Troubleshooting Search Issues

Search issues may indicate that Notability was unable to process or index the file successfully.

Before troubleshooting: Newly created or imported notes (especially PDFs) may take a few minutes to be indexed before they appear in search results. If you just added a note, wait a moment and try again. Note that some PDFs may not be searchable depending on how they were created.

If Notability is having trouble searching, try the following: 

  1. Force-quit Notability and reopen it, then try searching again.
  2. On your iPad, go to Settings > Notability, then check whether Safe Mode is enabled.
    • When Safe Mode is enabled, Search will be turned off.
    • Disable Safe Mode and try searching once more.
  3. Go to your list of notes, press-and-hold on a note's name, tap the Duplicate button that appears, and then try to search in the new copy of the note.

If those steps don't help, let us know!

Submit a ticket and our Support Team will be in touch. Let us know the following: 

  1. Did search stop working in all of your notes or only in some?
  2. Is the note where search is failing typed text, handwritten, or an imported PDF?
  3. Attach a sample note to your support ticket.

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