OmniFocus 4 Reviews

It has the planning hierarchies and matrices you’ve come to expect from Omni, but the programming is clunky and lacks sufficient UX direction. For example, adding a task/action flows downward, which makes sense for cascading lists that toggle. The experience gets confused when adding sub-tasks. It flows downward to start, but if your cursor was previously on the dominant task, each new sub task will push any previously created sub-tasks down in the queue, which will force you to reorganize everything manually if you were expecting a standard hierarchical list. If your cursor was on the previously created sub-task, the next created sub-task will be placed above the previous sub-task. When you finish engaging with the sub-task and move on, your list of subtasks often get re-arranged seemingly randomly.

Another problem is the varying representation of folders. I embrace the enjoyment of customization, but not at the expense of function. Nesting folders holds an importance when dealing with tiered, multi-variable projects. Leaving folders out of views leaves the pathway inarticulate, which muddies a user pathway, especially when sufficient complexity is achieved.

This application has the information visualization components in place, but without effective user interaction to help impart the value of using it, there isn’t much function—despite the potential value of the depth it could provide.

Please go back to the older interface. I have used Omnifocus for many many years and just upgraded to Omnifocus 4.
On a simple task with attached photos for an errand to a store became a nightmare to keep the task open and see the attachments. What used to be seamless and easy to track. This is now complicated as the task continues to close automatically when I'm looking at attachments. I couldn't have been more frustrated with the user experience on such a simple task. Please go back one version for your user interface as Omnifocus 4 Pro is way more difficult to use and clunky as a user. I can't imagine someone thought this was a better interface.

You’ve actually made it harder to use than OmniFocus 3. It’s overly complicated, takes too many steps to do things because of the way more features are packed in to, say, the pop-up menu (but buried in a submenu!), that it takes extra clicks to get to the feature that used to take only one. On top of that, it’s very buggy. When I open it and try to move through the Perspective views, there is a LONG delay. Plus, some important controls have been taken away. I used to be able to hide deferred items when in the Review perspective, but that’s no longer possible—so I have to review every task in a project, even if it’s one I only do once a year and have deferred purposely so I DON’T have to review it every week with the other tasks in that project. Multiply all this by scores of projects, and it’s actually reducing my productivity—and making me very frustrated. If things don’t improve soon, maybe Things deserves a second look.

Snoozefest. Two plus years in development and this is the end product? I mean, the colors do pop a bit more. Omni still insists on using their proprietary sync solution, and act like adding the web interface was some Herculean feat. Every time there’s an announcement they talk about how this or that was rewritten to allow faster updates and a unified whatever. I’ve never used a product that felt more glued together. You have the apps, the web, the sync. The fact that these ‘features’ are all separate purchases shows how disparate this product really is. Im just waiting for their Blackberry app to drop so I can leave iOS completely.

I love Omnifocus. The level of granularity with which you can organize your tasks and projects is unparalleled and it helps me be productive like no other app. However, I am going back to Apple Reminders because of the slow synchronization issues that Omnifocus has. If I only used one device this wouldn’t be a problem, but I happen to depend on many (Mac studio, MacBook, iPad, iPhone…) and I need synchronization to be seamless, as is the case with Reminders but also with other apps like Things 3. Omnifocus 4’s synchronization is just as clunky as in previous versions, and it has gotten to a point where I have to abandon an otherwise wonderful app. It’s a shame.

I want to pay for OmniFocus4 since it offers so much, but as of now there are just too many bugs. The view options icon does not consistently work, it doesn’t open on iPad without the sidebar loaded. I was unable to add a tag while creating a to do - the screen froze. And OmniFocus4 has shut down several times on me. Also, the refresh rate when scrolling on a device with Promotion is awful and looks like OmniFocus4 is stuttering. There is also a delay when clicking between perspectives. I want to support the developers since OmniFocus offers so much more than its competitors, but some of these bugs are making OmniFocus4 difficult to use and enjoy.

I am so happy to see the new options for filters in OmniFocus 4.2 they came at the perfect time. There were many things with filtering single projects, repeating tasks and especially has date in range to be able to see just what I am looking for today and the next week. OmniFocus is nearly where I have wanted it for so many years.

I still wish I could customize the colors again, they removed it from version one brought it back sort of years after the release in version 2 and I have missed it with only light and dark modes.

I wish I could export and archive my perspectives, could set filters for projects, tags, and perspectives that I never want to show up as options for the quick open dialog. I am so glad to have that on iOS finally in version four. That ilimitates thankfully the need for so many of my perspectives because drilling into tags was always a pain on iOS.

Keep up the great work OmniFocus your work is appreceated and noticed!!

I have used OF to manage my life since version 2, and there is little else that works as well for me. The OmniGroup team has earned my respect and I do not want this to be a complaining review; I understand the future-proofing that needs to happen here and I see the foundations of that in OF 4.

That said, I caved and moved back to OF 3. The stability of this piece of software it’s important to me, and I’m not in a position to beta test Omnifocus, so I will come back to 4 when it is more stable and reliable.

In OF 4 when I check something off, sometimes another list item is checked off instead. I don’t notice this, and then miss tasks let people down. Another example is changing due dates on tasks; OF 4 likes to ignore the date I’ve chosen and save the previous one.

In summary, OmniGroup does good work and I’m sure that OF 4 will soon have these critical issues worked out, but I can’t use it until that’s done.

Thanks and looking forward to checking in again!

(September 2024)

The latest upgrade to Omnifocus 4.5 has been helpful to me just for the fact that we finally have better adjustment of text size on the Mac. Before it was either too small or too large but now there is much finer control. OmniFocus4 works well for me on the Mac and iPhone. Still room for improvement but it is encouraging to see this upgrade. I hope more fixes and features are on the way.

