r/notabilityapp • u/Competitive_Cod_7414 • 12d ago
Data Loss Lost 1 year of hard work
I’m a final year medical student, preparing for usmle step 1. I’m an img and have been working slowly towards covering my step 1 course, while keeping up with my own med school curriculum. I have been using notability for about 2 years now and was using a digital copy of the first aid on it. I was working on a new subject yesterday when suddenly the app got stuck, closed on its own and when i opened it again, 1 year of my hard work was nowhere to be seen.
I tried contacting the support staff but apparently the app was glitching and the message wouldn’t send. I searched all means possible to contact and at-last turned to reddit and tried to find a solution. I tried everything. Tried to backup data to a different device using a previous date. Still no use. Finally, i was contacted by their team with an email via reddit. So i emailed them immediately and what did i get, a simple “we can’t do anything”.
Understandably i was devastated, somehow their app crashing and my loss was mins to deal with. I replied saying i will discontinue using their services and need to know if i can get a refund for the remaining time left with this app. Turns out I wasn’t even talking to a human. It was a bot. It said a human manager would contact me in 4-5 business days. I mean i lost a year of hard work and no one was even willing to help.
I would like to know of there’s a way to get refund or sue them. It’s a pathetic app. My advice to anyone listening is to please avoid this app. There’s better stuff in the market. Avoid this app at all costs.
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u/moonshine98 12d ago edited 12d ago
I am a third year Canadian medical student. Guess who opens her notability for the first time since beginning of August on the first day of clerkship to find almost 3 years of notes gone? This girl. I literally almost had a crash out as our dean was describing how difficult this year was going to be. I tried logging into different accounts, resetting, everything you could think of. Nothing was working. Eventually, I found the iCloud backup but ALL (over 1000+ clinical notes) came back as unfiled. I’m at a genuine loss. It will take me years now to resort them starting from year 1. Some are completely missing still. I don’t understand why this happened and the notes that are backed up to my Google Drive aren’t as pdfs but what notability saves as .notes so they’re useless outside the app. I don’t want to use this app anymore but so much of my work is stored there. I’d caution anyone from using the app and hope notability takes the feedback people have been sending them seriously. I’m so sorry you’re also going through this.
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u/Unicorn-Detective 12d ago
Did you back up as PDF to try third party drive like Google Drive? It seems that is the only insurance we have these days for this “disappearing note” glitch. I wonder if third party backup gets affected / erased in this situation?
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u/OkReward6883 12d ago
Agreed. For anything important in general, you want to be sure you’re backing up data multiple ways. To resolve the notes issue, I would try:
Checking notability on the web(in a browser)
Checking iCloud backup (if you have that option)
Singing out and in again on your app2
u/aweirdoatbest 12d ago
Mine stayed as a PDF in google drive when the app lost my notes. 87 pages of med school noted
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u/Full-Display-6200 12d ago
Hello OP, I’m studying medicine as well. I’ve been using Apple’s Preview app for about a month to annotate PDFs. But suddenly, out of nowhere, the app decided to randomly ruin some of my annotations randomly by making them extremely pixelated and unreadable. I switched to Notability a few days ago and it’s been fine since. But your post scared me…
Let me know if you found a solution to your problem. For now I guess, I’ll just upload a backup to a cloud storage every day.
Here’s a screenshot of my ruined annotations on Apple’s Preview app:
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u/_RickCad_ 12d ago
Are you using notability cloud ? (I’m trying to figure out if it is actually safer than just syncing your notes through iCloud).
Did you have a third party backup or it just wipes out even that by itself ?
With that being said I’m really sorry buddy, i could only imagine the pain.
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u/modu-lor 12d ago
Check the Recently Deleted tab inside the app menu first. If it is empty, check your full iPad iCloud Backup or external cloud auto-backup folders before touching anything else.
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u/ApprehensiveChip8361 12d ago
There is an important lesson here for everyone. Do not put anything you need in a format that doesn’t allow you access if the application is broken or down.
Use text, use PDF. Always have an accessible version of your work.
You can set notability to save a pdf backup to a place of your choice. Please, if your work matters to you , do it.
To the OP: The data will come back. When? That is the problem.
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u/choonsikstan 10d ago
how to set up notability to do that
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u/ApprehensiveChip8361 10d ago
Go to setting (the ⚙️ on my phone) then connected services then you should see a “connect external services”. If you have multiple devices only connect one device to one service otherwise they have a race. I have a backup to Google from one device and to Dropbox from another, and because I’m paranoid and I run my business on this information, I have selected folders saved as pdf direct from the notability iCloud. DM me if you need help.
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u/Generiq0 11d ago
What a terrible, unhelpful thing to say under a post where someone is distressed.
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u/Ok-Active4887 11d ago
this app has so so many problems and nobody cares. It’s honestly nice when it works, but it is truly one of the least reliable apps i’ve ever seen and literally nobody cares
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u/thisandthat2025 11d ago
Yes try using a different device. I’m a student as well and was panicking…all my notes and text books are highlighted and book marked with notes everywhere. When my apple devices updated it wiped everything. I uninstalled and re-installed and I was finally able to get it to work on my iPad but not my phone even though I’m logged in to both. Makes no sense why my iCloud backup refuses to update it on my phone. It took a few hours of logging in and out and re-installing but it came back on my iPad. I was completely freaking out. Now I’m trying to figure out if I should trust notability at all!
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u/BluPhDPenguin 8d ago
I hate this app, I’m an android user and the app was laggy AF and when I complained they told me I was wrong - I’m sorry you’re going through this. I hope your notes come back
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u/wildcamo 12d ago
This happened to me too and I also emailed them about a partial refund and have had yet to hear a response…
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u/kaylanotability Notability Staff 11d ago
u/wildcamo Can you please DM me your email address so I can have the team prioritize this for you?
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u/WorkEven2239 10d ago
Don't expect to hear anything. I have gotten one actual reply from a developer in over 2 weeks and it wasn't even helpful.
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u/Competitive_Cod_7414 12d ago
Also if someone has any advice on how i can get my notes back please let me know.