Apple Pencil Lag with Notes in iPadOS 16.1

I deleted the new app "Freeform".

After that, new notes, and notes created before IOS 16, came back to life. The couple of notes that I'd created under IOS 16, with Freeform installed, were still broken.

Hi! Bought new iPad 9th generation, arrived yesterday. Opened and configured, it was running on iPadOS 15.x. I started to use Apple Note App to take notes. Everything smooth like butter. Today I decided to upgrade to 16.2.

After that, I opened the Note App to continue taking notes on the same note. I cannot write naturally anymore, it lags a lot. If I write a continuous line there is no lag, but if I write many little parallel lines, it misses some input and will render it after some seconds. Sometimes I change pen to eraser and try to erase something and nothing happens, but if I close the note and reopen it, I can finally see the erasing result.

Moreover, I tried to open a new note and seems to go smooth as before update. I don't know if it could be the "size" of the previous note that can introduce this lag, but yesterday I used it without problems before updating. There is something really strange about Note App on iPadOS 16.

I also tried the new FreeForm App and there is no problem, but it is not responsive as Note App in writing.

I need Note App a lot, so please do something about that Apple!

Hi xavier106,

The following steps may provide a solution: Quit and reopen an app on iPad

1. "To quit an app, open the App Switcher, then swipe up on the app.
2. To reopen the app, go to the Home Screen (or the App Library), then tap the app."

Quitting the Notes app should clear out any errors and refresh the app.

If you have followed the steps correctly and you still have the issue, reach out to us directly here as this may require closer guidance: Get Support

Cheers!

Have been having this issue thru all of the iOS16 betas and into production iOS16 & 16.1 - Still not fixed in 16.2 Betas. iPad Mini 6th Gen. Was buttery smooth on iOS15 - now its hard to use due to the destroyed fluidity.

I HAVE A TEMPORARY FIX !

Hi everyone,

Hope you're doing well.

Listen, I've found a (temporary) fix to this problem.

Issue :

The issue occur for me since IOS 16.X

Apple note get very very and very laggy when using the Apple Pencil explicitly on the Apple Note app after a short while on the same note.

Also, the iPad get hot and battery drains quickly

The issue occur with new notes that have been created when running IOS 16 and/or if new tools

SOLUTION : This is what you can do to bypass the issue :

Info : There is 3 requirements you need for this to work :

1. Have an old handwritten "note" that you've created earlier when you were using IOS 15 (or lower).
2. That "old note" has to be unused with the new tools IOS 16 provided in the Note App.
3. You have to own a Macbook

Steps :

1. Open the note app on your Mac
2. Find a Note in the note app that you created when you were on IOS 15 (or lower). (This note has to be untouched with all the new "notes tools" available since IOS 16)
3. Right Click on the note and click "Duplicate"
4. Erase the typed text and images you've inserted (if any) BUT keep the old writing field
5. VOILÀ ! The new duplicated note is now free of lag as long as you don't use the new handwriting "tools" on this one.

Tips : What I've done is I've then duplicated "that old note" x9999 times, created a folder, moved all those non-glitchy note to this newly created folder.

So then, when I want to handwrite, instead of creating a new note, I navigate to this folder, and I "move" one of the notes to the folder of my choice.

Hey everyone,

As of right now, I got it working like before. I deleted the app from my iPad and reinstalled it from the App Store. Give it a shot and let me know if it works for anyone else! Just make sure you have iCloud on for Notes and that it is synced before deleting. After I reinstalled, all the notes came back and the pencil was working fine again.

Hopefully this will end this blunder.

The tilt function for the eraser is also not working like it used to. It made tutoring and doing math problems very easy with its ability to change eraser size simply by tilting the pencil. The new update nerfed the pencil within the apple notes app and I am very unhappy about it.

Well, I take it all back. It didn’t take long to all go to garbage again. Tried removing the app a d reinstalling again. It worked for a short time but it’s all crap. Apple needs to fix this immediately. My pencil is garbage until they do.

On my iPad Pro 11 inch, I'm experiencing the same issue.

I contacted Apple support, and they recommended me to reinstall or perform a factory reset, and if that won't help, to wait for the next update :(

Can this be confirmed by someone else?

I found this in my iPad Pro 9.7 with first available release of iPadOS 16.x. As I use Apple Notes a lot in my daily work, I decided to go back to iPadOS 15 and I will not upgrade to 16 again until this is fixed, or until there’s an easy workaround… the previous suggestion about using old notes and a Mac is not suitable for me, I do not have a Mac (yet!)

I don’t believe Apple have determined root cause of this issue. I have noticed that this issue seems to build up when I have added to notes over time eg a daily journal. If a start a new note the Pencil does not lag but if I add content to my note each day the lag returns after a certain point.

@Apple are you working on a fix for this ? The is a work around ie. just start a new note but it is a port user experience. The performance degradation should be addressed it is clearly a bug seems to have been created by the recent upgrade.

I’m having the exact same issue. I’ve restarted and closed all apps. The problem persists.

I have the exact same with iPadOS 16.1.1

It completely ruins the functionality of the Apple Pencil combined with Notes which worked so smooth before…

This bug has to be fixed.