Handwritings and drawings in Freeform not syncing properly to my device

I had the exact same issue when I created a board on my iPad Mini 6th Gen (and wrote the text using the Apple Pencil 2nd Generation) and shared it with my Fiancé but she was seeing the text come up garbled on her iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPad Pro 5th Generation.

I unshared the board with her, and then upgraded her iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPad Pro 5th Generation to the latest iOS release (16.3.1), shared the board with her again and it fixed the issue.

Hopefully that helps.

Welp: 16.4 seems to have FINALLY fixed it.

I tried to add a handwritten note and that did NOT force enough of an update to fix previous notes so I just cut the entire board an waited for it to be reflected on my Mac. Then pasted it and everything was correct.

It's a little ugly as solutions go but it's working so I'm over it.

Hope you're all seeing the same thing.

Best~

This issue has not been fixed as I am having this problem today 5-25-23 every device is up to date with latest versions... I did find an interesting work around though.

I am Using my iPad and M1 Mac mini on iCloud, granted this is not sharing between people but I think it will apply to that scenario as well.

1. Select newly hand written text on iPad
2. Cut
3. Paste

The handwritten text is now fully visible on the Mac.

Did you try this:

on the device with the correct and complete drawings, select all (ctrl+a) and cut (ctrl+x) the entire board.

Wait until the empty board is synced to your Mac. Then paste it back in and wait until it’s updated on your Mac again.

Simply adding a new drawing to an existing board didn’t correct the old ones but forcing it to sync the entire board again worked perfectly for me.

…and new boards work perfectly.

I think it is a bug, before Apple fix my solution is:

example: my iPad have a whole right Freeform note, but my Mac can't syncing.

1. Duplicate a new one on my iPad
2. Waiting for syncing the copy one to my Mac

And then 2 device will be recovery syncing with the new one. Delete the old one and use the new one to continue.

Just an fyi...I use the "lasso tool" (via the apple pencil) to cut and re-paste the handwritten text on my iPad that isn't showing up correctly on my Mac and iPhone and after re-pasting it does show up correctly on my Mac and iPhone. Interesting. Not sure what that means but I did get all of my handwritten notes "fixed" on my Mac and iPhone albeit having to do several cut and pastes.

Where did your document originate? Do you have one device - any device - where the document in question is 100% correct? I know this isn't a "fix" as you still have to doink around with it but cutting the entire document and waiting a minute or so until the empty document is shown on all devices - then pasting back in worked perfectly.

Likewise, starting a new document and drawing in it should see it sync perfectly now.

With 16.4 and 13.3 are you not experiencing the same thing?

Similar problem also happened in my devices. Handwriting incorrectly displayed amongst my Mac, iPhong and a participant's iPad, exclude my initial device which created this board.

And I just found a little solution that can fix this temperately, that is to select all elements on the board and make a duplicate move it aside and delete the original portion.

Thanks for your updates! I've got all my devices updated to 16.4 and seems to work great on on end too!

Guys, I found a “kind of” temporary fix!

I noticed that when I write on the iPad, it shows up fragmented on all other devices. BUT, when I had the board open on the Mac and basically watched myself write, it synced perfectly while it wouldn’t sync on the phone. BUT then when I had the same board open on the phone, it started Syncing perfectly and instantly.

so I know it kinda sucks and Apple need to fix, but this could help in the meantime.

open the board on all other devices simultaneously and it might sync.

I'm increasingly beginning to believe this is an API issue with iCloud, and that Freeform is using the same handwriting sync API as Notes. Notes has the same issue where handwritten notes will disappear mid-stroke, or just stop syncing (which means you could lose hours of notes without knowing it simply by closing out Notes). Whatever code they're using for Freeform is also being used in Notes, hence the similar problem.

Very frustrating. Remember that Tim Cook's email is public as well -- flood Apple with bug reports and Tim with emails and maybe they'll get around to fixing this. It's disappointing since Microsoft has been able to do this kind of syncing with OneNote for 10 years now without a single issue.

Thanks for reaching out Bee-am,

It sounds like you're having trouble seeing markup on Freeform boards that are sent to you, and you've tried to rule a few things out.

Since you've already tried a number of great steps without any success, we want to know more about how you are sharing them, as that might lead us to a resolution.

You mentioned that Freeform boards you share are intact, but ones you receive are missing some elements. Is this happening with one contact in particular that shares with you, or all of them?

Also, how are you sharing these with each other? You can check out this guide to Share Freeform boards and collaborate on iPad to see if there is any change.

If you still have trouble after that, your best bet is to Contact Apple for support and service and report the issue.

Hope that helps.

Take care.

I can not confirm any "recovery" neither problem solved.

I do have an old board generated during CW03/23 (iPad Pro 11"(A1934) /iPad OS 16.3) . Which I do used also last week on the iPad and it doesn't sync properly my handwriting on my M1 Mac mini. (Ventura 13.2) and on my iPhone 14 Plus iOS 16.3.

Same observation applied with a new board generated last Friday with iPad OS 16.3.

From my point of view the "problem" is not solved, at least with my HW/SW Config.

This issue certainly needs to be addressed by Apple. In the interim, I noticed if I made a duplicate copy of a Board on my iPad when the duplicate synced on my Macbook Pro, all of the handwritten annotations and notes were there.

iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad OS 16.3.1

M1 Macbook Pro, Ventura 13.2.1