[UPDATE: GoodReader 5 was finally released on January 28, 2019. I'm testing the app now and will post a review soon.]
One of the most important apps for any attorney using an iPad is an app to organize, view and annotate PDF files. There are quite a few excellent choices out there, but for many years my app of choice has been GoodReader. The last major update was GoodReader 4, released in 2014. A lot has changed in the iPad and iOS world since then, so I've been eagerly looking forward to the next major update, GoodReader 5. For example, version 4 of the app doesn't include advanced support for the Apple Pencil like some other apps, nor does the app support multitasking features such as split screen.
The developer of the app, Yuri Selukoff, teased the version 5 release in April 2017, when he said the following on Facebook: "It’s a huge update with a completely new design and new features, some you may not even know you'll want until you've seen them! So fear not, and get ready (or for those of you who’ve been ready, stay ready) – GoodReader 5.0 is on the way!" Throughout 2017 and into early 2018, I saw similar comments from the developer in response to user reviews on the App Store. For example, the developer said: "We understand why the app appears to be abandoned. There have been no updates for quite a while! However, we assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. We're working around the clock on our biggest update ever, GoodReader 5. It's going to be huge, with features you didn't even know you wanted until you've seen them. We appreciate your patience!"
In response to another app review noting the lack of support for the features of the iPhone X, the developer responded:
We want to assure you that GoodReader is definitely not abandoned. We guarantee, it is indeed being developed further. We're still working hard on GoodReader 5 which will be a free, automatic update from GoodReader 4, but we admit it's taking much longer to complete than we originally estimated. ... We do regret that this update is running late, but we assure you it will be a free update from GoodReader 4 to GoodReader 5. Anyone considering purchasing GoodReader for the first time, should know that they can buy GoodReader 4 now and receive GoodReader 5 as a free update — but it's also not a bad idea to wait until GoodReader 5 is released before deciding whether to buy it or not — that makes perfect sense to me! We hope this clears up any concerns you may have about GoodReader's continued development into the future.
And in yet another response from the developer, he says: "Our main goal is to make sure it's done right, and that it lives up to the high standards our users have come to expect from GoodReader."
A few days ago, I saw that there was an update to GoodReader. At first, I thought that this was the major update we have been waiting for, but then I saw that the update was still part of version 4 — version 4.13.0 to be exact. The developer explained that this was just a minor bug fix and that "we're finishing our huge GoodReader 5 upgrade ... [s]tay tuned for the free major upgrade that is to follow soon!"
If the developer is "finishing" version 5, hopefully that means that we will see it in weeks or months, and won't have to wait until 2019.
Speaking of the recent update to version 4.13.0, I actually had a problem with that update, and the developer helped me to fix it. While the release notes say that the recent update was apparently supposed to solve some sync issues, that update actually caused me to experience sync problems with Dropbox. After the update, the app crashed for me every time I pressed the button to sync to Dropbox. I reported the bug through the GoodReader website and within just a few hours, the developer gave me a fix. (In case you experience the problem I did: click the gear icon next to Dropbox in the Connect pane of GoodReader, then log out of Dropbox, then log back in again.) I understand that hiccups happen from time to time. I appreciate the developer's quick response to me with a solution, and hopefully this is a good sign of the attention that the developer is giving to GoodReader as he finishes up the work on version 5.
