As a Teacher, you may notice that your Students are unable to use certain features in the Lessons you share with them. This is likely due to the version of the Goodnotes app someone is using in your Class.
What is Going On?
Goodnotes and Goodnotes Classroom now automatically adjust the features available in a shared Lesson based on the oldest version of the app among all collaborators. In simple terms, if a Student is using an older version of the app, certain features that require a newer version will be unavailable to all collaborators, even if they're using a newer version of Goodnotes.
You can easily tell if this is happening in your Lesson or Notebook by checking to see if the Triangle icon appears in your Lesson's tab:
Why Does This Happen?
We’ve made updates to Goodnotes and Goodnotes classroom, to ensure version compatibility. Before this, if someone on a newer version of the app updated a Lesson using a new feature, users on an older app version couldn’t access that Lesson.
With these improvements, this no longer happens. The system will automatically adjust the Lesson so that everyone can access it, only the features supported by the oldest version will be available to the rest of the Students.
For example, if you create a Lesson with a new feature available in a recent update, but one of your students is using an older version of Goodnotes, that feature will not be available to anyone in the class—regardless of which version they're on. However, the Lesson will still be accessible and editable by everyone.
How Does This Affect My Classroom Lessons?
- No More Compatibility Issues: Your students can still access and work on Lessons even if they are using different app versions.
- Automatic Adjustment: You won’t need to manually check or adjust versions. Goodnotes now does all the work in the background to ensure everyone in your Class can participate without trouble.
What Should I Do if a Student Can't Access a Feature?
If a Student can’t access a feature in your Lesson, it’s most likely because someone in the class is using an older version of the app. Here are some steps to help:
- Check if the Student is on the Latest Version: If possible, encourage your Students to update their Goodnotes app to the latest version to ensure they can access all features.
- Be Aware of Feature Limitations: If a Student is using an older version, the entire class will be limited to the features available in that version. This may affect everyone’s experience with some of your Lessons.
My Students are all on the latest version and the feature is still not working
If you have checked that all Students are on the latest version and a particular feature is still not working, perform the following checks:
- Check that other Lessons in the Class Folder are experiencing the same limitation.
- Check if the Triangle icon is appearing in the Lesson's tab.
- Check that you have also updated Goodnotes Classroom as you are also a collaborator and so the app will take your version into account too!
- Check that Students are also unable to use the feature in their private Notebooks to make sure the issue is with version compatibility and not with the feature itself.
If you are still having issues or believe that this system or a feature is broken, please contact Support or reach out to your Admin.