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GoodReader now CrapReader. Any alternatives?
- Thread starter Lerxt
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What makes you say the dev is uninterested in providing support? That's the exact opposite message I got when I sent in a bug report a few days ago, though it does appear they're having some "issues". But, so far, I still find the product plenty useful.
According to the update notes from Sept 16, the developer is working on a full scale redesign for iOS 7. Doing a full scale redesign is not a quick or easy process. Give the developer some patience to get the redesign done correctly.
Sept 16th? You mean that Sept 16th over 3 weeks ago? His facebook page is full of customers desperate for information and he hasn't bothered to respond in 3 weeks. His twitter is silent. His web page has nothing on it. Being a business requires looking after customers and he is not doing it. It is irrelevant that he may be busy or having trouble, communication is required.
The business I work in has over 2000 employees who use this app every day. There is active discussions about changing app to another because of the issues.
To my knowledge the developer of GoodReader is one individual, who probably has a day job, so can't devote all day to rewriting Goodreader. This is the problem with most people, its all about "me me me and get me a fix immediately and I don't care if the developer is one person..."
For me personally I am not having any issues with Goodreader and iOS 7 right now. I still have the ability to download PDFs from Dropbox within Goodreader and annotate them, then successfully re-sync them to Dropbox.
If you are truly in a business with 2000 employees who use this app - then none of you should have updated to ios7 and double checked all of the apps required for business have been updated.
3 weeks is not an eternity. It's 3 weeks! Calm down. Such entitlement.
In the meanwhile - use Documents by Readdle.
3 weeks is not an eternity. It's 3 weeks! Calm down. Such entitlement.
In the meanwhile - use Documents by Readdle.
Well we are several weeks from the fact, still no update, as far as I can see. My good reader is unstable to the point that is just not usable, so? Still zen patience to pay? I think the wait time went too far ... anybody wants to convince me that this a normal wait time?
BTW, for those who blamed people for updating and later complaining, the developer should not test the new release before putting it out? So many people are having troubles that I am too tempted to think something went wrong on the developer side. This is a grat app and I was happy to pay for it, but there is not sufficient apology for the way this massive epidemic crash issue on ios7 has been dealt with.
A lost customer here ...
BTW, for those who blamed people for updating and later complaining, the developer should not test the new release before putting it out? So many people are having troubles that I am too tempted to think something went wrong on the developer side. This is a grat app and I was happy to pay for it, but there is not sufficient apology for the way this massive epidemic crash issue on ios7 has been dealt with.
A lost customer here ...
good for you
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To the best of my knowledge Documents of Readdle has
1) No Search in Dropbox or any other folder
Hence impossible to use on large collections of PDF files in a single folder.2) No free-hand writing tool (actually misses most of the annotations tools but the highlighter)
The sync with Dropbox is still a mystery for me, because I have not really tried it. From the app I could not figure out what it does *exactly*, so, due to the missing annotation and search feature I did not even bother to try it (risking to mess up some folder or the entire DB).
Please let me know if I have missed these features in Documents, I'd be glad to be wrong.
Goodreader isn't dead. Do your research and get in contact with the dev.
I recently got in contact with them and they are just about done finishing their beta period. Once done (and no issues found) they will release the app to the public. This update will be free from what they told me. Here's their reply to my email:
On another note, it isn't easy to just update/re-write an entire application. It takes a lot of work and dedication (which is why it is understandable why many choose to charge for the new version). Simply stating that an app has become crapware because it hasn't been updated it is unwarranted, especially if you haven't bothered figuring out why the app hasn't been updated.
In regards to the difference between Documents and Goodreader, the main one is annotations. Documents has limited annotation capability (such as highlight) where as Goodreader will allow free handwriting, stamps, signatures, etc. Goodreader is more like Readdle's old PDF Expert.
Regarding Sync in Documents, it works the same way as in Goodreader and PDF Expert. You connect your cloud account to the app, find a folder, and set up 2-way sync. Now every time you make changes to that cloud folder and press sync in the app, all changes will download to the tablet. Do note that the sync is 2 way and not 1 way; hence, if you delete a file in your sync folder on the tablet, it will delete from your cloud account, and (if you're like me and have your cloud accounts linked to your Finder and not the Dropbox folder), it will delete from your computer.
I recently got in contact with them and they are just about done finishing their beta period. Once done (and no issues found) they will release the app to the public. This update will be free from what they told me. Here's their reply to my email:
On another note, it isn't easy to just update/re-write an entire application. It takes a lot of work and dedication (which is why it is understandable why many choose to charge for the new version). Simply stating that an app has become crapware because it hasn't been updated it is unwarranted, especially if you haven't bothered figuring out why the app hasn't been updated.
