You open GoodNotes on your iPad, ready to review the notes you made on your iPhone earlier. But they’re nowhere to be found. Your handwritten pages, your color-coded highlights, your carefully organized folders—all missing. It feels like your work just vanished into thin air.
This syncing issue is one of the most common frustrations GoodNotes users face. The app relies on iCloud to keep your notes updated across all your Apple devices, and when that connection breaks, everything grinds to a halt. In this post, you’ll learn exactly why your GoodNotes stops syncing and how to get it working again with simple fixes you can try right now.
What Does “GoodNotes Not Syncing” Actually Mean?
GoodNotes uses iCloud to store and share your notebooks, documents, and folders across your devices. When syncing works properly, any change you make on one device shows up on all your other devices within seconds or minutes. You write a note on your iPad, and it appears on your Mac. You create a new folder on your iPhone, and your iPad shows it too.
When syncing fails, this smooth flow stops. Your devices become isolated islands, each holding different versions of your notes. You might see a spinning sync icon that never finishes, or you might notice that pages you created hours ago still haven’t appeared on your other devices. Sometimes the app shows an error message, but often it just sits there silently, pretending everything is fine while your notes stay stuck.
The effects of broken syncing can range from mildly annoying to seriously problematic. If you’re a student relying on GoodNotes for class notes, you could show up to a study session without access to the material you need. Professionals using the app for meeting notes or project planning might find themselves working from outdated information. And in some cases, if syncing issues persist and you make conflicting edits on different devices, you risk losing work entirely when the app eventually tries to reconcile those differences.
Knowing when syncing has failed is the first step to fixing it. Keep an eye on the small cloud icon in the app. A checkmark means everything is synced. An arrow pointing up means the app is trying to upload. If you see a warning symbol or the icon spins endlessly, that’s your signal that something has gone wrong.
GoodNotes 5/6 Not Syncing: Common Causes
Before you can fix the problem, it helps to know what’s causing it. Here are the most frequent reasons your GoodNotes stops syncing properly.
1. iCloud Is Turned Off or Not Signed In
This one trips up more people than you’d think. GoodNotes depends entirely on iCloud for syncing. If iCloud is disabled on your device, or if you’re signed into a different Apple ID than you use on your other devices, syncing simply won’t happen.
Sometimes this changes without you realizing it. A software update might reset your iCloud settings. Or maybe you signed out temporarily to troubleshoot something else and forgot to sign back in.
The result is the same either way: GoodNotes can’t reach the cloud, so your notes stay local to whatever device you’re using.
2. Poor or Unstable Internet Connection
Syncing needs the internet. That sounds obvious, but the connection doesn’t need to be completely dead to cause problems. A weak Wi-Fi signal, a congested network, or an unstable cellular connection can all interrupt the sync process.
GoodNotes uploads and downloads data in the background. If your connection keeps dropping or slowing down, those transfers fail partway through. The app might retry, but if the connection stays bad, your notes pile up waiting to sync.
3. Not Enough iCloud Storage Space
Apple gives you 5 GB of free iCloud storage. That fills up fast when you’re sharing it between photos, backups, documents, and apps like GoodNotes. Once your iCloud runs out of room, nothing new can upload.
GoodNotes notebooks, especially those with lots of handwritten content, images, or PDF annotations, can take up significant space. If you’ve been using the app heavily for months or years, your notebooks might be trying to sync gigabytes of data that simply won’t fit.
Your device usually warns you when storage gets low, but it’s easy to dismiss those notifications and forget about them.
4. Outdated App Version
GoodNotes releases updates regularly. These updates fix bugs, patch security issues, and sometimes change how the app communicates with iCloud. Running an old version of the app can create syncing conflicts, especially if your other devices have newer versions installed.
Version mismatches between devices are a sneaky cause of sync failures. Your iPad might be running GoodNotes 6.1 while your iPhone is still on 5.8, and they struggle to understand each other’s data format.
5. Corrupted Cache or Temporary Data
Like most apps, GoodNotes stores temporary files to help it run faster. Over time, these cached files can become corrupted or outdated. When that happens, the app might behave strangely, including failing to sync properly.
