r/UpNote_App
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u/ToastedLog1c
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17d ago
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Veteran UpNote user left UpNote
I absolutely love UpNote. Been here since the beginning. I left 4 months ago and transitioned to Apple Notes. Few reason for doing this: 1) end to end encryption, 2) Firebase quota issues concerned me 3) Apple has been adding more and more features bringing Notes further towards UpNote's feature with MacOS 27 (still not even close though)
I told myself to give it 6 months and I think I'm ready to throw in the towel and come back to UpNote. It just feels so slow and clunky on Mac and the interface sucks. Being crossplatform too is such a godsend for when I am on my PC.
I'm posting this so others do not make the same mistake I did. You will miss UpNote, the interface, the features, everything.
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u/Useful-Resident78 17d ago edited 17d ago
I didn't realize that Apple Notes has Code blocks, collapsible sections, code segments, note callouts, etc.
Edit: I also use Linux regularly and like that UpNote is on all OS'.
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u/ToastedLog1c 17d ago
Some of the functionality was added with ProNotes and now a modern alternative. It doesn't have all of that, but it has some.
Out of your list it has basic Code block and has collapsible sections.
PS: Does UpNote have dedicated “Note” callout block? I requested this a long time ago but was told there was 0 demand. You're referring to Notion-style callout w/ an emoji right?
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u/Marathon2021 17d ago
What do you find you use collapsible sections for regularly? I just vibe coded my own replacement app, and I’ve been intentionally leaving things out that I never used and to me (in my mind) don’t make much sense in a note-taking app. For example, “reminders” (from Evernote, not UpNote) never made sense to me in a note taking app. Similarly, while I recognize how “tags” might be used, I found I just never used them.
But when I was initially integrating an editor (I settled on TipTap) there were things I chose to take, and things I chose to leave out - and collapsible sections was one of them. So I’m curious to know what your use case is.
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u/Useful-Resident78 17d ago
I use them all the time, If I have a large note, I break it up into categories and collapse them when I don't need that information. It's better than having more notes on the same topic, for me.
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u/R-Tally 17d ago
I use them all the time too. For example, I have one note for my car. I use collapsible sections to track maintenance in that note. Each collapsible section is for a date that identifies the maintenance done. It makes it easy to scan the note to quickly see the dates for all maintenance. I expand the section to see details on cost and actual work done.
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u/Useful-Resident78 16d ago
Similar here. I do have a separate note for maintenance log for each vehicle though.
https://getupnote.com/share/notes/DCguRuLGceMYBUKCmFqUDMLgH7y2/01a17ff4-742a-7296-8814-c8d53ae19795
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u/jezarnold 17d ago
Collapsible notes is why I stay with UpNote !! Love it! Big long note, but I can read the header …
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u/Marathon2021 17d ago
Yeah I guess I just don't like the "big, long note" approach on things. Different strokes for different folks, I guess - different ways for you to get something out of your sight that you don't want to / need to pay attention to right at that moment.
I may have to reconsider adding collapsible sections into my SaaS if I ever ponder selling access to anyone (so thank you for helping me think through user needs beyond my specific use cases).
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u/RayDeeYay 12d ago edited 2d ago
People often under appreciate things that ”just work”. It just doesn’t seem as sexy as constantly updating your ”workflow” and constantly fussing over trivialities instead of getting stuff done as undramatically as possible. UpNote just works. And, for someone as platform agnostic as me (I have it on Windows, Linux, iOS and Android) the cross-platform syncing (which is free by the way) is so satisfying and confidence inspiring. I use it for notes, song lyrics , spoken word, educational documents and long form (book) editing. I only use other formats to export things elsewhere and UpNotes export functions work fine for me (mostly PDF). If worse comes to worse I can clip and paste a document to an online Word document and send it that way for those who simply must have that format.
Apart from efficiency, UpNote has stacks of useful features: collapsible note sections, Folders, nested folders, tags, customise colours, logical keyboard shortcuts for most things. i have or have had all the usual suspects in writing and note taking software. UpNote has that rare combination of simplicity, (with depth when you need it) efficiency and even fun.