In regards to the difference between Documents and Goodreader, the main one is annotations. Documents has limited annotation capability (such as highlight) where as Goodreader will allow free handwriting, stamps, signatures, etc. Goodreader is more like Readdle's old PDF Expert.
Regarding Sync in Documents, it works the same way as in Goodreader and PDF Expert. You connect your cloud account to the app, find a folder, and set up 2-way sync. Now every time you make changes to that cloud folder and press sync in the app, all changes will download to the tablet. Do note that the sync is 2 way and not 1 way; hence, if you delete a file in your sync folder on the tablet, it will delete from your cloud account, and (if you're like me and have your cloud accounts linked to your Finder and not the Dropbox folder), it will delete from your computer.
In general I do no think that Goodreader is crapware, whatever this would actually means.
Let me say something straight once again. Here we are not talking about absence of updates, which a priori would be fine. An app that works and is not updates is fine for me. Here we are talking about crowds of users that have a very unstable app since iOS7, more than 3 months and counting ...
People is aware of the fact they are working on v4, but being busy for the big project does not make happy any of those who cannot read PDFs as they used to for the last 3 months ... I, and many others, have been completely abandoned for 3 months, not a nice experience, trust me.
Thanks for explaining the sync mechanism in Documents.
Is there a way to choose between 1-way or 2-way sync? I think this options exists in Goodreader.
Let me say something straight once again. Here we are not talking about absence of updates, which a priori would be fine. An app that works and is not updates is fine for me. Here we are talking about crowds of users that have a very unstable app since iOS7, more than 3 months and counting ...
People is aware of the fact they are working on v4, but being busy for the big project does not make happy any of those who cannot read PDFs as they used to for the last 3 months ... I, and many others, have been completely abandoned for 3 months, not a nice experience, trust me.
Thanks for explaining the sync mechanism in Documents.
Is there a way to choose between 1-way or 2-way sync? I think this options exists in Goodreader.
I always liked Goodreader, til the last version.
It gives you grey screens regularly. Though you can solve this with a short swipe, it is very annoying. I could have lived with this but recently it messed up some annotations. I think it is taking Goodreader long to come with an update.
So last week I switched to PDF Expert 5 which can do everything Goodreader can and has a nice interface to boot.
I will take a look at it when a new version of Goodreader comes out, but actually I'm happy with PDF Expert now.
It gives you grey screens regularly. Though you can solve this with a short swipe, it is very annoying. I could have lived with this but recently it messed up some annotations. I think it is taking Goodreader long to come with an update.
So last week I switched to PDF Expert 5 which can do everything Goodreader can and has a nice interface to boot.
I will take a look at it when a new version of Goodreader comes out, but actually I'm happy with PDF Expert now.
can PDF Expert 5 search files in a Dropbox folder by name? not easy to guess from their website ...
Why don't you go with PDF Expert 5?
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You may sync a folder and then you can search by name and by contents in that folder.
It appears Goodreader has decided to put all their effort into getting the next version out, rather than bugfix the current version. That is a gamble on their part, as they're obviously going to be alienating some portion of their customers.
Personally, I find the current version usable, though slightly annoying, so I'll probably stick with it for the foreseeable future. But when someone asks me for a recommendation, I do tell them to avoid Goodreader, at least for the time being. I think there are good alternatives that are in better shape right now.
Personally, I find the current version usable, though slightly annoying, so I'll probably stick with it for the foreseeable future. But when someone asks me for a recommendation, I do tell them to avoid Goodreader, at least for the time being. I think there are good alternatives that are in better shape right now.
I am using PDF Expert 5 for a week now and in my opinion its annotation features are better than Goodreader:
- I can type direct on the PDF instead of in a textbox, the text box in Goodreader is often blocking my view
- sometimes the text box in Goodreader gets under the keyboard so I can't see what I'm typing
- I think the menu/handling of PDF Expert is better
- ability to type text annotations in different fonts
(By the way I never use handwritten annotations)
- I can type direct on the PDF instead of in a textbox, the text box in Goodreader is often blocking my view
- sometimes the text box in Goodreader gets under the keyboard so I can't see what I'm typing
- I think the menu/handling of PDF Expert is better
- ability to type text annotations in different fonts
(By the way I never use handwritten annotations)
+1 I picked up PDF Expert when 5 was released and don't miss Goodreader one bit. It's actually since been deleted from my ipad.