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For me, this is always the gap that feels missing. - I want to take and view notes on various devices: mobile, personal computer, work computer, randomly logged

For me, this is always the gap that feels missing. - I want to take and view notes on various devices: mobile, personal computer, work computer, randomly logged in ad-hoc machine. - I want notes to not require me to be online all the time while writing (I work a lot on plans, or in remote locations without reliable internet) - I want notes to make reasonable assumptions about syncing, biasing on the side of avoiding data loss over the appearance of magically "just working" - I want to be able to search across all notes at the same time as any device's file system. Simplenote used to solve this. Then, recently, they started to become less reliable at the same time as having a very large subscription price increase. Apple Notes is now okay, but awkward to log in or sync with a non-Apple device. I tried having a bunch of .txt files synced via Dropbox, but while the Dropbox mobile app will let you view offline files, it won't let you edit them unless online.

bobbylarrybobby 2y ago
is iCloud.com really that bad?
- insane_dreamer 2y ago
  it used to be; pretty decent now
jen729w 2y ago
Bear is the app you need. It’s paid, your notes are in a database (easily exportable as .txt), but I’ve used it for years and years and it’s one of those rare apps that ‘just works’. And it’s something like $25 a year. Utterly reasonable.
- phero_cnstrcts 2y ago
  All subscriptions are unreasonable.
  - chrisdbanks 2y ago
    My gym membership seems pretty reasonable, as do my Netflix subscription, and HBR subscription.
  - escapecharacter 2y ago
    It's reasonable to charge a subscription for anything that requires someone else to keep a computer running.
- escapecharacter 2y ago
  One of my needs is to be able to access this from a web client, in case I'm on someone else's machine, or Windows/Linux. Seems like that isn't supported yet, but coming? https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-0-web-client/8358/13 https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-0-web-client/8358/13
catapart 2y ago
I'm building a note-taking app, so I hope you don't mind, but I was wondering if you might describe how you "search" your notes while using a device's file system search? For desktop, I might use a tool like grep to do that, but that's pretty developer-y, so if you're doing something more user-friendly, that's interesting to me. What is more interesting to me, though, is what you're using on mobile to do this? I've never, personally, used my mobile's file system search to discover text in notes. But I'm on Android, so there's not really only one 'file system' with a search interface. My thought here is it that the app is going to be saving simple text files either plaintext or richtext (markdown/html), so it should be able to provide this for you, but I haven't even considered that as a feature so I would want to test it to see if there were any rough edges to polish. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated!
- escapecharacter 2y ago
  What I really mean is that I can use Spotlight on macOS, or Explorer on Windows. Since a lot of notetaking systems are cloud-based, I need to specifically open the notetaking app to search them. I can't search everything at once.
  - catapart 2y ago
    Oh, awesome! Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, that makes sense. I hate Window's file explorer search, but I still end up using it if I'm just looking for a filename, so I definitely understand that as the de-facto standard on that platform. I'm not as familiar with MacOS in general, and especially not spotlight, but it does appear to be a lot more useful. But yeah, I think storing the files in the device's file system should address this concern. I appreciate you circling back to fill me in, though!
hnaccter 2y ago
I use Logseq which writes to markdown files, and then sync/diff against a Logseq folder in iCloud. It generally works. I can write changes on my phone using the app, and it’ll pull it back to my computer once the phone goes online. If there’s pending changes on both sides, rare given Logseq’s daily file structure, I have it prompt on my computer to fix. The dual folder structure helps identify the collisions and manage them appropriately, versus whatever handling iCloud would do. It’s probably still awkward on a non-Apple device as I’m sure iCloud web access is not great, but it works.
hahajk 2y ago
I went through the same process a few years ago. Your requirements are very similar to mine. Amplenote is what I settled on. Cross platform, quick UI, and very good in no-network and (even more commonly) poor-network conditions. Even the web app uses local storage and works offline.
desmond373 2y ago
I made a comment about zettel notes on the parent, have a look. It fixes some of the problems you talk about. Not sure if theres an apple version.
eternityforest 2y ago
Android is why I use Google Keep. There's lots of features I wish it has, but ultimately the important one for me is that I can take a note any time with no delay or waiting for apps to load
nevf 2y ago
Clibu Notes is a note-taking and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) app that works on desktop, tablet, and smartphone. Local first, fast with first class editing, backlinks etc. Simple, effective note taking, always accessible everywhere. See Clibu.com

bobbylarrybobby 2y ago

is iCloud.com really that bad?

