Hello,
I'm having trouble exporting my apple notes to PDF. I handwrite notes on my iPad and transfer them via iCloud to my MacBook where I then save them in PDF format. For the last couple of months the notes are exporting upside down and mirrored. I also, I used to highlight and double click the note to pull it up in preview and I am no longer able to highlight notes.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
iPad Pro, iPadOS 16
This solution only works if the entirety of the note is handwritten. I am also having this problem but my notes are a combination of handwritten and typed. When exported, the typed portion of the note is rendered correctly, but the handwritten parts are flipped and rotated.
Hey desklife223,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. The information below may help.
After converting to PDF, open in the Preview app and rotate note. Below are two ways to open a document in the Preview app. The steps are also located in this article: Open PDFs and images in Preview on Mac - Apple Support
Open a file from Preview
In the Preview appon your Mac, do one of the following:
* Choose File > Open, locate and select one or more files to open, then click Open.
* If you worked on a file recently, choose File > Open Recent.
Open a file from the desktop or the Finder
* Double-click a PDF or image file to open it in the Preview app.
* Select one or more files, then choose File > Open With > Preview.
* To open a document in iCloud Drive, click iCloud Drive in the Finder sidebar, then double-click the PDF to open it. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents.
After opening the document in the Previous app, you can rotate and saved it. For steps on rotating a PDF in the Preview app, click here: Crop or rotate a PDF in Preview on Mac
In regards to highlighting in the Preview app, review this article: Highlight, underline, and strike out text in a PDF using Preview on Mac. The steps here should help.
Take care.
However, Preview apparently doesn't flip PDF files (menu option(s) greyed out), so this is pretty much useless
Hi, thanks for the suggestion - rotation works - mirror doesn't work because it's unabled in preview with the saved pdf.
Is there a fundamental bug in notes? Can we (re)change a setting?
This problem reduces severely my functionality with the iPad because I'm not able to share and archive my notes and drawings from meetings.
Could apple make a structural solution?
BERIKI wrote:
Is there a fundamental bug in notes? Can we (re)change a setting?
It could be a bug in Preview. This same kind of problem has been an ongoing bug in Preview with annotations.
Also, this is thread is from April, and it involves iPad, Mac, Monterey, and iCloud. People who reply could be using Ventura and/or Sonoma. That's a whole lot of variables.
I can reproduce the problem with my drawing content upside down when drawn in iOS 16 and exported in Monterey. It looks like the same, underlying problem with PDF logic. It gets really confused with any kind of transformation.
This problem reduces severely my functionality with the iPad because I'm not able to share and archive my notes and drawings from meetings.
Could apple make a structural solution?
Maybe they already did. Someone would have to test this on Ventura and/or Sonoma. I would be surprised if it has been fixed.
The usual solution in these cases is to abandon whatever legacy practices you were used to. Anything "export" is a Red Flag. Apple wants you to "share", not "export".
Apple Notes Exporting Upside Down and Mirrored
