Papers 3 for iOS

Syncs nicely via Dropbox with Papers for Mac Easy to use and critically smooth lag free operation Thanks devs Update they made it free the week after I bought it                 Very nice

Update 2 After 2 years worth of updates Papers 3 finally works for me I wouldnt call it bugless but all the main issues have disappeared Syncing works Lets hope it stays this way Update The latest version made the app very unstable which now drops all the time to the point of being unusable The update has turned a very bad piece of software into something even worse Basically every single feature has issues The worst part is the Dropbox syncing which works 50 of the time Ive been in touch with the help center trying to figure out the issue but its been a complete waste of time This app should be rewritten from the grounds up              Buggy as hell UPDATED

I dont even want to give it one star I have been a long time papers user on Mac and I like it This Ipad version fails to download pdf every single time I try even though I already have the pdfs in my dropbox database through a mac version Sorry this app has a very long way to go to be useful     Pdf download error

I primary use this app with the latest Mac OS X version Papers 3 Compared with the desktop version this app is not that good for doing annotation retrieval 1 Lets say Ive annotated different colors of highlights and underlines strikethroughs commentsetc All I want is that this app would allow me to search within these annotations But currently this is not possible for iOS version Unlikely the desktop version you can only search the whole document here 2 A second issue for both desktop version and this iOS version is that I wish I can search those annotations with some specified categories Lets say I wish I can simply search the term heeez within yellow or blue color highlights strikethroughs and comments But not in any other color highlights or underlines Currently there is no way to do so I cannot turn onoff the search domains Thats why I strongly think PDF viewer of Papers app in both version should have better search within domains function 3 Meanwhile the retrieval accuracy remains to be improved in current iOS version Lets say Im looking for in some book In iOS version this query returns bunch of results which contains either or On the other hand search the same query in Mac version returns the correct results which is the results ONLY 4 The forth issue is that even if Ive changed nothing after clicking the sync button the app shows Applying XXX change sets This is so inefficient Strangely this problem doesnt exist until I annotated couple hundreds annotations within one book one large pdf file It seems Papers thought it stopped syncing after some time point before so the app kept resyncing everything since that point while actually it did successfully sync all the time 5 Meanwhile when I tried to quickly sync backandforth in a short time within the latest added update several earlier annotations missed on one of the devices yet those later annotations did show up Mostly this happened after highlighting a group of sentences        Ive Been Using This App for A While And This Is My Review

I purchased this app back in 2014 for one single reason as a patent search for google patents I quickly noticed that this app did not work at all with the Google Patents search A month later I noticed the bug was still there upon contacting support I was told by their SUPPORT TEAM Im afraid there wasnt much development work over the Christmas period and this ticket hasnt yet been picked up by the development team However Ill bring it up with them again and hopefully we can get this fixed shortly I cant give you an ETA unfortunately HERE we are in mid 2015 multiple updates later and Google Patent search does not work at all To replicate this issue is easy just search something with Google Patents and try to open the results As you can see it does not work at all Further attempts to address this resulted in no response whatsoever Being that they claim this functionality in their marketing materials and yet the claimed functionality does not work at all It makes me wonder what the problem is over at Mekentosj This is no way to run a software developer and I hope a viable competitor comes out soon     Core Functionality Broken

Dropbox sync doesnt work after selecting existing library           Sync problems

This remains one of the most buggy apps for handling your references despite the huge arsenal of features Love the matching feature But the app crashes often Syncing is terrible Just add a cloud feature The handwriting tool is totally unusable Artsy brush strokes that make me feel like I am scribbling with a crayon        Still too many problems

Aside from syncing issues that were up front and hitting me hard early on Papers app has improved to the point that I now use it over alternative pdf markup and reader apps I have papers 3 on desktop and the ability to sync and read and mark papers from my iPad is priceless The new free form markup is a breath of fresh air and evidence that the Devs are moving in the right direction Update A LOT better Papers 3 is my goto app for reference storagereviewannotate                 Rough start getting better Updated

Papers three is when the applications this absolutely must have if you do lots of research My primary experience has been with the desktop version the mobile version is excellent because it allows me to continue my work on the go              LoveIt Keep Pushing

Papers user on all platforms since early version 1 Papers3 on osx is reasonable after multiple updates though still buggy and clumsy in some obvious ways After multiple attempts still 0 successful with dropbox syncing on iOS though Just unacceptable and not what their standards were in the past        Pathetic

