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You can connect iOS Notes with any IMAP server. This supports a reduced feature set (no embedded images, tables, or audio) but does allow for self-hosting.

lurk2 1y ago
Interesting. Did they add this feature recently? How do you set it up? Embedded files (photos, video, audio, PDFs, etc.) and bullet hierarchies were the two things that I remember being the most trouble; you can copy bullet hierarchies from iOS Notes and paste them into another app, but they aren’t detected when copying the note via Shortcuts. Embedded files had to be manually saved. I think you could Airdrop notes to a MacOS device, but it would wipe the date created metadata from what I remember.
- lblume 1y ago
  No, in fact it is available since iOS 4 (2010). You just connect the account and turn on the notes synchronisation (right below calendar synchronisation).
- dunham 1y ago
  I wrote python code to extract the notes years ago[1], but it's bit-rotted, so it no longer supports tables, raw stroke data, or the newer features like equations. Maybe I'll update it someday, but I'm not using notes at the moment and have too many other things going one. https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils
  - Take8435 1y ago
    New term to add to the lexicon... bit-rot. I like it.
- Spooky23 1y ago
  It’s been there for several years.
- spike021 1y ago
  I just checked and my google account’s earliest synced note is from 2011. it shows up in the Notes app as a separate section from the iCloud one.
leakycap 1y ago
This is great until you edit your notes on IMAP from more than one app. Apple Notes, Outlook, Gmail, and others with access to IMAP notes will corrupt one another's entries very easily. Style is also very difficult to control in this setup. Apple Notes is not intended for people who want to own their data and have control over export
lxgr 1y ago
And no formatting whatsoever. I really wish Apple would revisit third-party server support with something more modern, such as a Markdown + file hosting backend (over WebDAV or whatever they currently consider the cool way of file sharing), but I'm not holding my breath.
zimpenfish 1y ago
> This supports a reduced feature set (no embedded images, tables, or audio) Just tested and embedded images do seem to be supported? ("insert photo" -> add photo -> photo is stored as a MIME part on the note)
OptionOfT 1y ago
But for some reason the action center quick note create button doesn't work when your default notes account is not iCloud. Which PM comes up with this? And what does a developer thing when they implement this?

lurk2 1y ago

Interesting. Did they add this feature recently? How do you set it up? Embedded files (photos, video, audio, PDFs, etc.) and bullet hierarchies were the two things that I remember being the most trouble; you can copy bullet hierarchies from iOS Notes and paste them into another app, but they aren’t detected when copying the note via Shortcuts. Embedded files had to be manually saved. I think you could Airdrop notes to a MacOS device, but it would wipe the date created metadata from what I remember.

lblume 1y ago
No, in fact it is available since iOS 4 (2010). You just connect the account and turn on the notes synchronisation (right below calendar synchronisation).
dunham 1y ago
I wrote python code to extract the notes years ago[1], but it's bit-rotted, so it no longer supports tables, raw stroke data, or the newer features like equations. Maybe I'll update it someday, but I'm not using notes at the moment and have too many other things going one. https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils
- Take8435 1y ago
  New term to add to the lexicon... bit-rot. I like it.
Spooky23 1y ago
It’s been there for several years.
spike021 1y ago
I just checked and my google account’s earliest synced note is from 2011. it shows up in the Notes app as a separate section from the iCloud one.

leakycap 1y ago

This is great until you edit your notes on IMAP from more than one app. Apple Notes, Outlook, Gmail, and others with access to IMAP notes will corrupt one another's entries very easily. Style is also very difficult to control in this setup. Apple Notes is not intended for people who want to own their data and have control over export

lxgr 1y ago

And no formatting whatsoever. I really wish Apple would revisit third-party server support with something more modern, such as a Markdown + file hosting backend (over WebDAV or whatever they currently consider the cool way of file sharing), but I'm not holding my breath.

zimpenfish 1y ago

> This supports a reduced feature set (no embedded images, tables, or audio) Just tested and embedded images do seem to be supported? ("insert photo" -> add photo -> photo is stored as a MIME part on the note)

OptionOfT 1y ago

But for some reason the action center quick note create button doesn't work when your default notes account is not iCloud. Which PM comes up with this? And what does a developer thing when they implement this?