Help me find a replacement for the iOS notes app

November 30, 2020 11:04 PM

Basically, I'm quite happy with the functionality of the notes app except for a fatal flaw: no history/undo, so it's pretty easy to accidentally lose notes. Losing some notes has me looking for an app that works like notes, but has history. More specific requirements within, though!

Like I said, I'm actually quite happy with the notes app. But here are the things I like/want:

* easy to use. quick to create new notes or edit existing ones
* search (in note, across notes). honestly the notes app search isn't the best, but it works
* cross platform (eg iPhone, mac)
* works offline (eg not browser only)
* higher level organization (folders is enough, though more is certainly welcome)
* history/undo so I don't lose important notes
* nice to have: being able to pin/flag important notes
* works in China (if there's an amaaaazing app that doesn't work in China I'd consider it, but then I'd need a windows version as well)

My use cases are varied but pretty simple...quick to do lists, stuff like reading lists, curating ideas for stories, that sort of thing

Anything y'all can recommend? I'm willing to pay.

posted by wooh to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

It sounds like an Evernote use case. Or Devonthink? Also, Drafts?
posted by Grangousier at 12:00 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am using Evernote, and I do think it will satisfy most of your requirements, including ability to restore from a list of history of any particular notes.

I have no experience of using Evernote in China, but from this particular forum thread: https://discussion.evernote.com/forums/topic/121850-will-i-be-able-to-use-evernote-in-china/, it does seem that Evernote is not available in China. Rather, Evernote provides a localized version in China that is a separate service altogether.
posted by applesurf at 1:20 AM on December 1, 2020

FYI the iOS Notes app does support Undo. To perform the undo action, you shake the phone.
posted by actionstations at 3:33 AM on December 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

I like Bear for this, though I don’t know about how it works in China.
posted by spindrifter at 3:34 AM on December 1, 2020

Simplenote has support for iOS, Mac, and Windows as well as on the web and works when you're offline. It has a search function, and if you accidentally delete a note you can retrieve it from the trash.
posted by ruddlehead at 4:44 AM on December 1, 2020

FYI, I accidentally delete an active note all the time. What I wasn't aware of is the deleted notes section of the app. Chiming in to make sure you too didn't miss it.
posted by terrapin at 4:58 AM on December 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

I have been using a series of plain old text editors for this over the years to avoid platform / app lock-in. That was the problem with Evernote and simple note. Now I use byword on iOS and Nisus Writer on my Macs, keeping everything synched up using iCloud Drive: before iCloud Drive was robust enough I used Dropbox. Just name text files yyyy-mm-dd.txt and they sort easily

Using this system, I now have about nine years of daily journals and notes all readable and searchable on two platforms.
posted by nothing.especially.clever at 5:07 AM on December 1, 2020

The OneNote app for iOS is surprisingly good. And syncs with OneNote in Windows. It's free on both Windows, MacOS, iPadOS, and iOS.
posted by Master Gunner at 5:11 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding SimpleNote here - been using it happily on Mac and iOS for years. It has tags for organising notes which I guess is, or could be, more “higher-level” than folders. Each note also has a history, so you can go back to see all previous versions of it.
posted by fabius at 5:17 AM on December 1, 2020

+1 that the native Notes app supports Undo (shake the phone, under the accessibility -> touch settings) and a Recently Deleted folder that holds deleted notes for 30 days. (Tap the back arrow at the top of your list of notes to access folders.) And it supports making your own folders. So unless I'm misunderstanding, I think Notes does what you need. ETA the new iOS updated added a Pin option. Under the top right (...) on a note.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:26 AM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

You should check out Notion.
posted by Leontine at 5:57 AM on December 1, 2020

Response by poster: The way in which I have lost notes is kind of weird, but it's happened enough for it to annoy me. For whatever reason, I need to select a portion of a note, or even the whole note, and then while trying to copy it (or perhaps move the selector around), I accidentally click a button. If you don't undo immediately -- and I despise the "shake to undo" in ios, and often forget to use it -- then if it syncs to the server you can recover. It's true if you delete it outright you can get it back, and that undo does it exist. It's sort of a weird failure mode but it's happened enough (usually a whole note being replaced with a character and then me failing to undo in time, or accidentally switching windows etc) to be worth checking out alternatives.
posted by wooh at 6:22 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Before using SimpleNote, you should read this. SImpleNote has serious syncing issues. I was caught within about two days of first using it.
posted by TheRaven at 6:52 AM on December 1, 2020

OneNote all the way. I love it. It is very full featured, but you can keep it simple if you want. I like being able to share notebooks with others.
posted by soy_renfield at 7:54 AM on December 1, 2020

Ulysses. But it’s pricey.
posted by moiraine at 10:57 AM on December 1, 2020

Check out Standard Notes (https://standardnotes.org). e2ee. FOSS. They have a Locked note feature that I love. There are notes I open/access a lot but edit rarely. I lock such notes. Yes, you can use it offline.

There are only two things I dislike about Standard Notes - they do not let you have a local plain text copy of notes (though you can keep as many backup exports as you want locally) and their desktop apps are Electron (most don't have any issue with it but I loathe such apps).

There are other apps you can try - FSNotes (https://fsnot.es FOSS, uses iCloud sync), SimpleNote (clients FOSS; but not e2ee) as many people have mentioned already.

I am afraid you'll have to check about China part, I do not know that.
posted by amar at 11:31 AM on December 1, 2020

I will also put in a vote towards OneNote. I switched to it from Evernote, and have not looked back. It syncs nicely, supports multiple platforms, and is now free.
posted by tuxster at 1:15 PM on December 1, 2020

and I despise the "shake to undo" in ios, and often forget to use it

These days there is a three finger swipe for undo/redo. The shake method hasn’t been required since whenever we shipped the first version of iPadOS.
posted by sideshow at 4:18 PM on December 1, 2020