Like others have noted the interface is quite buggy I thought it would easily import my existing Papers 19 library which has 1300 papers It did not even display the button upon which I was instructed to press Not a good start Editing the information for one article was quite painful Getting the edits to display was a process of repeatedly entering data and then exiting the update and even closing the article In Papers 1 you could at least see the article that you were entering the information Here I had to remember the info i Order to edit Good thing it was my publication Anyways I shall go back to using Papers 192     Meh kentosj

As others have reported far too many issues with program crashing and difficulties syncing Versions 1 and 2 were much better in this regard Concept of easy syncing between devices via Dropbox is terrific Interface changes took a bit of getting used to I often feel that designers forget that the customersusers are busy with their own jobs and dont have time or desire to play around and relearn a tool I had to undo recent version upgrade because of repeated crashed on loading Seems inappropriate to expect me to troubleshoot with their engineers having paid full price for product        Premature release

Sync is slow and when it works there seems to be some confusion around the meaning of the word sync because immediately after it finishes syncing you can press the button and it will sync all over again which is good because it usually didnt succeed the first time Also browsing your collections is painfully slow If you select a different collection from the dropdown list it can take seconds to load if it loads at all This is not a difficult piece of functionality and the fact that even here the developers are having problems indicates the general level of quality in this app     Broken

I used to love Papers But now it crashes all the time Cant read two pages before it crashes Poor update     Terrible update

Woks perfect now synchs between devices Very happy                 Great Update

I am new to using reference management systemsprograms Before I would just use a file structure on my computer and have to dig around for stuff from my memory In a perfect world I would combine Papers3 with some features from other reference management software programs to achieve a balance for me Papers3 comes with a learning curve that the tutorials help to minimize But frankly speaking they are written too vaguely because I believe the developers dont approach their tutorials from a completely new user perspective They have some work to do here Papers3 has been a little buggy for both my iPad and Macbook but it is useable for me now that the syncing is better I think I am convinced that they will continue to develop the software to make it better So I am sticking with Papers3 The one gripe that I have is not figuring out how to easily update and cite my references I usually end up copying the citation from the online library I am in in the correct format for me APA and paste that as the first few lines of note or information I will then clean the title and author information up I wish it were easier for me Overall I would suggest that you use Papers3 first to organize some research materials for maybe a small project hobby or new interest to figure it out After you have climbed that learning curve you can then make a better decision about how you will organize and use Papers3 for your academic or work pursuits I have definitely improved my studies and research from using a reference manager           New User Learning Curve

This version of papers is still better than keeping papers in manually managed folders and organizing citations by hand but it definitely has more problems than previous versions The worst feature of Papers 3 is that it locks your pdf files away in a special type of folder that appears to be accessible but is really not Finder access to the library is always slow and often impossibly slow I do not understand why the developing team hasnt yet made this a priority           Give me my pdfs

Great but it could be improved Although you can attach supplements on Papers on the computer they can not be viewed on the iPad app or at least I have not figured out how A stylus feature could also make this app exceptional by allowing close note taking on the document with the writing tool that will automatically slide across the page as you reach the end of the line This app would be awesome with improved freehand stylus features           Great but supplements cant be viewed in app And no stylus feature

It took a long time for version 3 to mature but now its great                 At last

Much stabler than previous versions A great app that works well in tandem with the desktop version                 Great app

I have to say that I have loved Papers 2 and now even more so Papers 3 Syncing works well except with some books but is probably related to size                 Works very well

I love Papers and have been using it for 8 years now but this release is poorly executed It crashed again and again it failed to sync countless times and the one time that it did sync it erased all of the articles after being suspended and rerun For such an expensive combo 7999999 I expect codes that are mostly bugfree and this is not the case here     terrible

Latest update crashes on startup Please fix ASAP     Help

Im torn on one hand I love Papers and use it frequently for reading journal articles I primarily use the Mac version for downloading the papers via the browser applet and reserve the iPad version for serious reading However I also find papers to be very frustrating primarily because of sluggish performance and general bugginess Granted I have a very large library about 3000 papers but loading and searching are very slow often taking 20 seconds or longer and sometimes the searching simply returns incorrect answers eg an author search will miss some papers by an author Similarly syncing does not appear to occur automatically although it has at least become more robust with recent updates Basically I wish their quality control was better           Mixed review

