We analyzed 59 negative reviews from the top 5 Bullet Journal Planner apps on the App Store. Here's what users hate most.
Ranked by frequency — how often each complaint appears in negative reviews.
15% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"So I thought awesome 9.99 and I can sync it to my calendar.... wrong... what they don't tell you here is that you only get a basic.... that you have to upgrade to the pro in order to get the syncing."
"So I bought the app because I wanted to draw on calendar..but because I can't link my google cal I have to look at my phone while using this app which is redundant."
14% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"This app is amazing conceptually but has deleted HOURS of work and planning randomly. It has happened 3 times and I've completely lost faith in this app."
"I had spent hours writing out my planner for months in advance, when I turned my IPad on the following day, all of the data had disappeared."
12% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Calendar types do not sync so you have to fill each out- weekly and monthly and yearly."
"I need to see my week and month as a whole sometimes and the events do no show up if you go from day to week or month."
10% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"It crashed frequently when writing, I couldn't even finish 3 words in row. It is unstable."
"I've got iPhone 8 and when I go to write something with my finger it does a letter and then it crashes."
19% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"NOT at ALL what I'd expect from an app that costs nearly ten bucks!"
"This is definitely not what I was looking for and definitely not worth $9 (in my opinion). This app is essentially just blank pages."
8% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"I purchased this app, attempted to use my pencil to write and it does not work at ALL."
"I have a brand new Apple Pencil and it doesn't seem to write well in this app"
Design and usability issues driving negative reviews.
Users accidentally write on screen when trying to zoom or navigate, lacking proper palm rejection
"It's annoying when i try to zoom in or out , because the touch of my finger marks or writes on the calendar"
No tap-to-jump functionality; users must manually scroll/navigate to specific dates
"I would like to able to tap on a date and have the app take me to that specific date"
Cut/copy/paste functionality doesn't work consistently or pastes in wrong locations
"The lasso cut/copy/paste tool is not reliable. I can cut/copy/delete an item, but i cannot paste the item i just cut/copied. If it does paste, it pastes in a completely different spot where I never pointed to."
Writing requires zooming but the zoom quality is poor and blurry
"I also didn't like the UI to write anything you need to zoom on the screen and this zoom is also just blurry"
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