A corrupted cache can make the app think it has already synced when it hasn’t, or it might cause sync attempts to stall without any clear error message.
GoodNotes 5/6 Not Syncing: DIY Fixes
Now that you know what might be causing the problem, let’s walk through some practical solutions. Try these in order, checking after each one to see if syncing starts working again.
1. Check Your iCloud Settings
Start with the basics. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap your name at the top to access your Apple ID settings. Make sure you’re signed in and that iCloud is turned on.
Scroll down to find GoodNotes in your list of apps and confirm that its iCloud toggle is switched on. If it’s already on, try turning it off, waiting about 30 seconds, and then turning it back on. This small reset often kicks the sync process back into action.
On a Mac, go to System Settings, click your Apple ID, and check the same things. Every device needs iCloud enabled for GoodNotes to keep everything in sync.
2. Test and Fix Your Internet Connection
Open Safari or another browser and load a few websites. If pages load slowly or fail entirely, your internet connection needs attention before you worry about GoodNotes.
Try these steps:
- Move closer to your Wi-Fi router if you’re on wireless
- Restart your router by unplugging it for 30 seconds
- Switch from Wi-Fi to cellular data (or vice versa) to test if one works better
- Turn on Airplane Mode for 10 seconds, then turn it off to reset your connections
Once you have a stable connection, open GoodNotes and give it a few minutes to catch up on syncing.
3. Free Up iCloud Storage
Go to Settings, tap your name, then tap iCloud and select Manage Storage. This screen shows you exactly what’s using your space. Photos and backups are usually the biggest offenders.
You have a few options here. Delete old backups you don’t need. Move photos to another service like Google Photos. Remove apps you no longer use. Or, if you rely heavily on iCloud, consider upgrading to a paid plan. Apple offers 50 GB for a small monthly fee, and that’s usually enough for most GoodNotes users.
After freeing up space, go back to GoodNotes and pull down on your library screen to trigger a manual sync.
4. Update GoodNotes to the Latest Version
Open the App Store on your device and tap your profile icon in the top corner. Scroll down to see any pending updates. If GoodNotes appears in the list, tap Update.
Do this on every device where you use GoodNotes. Having the same version everywhere eliminates compatibility issues and ensures all your devices speak the same language when syncing.
After updating, open the app and wait a few minutes. Updates sometimes trigger a fresh sync that resolves lingering issues.
5. Force Close and Restart the App
Sometimes GoodNotes gets stuck in a bad state and needs a fresh start. Swipe up from the bottom of your screen (or double-click the home button on older devices) to see your open apps. Find GoodNotes and swipe it up and off the screen to close it completely.
Wait a few seconds, then open GoodNotes again. The app will reconnect to iCloud and often begins syncing immediately. This simple restart clears minor glitches without affecting your data.
6. Sign Out and Back Into iCloud
If nothing else has worked, try signing out of iCloud entirely and signing back in. This is a more involved step, so save any work first.
Go to Settings, tap your name, scroll to the bottom, and tap Sign Out. Your device will ask what to do with your data. Choose to keep a copy on your device if you’re worried about losing anything.
Once signed out, restart your device. Then go back to Settings and sign in with your Apple ID again. Open GoodNotes and give it time to download your notebooks from the cloud. This process can take a while if you have lots of notes, so be patient.
7. Contact GoodNotes Support
After trying all these fixes, if your notes still refuse to sync, it’s time to reach out to the GoodNotes support team. Some issues involve server problems or account-specific bugs that only they can resolve.
Visit the GoodNotes website and look for their support or help section. Describe what you’ve already tried so they can skip the basic steps and focus on deeper solutions. Include details like which devices you’re using, which iOS or macOS versions you have, and any error messages you’ve seen.
Wrapping Up
Syncing problems can feel overwhelming, especially when your important notes seem trapped on one device. But most of the time, the fix is simpler than you expect. A quick settings check, a restart, or a storage cleanup usually gets things moving again.
Take it one step at a time, and don’t panic. Your notes are almost certainly safe in iCloud, just waiting for that connection to clear up. With a little patience and the fixes above, you’ll have your notebooks flowing smoothly across all your devices again.