Frustration isnt even the word to begin with how disappointed in this program I am It could be so great but the Dropbox feature is really not a useful way to sync papers in your library Ver 2 was much better Update 6 months later App is still really buggy and has a hard time pulling PDFs from my DropBox library to my phone Papers used to be a much better app it just keeps getting worse     Old app was much better DropBox sync could be much better

A great app with great idea but seems didnt developed by an iOS developer UI is a bit complicated and is not standard for iOS And a feature which missed is supporting iCloud drive My pdf files stored there and this app doesnt implement UIDocumentPickerViewController For next update I promise give 5 stars if these problems gone           Great but complicated

I used Papers 1 long time ago and abandon it when switching to Papers 2 It was a disaster I dont understand developers concept releasing not even a beta but alpha After a break I decided to give a try to Papers 3 It looks way nicer I am talking both on iPad and OS X versions but same old thing it does not work as it should Sync through Dropbox is awful experience Some files got sync some files not I checked the sync both between desktop and iOS and between two desktops Crap Avoid this program Save your money     Not ready for the prime time

I lost all of my highlights and notes from the last 2 years After this experience I go back to printing out again The Apple desktop version was okay and fantastic actually but this iOS version is terrible I do not recommend to use this program     I lost everything

I was an early adopter of Papers The prior app was terrible and I had the privilege of paying 15 for that experience Now that the Papers 3 app is out they didnt update the existing app I have to buy an entirely new app The desktop license is 75 Ive now sank 13 of the license cost to get functionality that is advertised as being a feature of the software Not happy at all        Works well but expect to pay for a new app with every update

Papers beat out endnote for my needs It is clean and has a smooth workflow for busy researchers              Love it

Well not so much The sync and match on iPad gets lost in a turning wheel I paid extra for the iPad functionality and it has never worked right        No

Great improvement over vet 193                 Excellent academic paper archival system

I wonder why Mekentosj BV made this app with this disasterlike condition From begining until now the condition of this app is the worst If this horrible condition was as the same as in Papers 4 I would never use their tools surely     Exportprint open in other apps not functioning

The developers dont respect the users since they interrupt to prompt for a review Sync does not work poor response from developers     Sync problems features dont work

Like it              Good

I like papers but the speed for sync is not acceptable So basically it impossible to switch seamlessly between Mac and my iPad Hope the team will improve the sync speed in the near future           Not perfect especially for the sync speed

Papers used to be an incredible tool After being bought by Springer it seems to have taken a nosedive I admire the hardworking team that has been slowly resuscitating it Nonetheless the performance is lousy especially for sync It has taken well over a year for v3 to recover features that were previously offered in v2 And customer supportdocumentation is minimal Papers seems to be still on life support only because the other options have their own baggage I continue to use it for now and hope it returns to its former glory soon I also have my eyes on Mendeley and on LaTeX to see if I can find a more stable longterm option           Springer killed it

Being a long time user of all products related to Papers I can say this is a major step forward Sync could be better There are some minor bugs which App doesnt but for the general use I give to it Its perfect I use Mac d desktop version to add papers search etc serious reading on my iPad It works And I will continue to use it Keep improving              Ok not perfect but still love it

Im a user of papers since its first version Im happy with the version 3 but this new upgrade erased all my papers from its library I hope mekentosj can fix it           Problems with the new version

I have tried all the main reference apps for Mac and iOS and this is the best one I have found It integrates well with other apps and I love that I can read and annotate inside the app Also syncing between iOS and Mac is great Had some problems with the sync and using Dropbox but I ironed those out I would really like to see iCloud sync as I really enjoy that with other apps like Ulysses I dont really understand why they introduced local sync versus iCloud sync Would definitely rather see iCloud sync Still it does its main job great I can organize all my sources for each class and they are all in one place and synced through all my devices I love that they have an iPhone version so I can read schoolwork wout my computer or ipad              Great app rough around the edges

Papers 3 is indispensable when I am writing my thesis The apps on my iPad and my iPhone allow me to access my library anywhere This feature is especially handy when I need to readaccess a critical paper on the go My references are easily organized into a searchable database It makes writing a lot easier                 Intuitive

