How to easily annotate PDFs on Onyx Boox Note Air 2 and send them back to your PC or Google Drive

Onyx Boox Note Air 2 is an amazing device in many ways, but it does not support an efficient workflow for the annotation of PDFs. Here is a simple and efficient way to do it!

So, my ideal PDF workflow to annotate (or sign) a pdf file would be something like:

1. I have a “shared” directory on Google Drive where I upload all PDFs I want to annotate.
2. The PDFs get synced with the Onyx Boox Note Air
3. I annotate the PDFs on the device
4. The PDFs get synced back (with annotations) to Google Drive

Although this workflow is not offered by Onyx out of the box, there is an easy way to implement it. Let’s give it a try!

What you’ll need

To make this method to work, you’ll need two things.

1. Google Drive. Alternatively, you can use OneDrive or Box (Autosync works with most popular cloud drives)
2. IMPORTANT: Autosync is no longer needed as ONYX now sypports syncing to Google Drive narively. Nonetheless, you can still follow the tips on building the automation with Autosync. The Autosync app mut be installed on your Onyx Note Air. You will need to purchase a paid Autosync in-app upgrade (lifetime, one-time payment) for Autosync’s Sync with Google Drive feature. This can be done from the Buy app license menu in the app on Onyx:

Here are the steps:

1. Create a folder pair in Autosync

First, create a dedicated folder on Google Drive that will be used for sharing PDFs (or anything else, for that matter) with Onyx. Name it anything you want.

Now, use the Autosync app on Onyx to create a folder pair that syncs the Google Drive folder you created with the Download folder on Onyx. This can be any other folder actually, but the download folder just makes sense for me.

In my setup, the folder pair syncs the folder Onyx Shared on Google Drive with the Download folder on the Onyx device (two-way). All new and modified files on one side are transferred to the other side. Files deleted on one side are also deleted on the other side. After sync is finished, the two folders are copies of each other.

Note: This is how the official Google Drive client works on desktop (but not so on Android devices). For more on Autosync folder syncing methods, see this guide. Feel free to experiment!

2. Open a file in the Storage tab on Onyx

In the Storage tab on Onyx, open the Download folder, which is now synced with the Onyx Shared folder on your Google Drive. Click a PDF uploaded to the folder and edit (annotate) it in Onyx.

The file will be immediately synced with Google Drive and ready to use.

All set up!

And… that’s basically it! All PDFs annotated on Onyx get automatically synced with the Google Drive folder.

You can use the Google Drive desktop app and pin the synced folder to your favorites to easily send and download the PDFs between your PC and Onyx.

Let me know if it worked for you and if you have any questions!

If you liked the tips, buy me a coffee to keep me going, thanks!