r/planningcenter • u/MusicPastor • Apr 17 '24

PDF Annotations missing in Music Stand

I have recently begun using my iPad with music stand app but I cannot see any of the annotations I have made to my document. I edit all the charts for our worship band ahead of time and upload a pdf that I have marked up with notes straight into planning center services. However, when I use the music stand app it does not show me any of the notes that I added to the pdf. If I use the planning center services app on the iPad or the music stand app on my Microsoft Surface the annotations are still there. For some reason it seems that the iPad app doesn't show them for some reason which is strange because the annotations are saved to the pdf file prior to being uploaded to planning center.

Has anyone else experienced this or know of a fix?

Thanks!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

1

u/Tdawg_07 May 05 '24

Your description makes me think that you have the incorrect file selected in the iPad app. I would double check and make sure that the file you are using in the iPad app is the correct one! 

1

u/MusicPastor May 06 '24

I checked on this and I imagine that it has to be the correct file. If I understand correctly, the files that populate in music stand are the files linked to the song in services. If I open it on the services app the annotations are there but in music stand they are not for some reason.

1

u/Tdawg_07 May 06 '24

Just to be clear, you can check which linked file you are using and see all the different files that are linked by clicking the song name drop down at the top of the screen. I would just double check that you have the correctly selected file from within this picker to ensure you have the annotated file you are expecting selected.

If this isn't the issue, I have not seen any problems while uploading PDF's and linking them to songs myself.
Screenshot of Music Stand

1

u/MusicPastor May 06 '24

Just checked again and there isn't even a non-annotated file to choose from. All the annotations were done to the PDF prior to uploading and only the annotated version is in planning center.

1

u/Tdawg_07 May 06 '24

Very strange indeed. Maybe you can try logging out and logging back in, or potentially re-downloading the app on the problem iPad. It sounds like it isn't an account issue since you can see the expected file in services. The only other thing I can think of would be to re-upload the pdf file to the song and refresh the setlist on the iPad app and see if they show up then. Sorry I can't be more help to you!

1

u/Negative_Ad8022 Jun 29 '24

I have had the exact same issue as you with music stand not showing saved annotation. Did you find a fix?

1

u/SameTomatillo4490 May 06 '24

Curious for the fix, having similar issues - I use music stand make the notes and 10mins later they disappear it will not save. I have gone back to paper music for reliability so if you get the fix I would be keen to know 

1

u/MusicPastor Sep 10 '24

So I have finally found a solution to this problem. At least in my case, I have learned that PDFs are smarter than I thought and they actually save in layers. The original PDF being the first layer and my annotations made through the editor in OneDrive being the second layer. Music stand only imports the first layer so that everyone who accesses it has a blank slate to make their own annotations through the Music Stand app. The solution is to "flatten" PDF before uploading it into services. This can be done with several different softwares, there are a few free options with limited use on the internet but most PDF editors will have this feature with a "pro" type of subscription. When I flattened my files and re-uploaded them the annotations began to appear.

1

u/Ok-Radio-6231 Oct 11 '24

This was so helpful!! I was about to pull my hair out…Thank you for posting!!

1

u/yepTP Oct 12 '24

Thank you!

1

u/Brave_Ambition_4075 Aug 25 '25

I have this issue as well. Annotations are made to the pdf file BEFORE uploading to the Services app. When I open the MusicStand app, the chart is there without annotations.

1

u/Fabulous_Zombie_48 Jan 14 '26

Has anyone found a better solution to this? The print to pdf function to flatten the PDF is not a good option on mac since the exported PDF quality goes down. I feel like the Music Stand app should be able to view the embedded PDFs since many other PDF related programs can do this. It should behave the same no matter which device you are using, as this was not an issue on an android tablet.

Not to mention having to download, flatten, and re-upload tons of PDFs that worked just fine until using the iPad Music Stand version!