insane_dreamer 2y ago
it used to be; pretty decent now

jen729w 2y ago

Bear is the app you need. It’s paid, your notes are in a database (easily exportable as .txt), but I’ve used it for years and years and it’s one of those rare apps that ‘just works’. And it’s something like $25 a year. Utterly reasonable.

phero_cnstrcts 2y ago
All subscriptions are unreasonable.
- chrisdbanks 2y ago
  My gym membership seems pretty reasonable, as do my Netflix subscription, and HBR subscription.
- escapecharacter 2y ago
  It's reasonable to charge a subscription for anything that requires someone else to keep a computer running.
escapecharacter 2y ago
One of my needs is to be able to access this from a web client, in case I'm on someone else's machine, or Windows/Linux. Seems like that isn't supported yet, but coming? https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-0-web-client/8358/13 https://community.bear.app/t/bear-2-0-web-client/8358/13

catapart 2y ago

I'm building a note-taking app, so I hope you don't mind, but I was wondering if you might describe how you "search" your notes while using a device's file system search? For desktop, I might use a tool like grep to do that, but that's pretty developer-y, so if you're doing something more user-friendly, that's interesting to me. What is more interesting to me, though, is what you're using on mobile to do this? I've never, personally, used my mobile's file system search to discover text in notes. But I'm on Android, so there's not really only one 'file system' with a search interface. My thought here is it that the app is going to be saving simple text files either plaintext or richtext (markdown/html), so it should be able to provide this for you, but I haven't even considered that as a feature so I would want to test it to see if there were any rough edges to polish. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated!

escapecharacter 2y ago
What I really mean is that I can use Spotlight on macOS, or Explorer on Windows. Since a lot of notetaking systems are cloud-based, I need to specifically open the notetaking app to search them. I can't search everything at once.
- catapart 2y ago
  Oh, awesome! Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, that makes sense. I hate Window's file explorer search, but I still end up using it if I'm just looking for a filename, so I definitely understand that as the de-facto standard on that platform. I'm not as familiar with MacOS in general, and especially not spotlight, but it does appear to be a lot more useful. But yeah, I think storing the files in the device's file system should address this concern. I appreciate you circling back to fill me in, though!

hnaccter 2y ago

I use Logseq which writes to markdown files, and then sync/diff against a Logseq folder in iCloud. It generally works. I can write changes on my phone using the app, and it’ll pull it back to my computer once the phone goes online. If there’s pending changes on both sides, rare given Logseq’s daily file structure, I have it prompt on my computer to fix. The dual folder structure helps identify the collisions and manage them appropriately, versus whatever handling iCloud would do. It’s probably still awkward on a non-Apple device as I’m sure iCloud web access is not great, but it works.

hahajk 2y ago

I went through the same process a few years ago. Your requirements are very similar to mine. Amplenote is what I settled on. Cross platform, quick UI, and very good in no-network and (even more commonly) poor-network conditions. Even the web app uses local storage and works offline.

desmond373 2y ago

I made a comment about zettel notes on the parent, have a look. It fixes some of the problems you talk about. Not sure if theres an apple version.

eternityforest 2y ago

Android is why I use Google Keep. There's lots of features I wish it has, but ultimately the important one for me is that I can take a note any time with no delay or waiting for apps to load

nevf 2y ago

Clibu Notes is a note-taking and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) app that works on desktop, tablet, and smartphone. Local first, fast with first class editing, backlinks etc. Simple, effective note taking, always accessible everywhere. See Clibu.com