The Breakroom

Linea on iPadOS: Hold Off for Now

June 24, 2019

By Craig Hockenberry

We’re all excited about the changes coming in the new iPadOS. The urge to install the new shiny is strong with this one!

But before you start your download, be aware that you’re likely to have problems with both Linea Sketch and Linea Go. Some early adopters have lost access to drawings and aren’t able to create new sketches.

We’re still trying to understand what’s causing this data syncing issue. It may be specific to Linea or a more general problem with iCloud. As we learn more, we’ll update this post.

If Linea is a part of your workflow, our current recommendation is do not install the iPadOS or iOS 13 beta.

Updated July 1st, 2019: We have released version 2.6.1 which blocks Linea from running on iOS 13. If you absolutely need to run on the new OS and are willing to take the risk of data loss, we can add you to our beta test. Please get in contact to set this up.

Updated July 2nd, 2019: The release notes for iOS 13 Beta 3 indicate that there are many known issues with iCloud. If you are using a beta of either iOS or macOS that’s connected to iCloud, you run the risk that the beta will delete information and the data removal will propagate to devices using production releases. If you have any device running a beta release, make sure you have a backup of your iCloud Drive. The easiest place to make this backup is on a Mac running Mojave.

Updated July 9th, 2019: These problems with iCloud are affecting many apps. If you have an iOS or macOS beta installed, we recommend that you disable iCloud on the device or login with a test account where you don’t mind losing data. Otherwise, you’ll lose data on your production devices.

Updated July 10th, 2019: We submitted a detailed incident report with Apple’s Developer Technical Support only to find out that beta releases are not supported. If you’re a customer using iOS 13 or macOS Catalina, this means app developers can’t get any direct help for these iCloud issues. All we can do is submit feedback and wait for the data loss to stop (FB6337265).

Updated September 5th, 2019: Our experiences with iCloud have improved significantly in the most recent betas. We’ve also heard reports that all of the server changes that were causing the issues have been reverted, so you’re back to using the same iCloud you had in iOS 12. We also have an updated version of Linea waiting for the final release of iOS 13.

For an honest look at our experience over the past few months, and recommendations for Apple to help prevent this kind of data loss, please see my blog for an in-depth report.