StudiousNotes — Support

StudiousNotes is an iPad app for reading PDFs and EPUBs that collects your highlights and notes in one notebook per book.

Email: support@studiousnotes.com — questions, problems and suggestions all go here. It is one person, so a reply may take a few days.

When something has gone wrong, it helps to say which iPad you have, which version of iPadOS it is running, which version of the app is installed, and what you were doing at the time.

To find the app’s version, open StudiousNotes, tap Settings in the sidebar and look at the bottom of the About StudiousNotes card. It reads like “Version 1.0 (3)”. Please include both numbers: the one in brackets is the build number, and it changes with every update.

Common questions

Where are my books and notes kept?

On your iPad, in the app’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Reading, highlighting, notes and exports all work offline. The only connection the app makes is to Apple’s App Store, to show the upgrade’s price and check whether you’ve bought it. None of your books or notes are part of it. See the privacy policy.

How do I add a book?

Tap Import on the library screen and pick a PDF or an EPUB from the Files app — iCloud Drive, On My iPad or anywhere else Files can reach.

How much does StudiousNotes cost?

StudiousNotes is free to download and works with up to two books of your own; the welcome book doesn’t count. One in-app purchase unlocks unlimited books. It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and the price is shown in the App Store.

Every feature works in the free version. If you reach the limit, you keep full access to everything you already have; the limit only applies to adding another book.

I bought the upgrade on another iPad. How do I get it back?

Open Settings → About StudiousNotes and tap Restore purchase.

Can I get my notes out?

Yes, in three ways. A notebook exports as a PDF or as Markdown, and Back up writes one file holding every book and every note. The backup file is mostly plain text, so your quotes and notes stay readable in any text editor even without this app.

How do I move to a new iPad?

Back up on the old one, save the file to Files or iCloud Drive, install the app on the new one and use Restore backup. Restoring matches books by their identity, so restoring the same file twice is safe.

Why can’t I highlight text in a scanned PDF?

A scanned page usually has no text layer: it is a picture of a page, so there is no text to select. Use Box instead, which draws a rectangle over the part of the page you mean and keeps the picture inside it with your note. Box works on any page, in PDFs and e-books alike, so it is also the way to keep a table, a chart or a diagram.

Can I search handwritten notes?

No. Search reads text, and handwriting is kept as handwriting rather than converted into text, so it cannot be searched. Handwritten notes appear in the notebook and in the PDF export exactly as you wrote them, but not in the Markdown export and not in search.

Is there a dark mode?

No. The app uses its light paper colours whatever your iPad is set to.

Does it work on iPhone?

No. It is built for the iPad and the Apple Pencil.

If the app says your library could not be opened

Your books and notes are still on the iPad; the app could not open the file it keeps them in.

1. Press Try again first. A failure caused by the iPad running out of space, or by the app being interrupted mid-write, often clears on a second attempt.
2. If it keeps happening, Set this library aside. The library that will not open is moved into a dated folder and kept — nothing is deleted — and the app starts with an empty one.
3. Then open Backup & storage and restore your most recent backup.

If you have no backup, please get in touch before reinstalling the app: deleting it does delete everything, and the set-aside library is still there until you do.