You cant do as much as you do on the Mac app but it is very useful to have it to read papers in your library Not great for importing or editing information of papers in the library After the recent updates iOS and Mac app the sync works great                 latest version works great

Its constantly loosing annotations some of my articles and then to top it off Ive now had several times where the sync brings in some stuff and not others when syncing either direction And then there is just the limitations that are not bugs like no spell check or the annotations are proprietary and cant be read by acrobat and those Ive made in acrobat cant be seen by papers Horrible user experience and theyve had plenty time to fix these things for the prices they charge     Horrible bugs

The application is kind of slow and a little buggy especially for syncing However this is still a very useful companion if you use the desktop application           Slow and a little buggy

I use the app to keep track of my academic papers and to sync these documents across my OS devices Works like a charm                 Great app

Update 2 42515 The most recent updates to this app still havent fixed this issue Authors are added correctly during matching for newly added PDFs but previously added papers are still incorrect and the authors wont import during matching Update The author issue has been partially fixed Now authors are correctly imported during matching and added to the librarywide authors list when adding new papers However this ONLY works with newly added papers The existing 500 papers in my library still arent right and trying to rematch them doesnt pull in the authors correctly I really dont want to delete and readd all of them Please fix thanks Original Why can this app not handle paper authors Since I bought it it refuses to sort by author all the papers just disappear It wont let me just type in author names on the edit page And now its refusing to import the author list when I match articles from PubMed Please fix this app           Authors

I was really excited to move to the Papers 3 ecosystem when I heard that Dropbox sync between Mac and iOS was fully supported However for many of my papers despite the fact that I already have the pdf in my library on Dropbox Papers 3 for iOS will try to redownload the paper from the original paywall sites which I no longer have access to This completely defeats the purpose of Dropbox sync So Im declaring this feature broken and a complete deal breaker until it is fixed Update Sep 18 2014 Decreasing my rating from 2 stars to 1 star because I keep discovering new bugs Not crashes just failures of certain functionality For example adding papers to my reading list just doesnt work for papers that I import directly to Papers 3 for iOS They just never show up there And what controls when the edit menu at the bottom shows up It seems random to me Does anyone even work for this company With so many bugs youd think there would be frequent updates if they cared at all about their customers Update Nov 20 2014 A lot has been fixed in the most recent update Syncing works a lot better Downloading papers from Dropbox is more consistent and things feel quite a bit better The interface is still a bit awkward but Im hopeful that the next update will improve things even more Increasing rating from 1 star to 3 Update May 28 2015 The recent update has made Dropbox syncing about 20x slower and less reliable Not sure what they did but man is the quality control over there bad Youd think another company would swoop in a take this market but for now looks like Im stuck with crappy software Decreasing to 2 stars Update July 25 2015 The most recent update has seemingly fixed the resyncing issues described above Increasing rating back to 3 stars           Sync issues fixed

In contrast to lots of other folks I find that Papers 3 for iOS works very well Syncing to apple MBA and iMac is flawless both running Yosemite The iOS interface looks a lot different from desktop laptop versions and this takes some getting used tomaybe this is a problem for others                 Works very well

Positives 1 Referencing is wonderful no more awful endnote This is what keeps me hanging onto Papers3 and sets it apart from other PDF managers 2 Dropbox sync is great when it works 3 General PDF handling is nice notes searches sharing folder options etc Negatives 1 It is buggy Eg I have to re index spotlight often so I can insert refs into docs Dropbox sync doesnt work reliably right now I cant get a single paper on my iPad I suspect its due to the latest of many updates Hitting the match button does nothing and the import button works 50 of the time It is simply not as reliable as I need it to be 2 Frustratingly slow workflow of importingmatching papers sometimes and extremely difficult to edit paper data 3 Tech support is effective but slow Overall I prefer Papers3 to zotero and others but I yearn for this app to be perfect and it just isnt They have sacrificed reliability for prettiness and are not effectively fixing it Its my favorite right now but ifwhen something better comes along I wont cry when I break up with it              Lovehate relationship

Papers does not sync collections Im frustrated that I paid for this This latest version not only responds very slowly but also made the pen tool virtually unusable What used to be a great way to add handwritten notes to a paper now acts like a very laggy brush that tries to make your handwriting look artsy and calligraphylike Now you can only write comically huge words like a kid scribbling with crayons Whoever was in charge of this should be very embarrassed     Used to be wonderful