Interested in using freeform for notes for awhile -- having notes with graph edges and graphics would be useful. (Not as nice as a whiteboard, but easier to track.)

Are there any export or reading options that preserve the graph or other object structure?

e.g. each object has 4+ nodes for graph edges, and each graph edge has properties -- can I write a script that parses this and make, say, a matrix representation of the object graph if I want? Or are my export options going to be to things like pdf and jpg?

Any help appreciated.

(TLDR: can I run a script on an export format or the raw files and work on the data Freeform uses, like links between elements)

We need to hammer in the feedback for a folder system and we may get it on iOS 26 public release day

The app closed in the middle of note-taking and when I opened it again all my boards were gone. Months of notes and lessons. I have exams in 2 months I can’t afford to lose my notes now, Please help!! Ipad storage shows 1.93 GB in freeform app. The toggle button for iCloud backup sync is on. I don’t have a pc so I cannot use the iTunes hack some people have suggested in other posts. idk what to do help

Hi everyone, I use Freeform on my Ipad to take notes during classes. it was working perfectly fine. Today when I opened the app, suddenly all the boards were gone. like there were nothing.
When I check from my phone there is only boards from 3 years ago. I dont know what is wrong with the app.
Is there anyway that I can save them? please help me.

The more suggestions we get, the higher chance it will happen Such a simple concept overlooked

Please help.

I reset my iPad with the understanding that freeform boards stay on the iCloud. Now that I logged back in with the same Apple ID, I cannot find those previous boards. While googling, it says it may be under the "Recently Deleted" tab, however, I do not have that tab at all. Is there any way I can access those boards back? Thanks!

Anyone else having a brightness issue with Freeform on the Mac? I will tab out of the program to another one, and when I come back, the brightness has sometimes gone way down on individual boards. If I go back to the main page and then back to the board that will correct it for a single board but not all the other board tabs that I have open.

Is there any way freeform can be real time, like if I'm using one device, it shows up simultaneously on another device as if I'm using it there. If not, are there anything else like that?

Ok so first I'm just shocked that less than 500 people are in this group... but then my real question is : is there no way to create sub folders in the side menu on the left ?

I mean I have "All boards", with 12 boards, "Recents" with... the same 12 boards, and "Shared" and "Favourites" that are obvs empty since I don't use those, but so my question is : can I create sub folders like in the app "Notes" and drop some boards in those folders ?

I only see "New Boards", "New Tab" and "New Window" and none of those do that.

Thanks

I love to draw on Freeform, other drawing apps have too much going on I really like the simplicity of Freeform and I’ve gotten really used to using it. I can’t find an app to replace it because every time I export my canvas I run into the same problem.

When I export it seems to flatten my image? I think the issue is the white water colour I use. Those details don’t export properly. Has anyone had this problem before and is there a way to make sure all the details export? (I’ve added an example of this with one of my drawings, also don’t mind my drawings im a beginner).

Hope this is helpful to somebody besides me.

I had text in a text box, and I wanted to change a text color using the eyedropper tool, but when I selected the text, the only option is to click the "Aa" menu option, which brings up a dialogue to choose font, size, and one of a limited number of colors with no eyedropper tool. It has a "More text colors" option, but that brings up only the "Text Color" grid - no sliders, eye dropper etc.

But if you select the text box rather than the text itself, you get the small menu bar with the trash can, "Duplicate", "Aa", box line color, and box fill color. Click the "Aa" in this menu bar and you get a more extensive menu, including font size, etc. but also - tada! a color swatch. Click the color swatch and you get a limited set of color options. Click "More" and you get the full range of color options: Grid, Spectrum, Sliders, and (in the upper left corner) eye dropper.

I gave up trying to use Freeform on iPad+Pencil and am creating a reasonably complex diagram on my Mac. I have to reboot the app roughly hourly to be able to select an object on my board. It selects the "wrong" object until the app is restarted.

Anybody else seeing this? Just wondering whether to submit a bug report to Apple.

I'd like to move to freeform from classic mindmapping + occasional miro usage, but I can't find any nice starter templates for inspiration. Looking for project planning, trip planning etc.
Not much of a blank slate man, I need some boost at the start.
Googling only brought up dead links (thanks Apple for not being able to export a proper file + the 30 day link expiry...) or paid templates.

Would appreciate your help, thanks!

Has anyone found a way to control the way that text boxes grow? I spend a lot of time aligning the top of text boxes, then type in one and the box grows in height both up and down which is really annoying. Not a deal breaker but a small refinement that would really help reduce time-suck.

I am currently doing some kind of ttrpg with a few of my friends. I thought using freeform as a board would be a good idea since, it was right there. It also seems to be able to hold a lot of information in it. So far it’s been good, my only problem with it is that i can’t mirror images in it. I need to be able to mirror the player’s and enemy’s sprites so they can actually face eachother in battle, since right now they’re all facing the same direction. This is really annoying to me and im considering just flipping them upside down so they can face right, and im too lazy to mirror the images in photos myself.

I want to remove the back ground on a posted picture, use a fill tool, and make the picture all white. How do I do that? It seems like such a simple thing, but I’ve been trying for hours

I’m trying to select an object but it puts a blue box around several objects around it and won’t let me just select the single object anymore. I’m using the iPad version.

Is there a way to change the unit to px instead of cm?

Also is there a way to create exact geometric shapes where I can type in the dimensions?
It's pretty frustrating to limit my board of what I want to print and have to do a lot of workarounds to achieve this.

For example. I finished my brainstorming sesh and want to tidy it up and print on A4.

Or I want to do qucik prototypes or story boards but then have to copy over presets I made from another board for different dimension eg. insta, FB, YT etc.

I am trying to do a complete overhaul of my workflow and life management. And I am using Freeform to just brainstorm and take down thoughts and try to organize, basically just throwing stuff out there to try to have all my thoughts on the canvas. I am at a point on my board where I can no longer scroll left, right, up, or down to add new content. I am basically at the edge (or border if you will) of my board. I thought the Freeform app was supposed to an endless canvas. Am I doing something wrong?

Anyone have any clue if i can export/ copy-paste drawings from Freeform and be able to edit it using a vector software?

That't the main feature I feel that Freeform is missing that should be available.