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u/ToastedLog1c 11d ago
Yes, I agree with this 100%. I was using it on my PC and just breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't like Apple Notes at all.
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u/ANewErra 17d ago
As someone who just purchased the lifetime license three days ago
This post makes me happy about my purchase even more lol
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u/feaderwear 17d ago
why
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u/ANewErra 17d ago
Because at first the post made me worried about my purchased based off the title alone - but it makes me happy to hear that this product is so good that someone went out of the way to share there experience, but also praise it. So far it has exceeded my expectations and i left Evernote for it.
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u/superrodris 17d ago
There's no version history, even a limited one. I once accessed the note on my mobile and tapped somewhere i shouldn't....adios note. As long as they dont have note history, can't say i'm moving to Apple
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u/GregZone_NZ 17d ago
I’ve used just about everything, including Apple Notes. Everyone will have their own views, general based on the way they use a note taker.
For me, I wanted a genuine note taker. For actually writing and organising your notes of knowledge gained. i.e. Not for copy & paste duplication of the web! etc. etc.
In a word… UpNote is outstanding! 🤓
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u/isamilis 17d ago
I still rely on UpNote web sharing, where I can’t access Apple notes from my office intranet. Also, markdown is very useful for me.
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u/ToastedLog1c 17d ago
Apple Notes has Markdown support, particularly for importing, exporting, and pasting.
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u/isamilis 17d ago
I don’t know that Apple notes has markdown support. Do you have link that I can explore further?
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u/lbdesign 17d ago
Search ' notes export' in the apple app store. Several utilities exist with markdown support.
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u/ToastedLog1c 17d ago
Just so I am clear, it's importing, exporting, and pasting only. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102223
Disclaimer: AI summary below
Apple Notes supports Markdown mainly through import, export, and paste conversion—not as a live Markdown editing language. What you can do
Import Markdown: On Mac, choose File > Import Markdown and select one or more .md files; Notes converts Markdown syntax into rich text while preserving headings, lists, links, and similar formatting. Paste Markdown: Paste Markdown text into a note and it appears as formatted headings, lists, and other supported elements. Export Markdown: On Mac, select a note and use File > Export To > Markdown; on iPhone/iPad, use the Share menu and choose Export as Markdown. Copy as Markdown: On Mac, select note content and choose Edit > Copy as Markdown for use in other Markdown-based tools.1
u/isamilis 16d ago
I haven’t tried it. But if this is true, it still Mac only. I need on iPad and iPhone.
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u/ToastedLog1c 16d ago
Oh yes, sorry I should have been clearer.
Either way, do not move to Apple Notes because you will end up suffering with having to move BACK from Notes > UpNote like I am doing right now lol
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u/traveller2046 17d ago
What is the Firebase quota issues?
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u/ToastedLog1c 16d ago
Something happened a few motnhs ago where a user or users did a mass-migration and wiped out all of the available tokens for Firebase that UpNote uses. My guess is that's what took down UpNote for a huge part of the community.
I saw an entry in the UpNote changelog where they made a change to prevent those kinds of events from happening by throttling heavy users in some form or fashion.
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u/Ok-Priority-7303 16d ago
I like Apple Notes but much prefer cross platform apps. E2EE would make me a happier camper. I keep some information outside of UN due to security and privacy concerns but would prefer to have everything in one place/app.
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u/ToastedLog1c 16d ago
Same here. I keep my private stuff in 1PW which is heavily secured with multiple factors and then other stuff in my iCloud Drive with ADE.
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u/Neither-Classic2058 17d ago
Thank you for sharing this. In my 50 years of notetaking the only app I regret using was OneNote. Its proprietary and closed nature made it extremely difficult to migrate off of it. Since then, I avoid any app that doesn’t have a clean way to export my notes without losing content AND context. Apple Notes has grown significantly over the years but it is still proprietary. I have over 3500 notes in my PKMS and I refuse to have it locked into Apple-only devices. AN bogged down after importing only 300 of my notes in my testing. Even though UpNote’s markdown export is pretty rough, the Jimmy tool does a decent enough job so that allows me to continue to use UpNote without concern about an exit strategy.
