knowledge-management systems
- automated backup systems

WITHOUT requiring those applications to access Goodnotes' internal/private data.

Additionally, I mentioned how Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive and WebDAV are proper backup methods, yet, for whatever reason, iCloud cannot do the same? I find this unreasonable and quite frankly a bit ridiculous. Someone working on an Apple Ecosystem is forced to use Google Drive (or the rest) to create an actual copy of their Goodnotes Library, despite Goodnotes having a unique relationship/agreement with Apple? Like, what?

Nonetheless, adding these features would mean that Goodnotes would no longer need to build bespoke integrations for every external application, achieving the same effect simply and effortlessly.

As a side-note, I believe that these features would, in turn, make Goodnotes even more integrated into day-to-day life; as opposed to being “just a notetaking app” primarily used by students or artists, it would have the potential to become ESSENTIAL on everyone’s device.