I’ve used OmniFocus4 since its inception years ago. Keep trying others from time to time, and keep coming back. There is just nothing else on the market that is comparable. The only pain point is that the sync is just too slow. This was acceptable 10 years ago. Today it isn’t. I have several others applications that sync far larger databases than OmniSync nearly instantaneously. I’ve often been working on my actions for 30 seconds or more before suddenly everything updates and I realize I wasn’t dealing with my latest data. Annoying. This is supposed to be a premium product. This is the only area that needs work.

So I've been using Omnifocus since version 2, and I did kind of step away from version 3. I thought I would see how 4 is going. I do like it, however- with out my background in Omni, I wonder how I would figure it out. Some of the ios U/I is a little non-intuitive. I find myself wanting to click on things to bring about a next interface move, that doesn't happen. But all in all- I compared it to my old v. 3 and I really do like the upgrade. I'm having fun using Omni. There's just something about it that clicks in your brain, and makes sense (maybe the GTD?), that sets it apart from Todoist and Things. I get so bored with those other apps. Especially Things. Omnifocus 4 is making me excited to work right now.

OmniFocus 4 is a major redesign - particularly on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS (which gets a dramatic makeover here!). The flow and design on these platforms are great, and you can enter information about your tasks and any metadata with ease while on the go. The Mac, of course, got a big upgrade too. All platforms now look the same so you can create, edit, complete, and view your tasks no matter which device you're on.

The visual clarity and thoughtful features like Review, Deferral, Perspectives, and Nearby mean that your can Get Things Done no matter where you are.

Check this out, because it's the king of task managers, and can grow as your needs do. Congrats to the Omni Group on a thoughtful release!

I’ve been a fan of the philosophy of GTD, and a user of OmniFocus for many years. Although I considered the original interface to have a bit of a learning curve and be a little clunky, I was able to get up to speed with it and use it to effectively organize my tasks. With this new upgrade, I am absolutely please with the ease of use and effectiveness of the new interface. I especially love the uniform interface between the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Bravo to the developers of this new version. It is well worth the cost if you are upgrading all your platforms from the previous version, or if you are a new first time user.

This is not an upgrade. It feels like a brand new Application. Designed with the simplicity of things with the utter sophistication of Omni focus. Fast across all the platforms and definitely not clunky. I will never switch from OmniFocus4. The previous version pales in comparison. It was clunky and content intuitive and required too many steps for simple actions. Those steps are gone. It was definitely worth the wait and if you were the ones who complained about them rewriting a new app from the ground up well the delay was worth it. Omni focus now rules all GTD apps and beyond is now the true king and worth the upgrade. Thank you for the incredible work at Omnigroup

I can’t believe I’ve never written a review for OmniFocus. I’ve been a user since day one. I used to use Kinkless GTD with OmniOutliner. When they announced OmniFocus I knew I’d be in heaven. And it hasn’t disappointed.

I have it on all my devices and it is the lifeblood of my productivity system. It’s extremely flexible, so if you’re not a GTD convert it is still useful. But if you are a GTD convert, you’ll find a place for all your GTD rituals, constructs and processes.

I love Custom Perspectives, which allow me to view work in a very specific context. I have a Focus Perspective that highlights only tasks with due dates on a time horizon and flagged items. It helps me understand what I need to be delivering now. When I’ve cleared that I can head over to my Next Actions tab or I can pick a project and just focus on on the to dos in that.

I feel so much more organized with OmniFocus. I have decided to settle with the standard version of OmniFocus 4 for now and it’s totally enough for me. It still is a huge step up from the apple reminders app. Ability to send emails to OmniFocus inbox, quickly capture web pages and add quick entry using keyboard shortcuts, defer dates and ability to view flagged items in today view are my favorite features. When I feel the need in future, I will upgrade to pro, but for now I am happy with the standard version.

I've been an Omnifocus user since the beginning, and even before (if you count the Kinkless GTD script!). I've strayed a few times but never for long. This release shows why. It's snappier, more intuitive, better designed, and the iOS is finally just as useful as the MacOS app.

So much thought goes into OF to make incredibly powerful and flexible, meeting any user's needs. At this point I've got a hardcoded workflow that only works in Omnifocus, and that is just fine. It's a joy to use and nothing else helps me clear my head and get my work done.

I’ve used OmniFocus for seven years and it has become an integrated part of my life. I’ve tried every single other app out there, and nothing compares.

OmniFocus 4 has massive improvements over 3, mainly around iOS, and the watch app. The improvements who have been completely amazing. But in terms of the Mac app, that also is greatly improved with better UI and more functionality around perspectives and lots of other things.

Highly recommended if you’re looking for a way to get things done.

I had a night of not getting to sleep, and long story short, I messed up my account by creating a new one and spending money on an upgrade I already had. Then, I could not figure out why things were not syncing.

The problem was all my error, but I found out how good Omni's technical support was. I found caring and concerned people who went out of their way to help me, call me, and see me through a problem I had created.

I told them to keep the extra money I spent as a donation because OmniFocus 4.5+ is so good I stand amazed at its power. (It doesn't hurt also to take a MacSparky course to see how powerful this program is.) With 4.5+ Omni has truly perfected this program.

I have been using OmniFocus for years, and I’m totally dependent on it for organizing my work.

OmniFocus 4 is mainly an update of the user interface, and it is an excellent one, in particular for iPad. Before the iPad interface was so clunky that I would always to go my Mac to do anything. Now the Mac and iPad interfaces are nearly identical, and yet it works as native apps on each platform. Not an easy thing to do, even for Apple’s own apps.

This is a worthy update from OmniFocus 3.