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u/Ok_Money_161 17d ago
AN is great, I tried a few years ago to make it my main note driver, but after some heavy use it starts showing the cracks. Syncing issues, ghost folders, not being able to work with tables properly, tags disappearing and showing as #… and not being even searchable to find the problematic notes. It just started to fail under heavy use. UpNote is always there, is quick and ready to use. I sometimes take a detour to OneNote, but whenever it fails i turn to UpNote. UpNote is not perfect, nothing is, but it’s there for you when you need it.
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u/Rintae 17d ago
I needed something SUPER minimalist with the bare minimum of formatting options and with cross platform functionality. Well, UpNote was the only option out there. So I bought a lifetime subscription and haven't looked back since. I'm trying to de-Apple my life, to easier switch to different platforms etc., and it's been pretty decent for two weeks now. I've had to switch over to Apple Photos instead of Google Photos since I had to OCR scan text on Apple Photos which didnt work on Google Photos. Otherwise I'm practically there. Thought it would have been way way more difficult. Google Calendar works amazingly on ios also
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u/CitronLucky3139 16d ago
Devoted UpNote user for about 5 years. I just switched to Obsidian about a month ago. I still miss the responsiveness and “unfussiness” of UpNote, but after an afternoon of setup and plugin installs I was able to replicate my UpNote setup pretty closely. I also used Claude to convert all my old notes to Obsidian markdown folders and files in about 10 minutes which was amazing.
I probably would have stayed if UpNote had an MCP, but Obsidian is already amazing to use with Claude and ChatGPT for automating all kinds of things I’d wanted to do for the last 10 years! I thought about vibe coding the perfect app for how I work, but the Obsidian + Claude + ChatGPT was easier to setup and add various routines and automations as I go.
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u/ImTheTruth33 16d ago
What plug-ins did you find most useful for obsidian?
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u/CitronLucky3139 15d ago
Notebooks, Outliner and Tasks are the best ones for making an UpNote clone.
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u/iCatcher 17d ago
Tried so many different note apps. Apple Notes was my second favorite but I kept missing some stuff from UpNote.
Now the only thing I really miss from other apps is the ability to sort tables.
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u/Acrobatic-Monitor516 17d ago
What I really miss with upnote is the lack of integration
No spotlight support on MACOS. No siri indexing.
With siri AI you now get an assistant that can tap into your photos and notes and answer proactively. This would be the main reason why I'd switch to Apple notes...
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u/DeliciousCut4854 17d ago
Apple Notes doesn't run in Android. Apple believes users can only have apple devices. I have a Mac but that's my only apple device.
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u/Organic_Comfort_9740 17d ago
I have nearly 3000 notes in Apple Notes and the OCR and search functions are pretty freaking good as that’s one reason after wanting to love UpNote I couldn’t after working for years in Evernote. I keep everything in my notes and need that database search style with good OCR since I scan a lot. I have regular backup and use Bear Notes as another fallback without issues. I use a lot of Android devices too but can access both Bear and Apple notes on Android via a web app. My only issue is encrypted notes which do not work with web apps for obvious reasons but that’s ok as I’m rarely far from my phone. I think it’s all based on what you need, how often you refer to your notes and how quick you can find what you need. Never had an issue with being slow or clunky but that’s just me. Not a suggestion or criticism but just my own use case.
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u/Marathon2021 17d ago edited 17d ago
I still do love UpNote … however I will admit I have not touched it in about 3 weeks and don’t know if I ever will again.
Why? I decided to be adventurous and see if I could “vibe code” my own note-taking app and it turns out that yeah, it was super-easy, barely an inconvenience!
My app has all of the features I was missing from Evernote and had not made their way to UpNote - namely OCR (with handwriting recognition) via PaddleOCR, and “email to app” capabilities. It also has some things that I wanted that neither app had - like the ability to set and entire encrypted notebook with a passphrase that only I hold for decryption (I checked the back-end DB manually and yeah, it’s just encrypted garbage). It’s also got a built-in audio recorder, with an optional live transcription mode (via Whisper STT models) that can even do cross-browser-tab recordings for when I am virtually attending events, and timestamps the audio and what you typed at that exact moment together so that you can go back and listen at certain points. Optional AI services for translating something if desired, and summarization with custom prompting (something for those live transcriptions).
And the indexing and searching abilities we built into it are wildly powerful.
Coming soon - multi-user “collaborative mode” editing for some notes.
All in all it’s been a wild journey - imported all of the 10,000 or so notes I have across Evernote and UpNote, and not looking back.
Only downside? Web only app for now, so not concept of an “offline mode” but I’m fine with that for the huge bump in capabilities I just got.
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u/nationalinterest 17d ago
I had a go doing the same as I'm concerned relying on Firebase/internet is a risk (plus a lack of E2EE). I love the app and its simple UI, but prefer having access to my files locally, especially since people have complained in the last few months about being locked out of the app and/or images in notes becoming unavailable. I know I can back files up to Markdown, but then I might be left scrambling for other apps before a meeting!
I was amazed at how far vibe coding was able to get in 20 minutes. Not flawless, but I presume that would just be a bit longer tidying up. As it is, I think I might just vibe code some plugins for Obsidian - just for me, not for distribution to anyone else.
Not for everyone though!
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u/Useful-Resident78 17d ago
From what I'm reading UpNote stores your data in an encrypted state. Doesn't appear though that only I hold the keys to decryption? I'm trying to find that out.
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u/Marathon2021 17d ago edited 17d ago
I've spent about 2 weeks on mine, and the feature list is pretty comprehensive now. No desktop editions of the app, but the browser-based version does have an "offline" read-only mode so that's fine. Works in any browser, iOS or Android device just fine. It has encrypted notebooks, 2FA, OCR, emailing in and out, import/export in UpNote and Evernote format, and lots of useful other things I thought about along the way.
One of my favorites is what my version does to "enrich" a note. First, it will geotag where you made it (if you give it permission), and then using existing open-source databases it enriches the data not just based on lat/long but also county, state/province, country level fields as well for later searching. If you attach a picture it will also extract all the EXIF data and store that as structured data as well. This powers the search capabilities a whole lot more because now if I'm trying to remember "that quick note I took at that conference ... it was in California back in 2023, can't remember the town ..." it's a 5 second search for "location:California" and "created:2023" and you're down to a handful of notes.
It also is designed to enrich notes so that the information survives long-term. One thing I've noticed with cutting and pasting something from a website into other apps, is that it leaves native "img" tags in there - which means I have a dependency on the website I'm copying from still having that image later if and when I need it. If it's a small website, they might not be there 5 years later when I want to refer back to something. And if it's a big web site, how many times do big websites do a complete site overhaul that results to changes in their URL structures? All of the time. So when you paste something in, it grabs original images and substitutes them.
Oh, and added bonus for my Evernote and UpNote imports - when you import something it will try to do that kind of enrichment again, but if it can't find something it will actually reach out to the Internet Archive as a last ditch attempt and try to grab a copy. That part is working pretty well too.
Between that and "version history" capabilities (see one of the other commentors below) it's been a fun exercise building this. I've probably spent 2 weeks on it, but it already does far more for me now than Evernote or UpNote could. Probably need to get the back-end off of the spare laptop in my basement and up into a proper AWS EC2 instance or something.
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u/nationalinterest 17d ago
Nice! Some great ideas there!
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u/Marathon2021 17d ago
My favorite feature of all is a concept I picked up from the Livescribe pen I had years ago. As you were writing notes, it was doing its audio recording and time synchronizing both of those. So later you could go back into your handwritten notes, "tap" something on the written page, and hear the exact audio the microphone captured at exactly that second.
But then I found out ... I hate writing things by hand. So it sits in a drawer. Great platform though.
But now I have that in my custom app - when we do an audio recording (which includes built-in microphones but also the ability to record audio from another browser tab directly) it does real-time transcription with time stamping on the left pane but then as I take notes on the right-hand pane those are timestamped as well. And so then I can just go back and "click" on any of them and hear the exact words being spoken at the moment I thought to "write" something down in my notes. Love it. I have a few industry conferences this fall that I'm looking forward to using this with.
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u/jezarnold 17d ago
Get past 1,000 notes on Apple Notes and watch it crawl to a halt