[HN Gopher] Taking Notes with Joplin
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Taking Notes with Joplin
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 84 points
Date : 2025-04-19 06:56 UTC (2 days ago)
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| vunderba wrote:
| Joplin is really nice feature-wise but the last time I looked at
| it a few years back I absolutely _HATED_ the way that it
| structured your notes.
|
| The way it worked was that they stored new/existing notes in an
| SQLite table with UUIDs. This of course makes it very difficult
| to use bash tools, other IDEs, etc. to work with your notes after
| Joplin has ingested them.
|
| Further the related media was renamed "UUID.<related extension>"
| which were stored in `~/.config/joplin-desktop/resources`.
|
| Compare this to apps like VS Code / Obsidian / Logseq (also open
| source) which don't mess with your markdown file organization.
| You can just point them to a root folder and they'll work
| natively with your markdown files. No syncing required.
| jhbadger wrote:
| Basically Joplin is an Evernote replacement. If you were a fan
| of Evernote, you like how it is structured, if you weren't, you
| probably don't.
| darkmuck wrote:
| I'm with you 100%. I wish there was an OSS tool that was like
| Obsidian and cross-platform (no cloud hosting required). Logseq
| is the closest but the markdown standard isn't fully supported,
| and they add a lot of custom syntax/metadata.
| terminalgravity wrote:
| You said "like Obsidian". Which parts of Obsidian are most
| important for you
| darkmuck wrote:
| - Apps for, at least, windows and android.
|
| - Storage of files in a folder that can be seen by the OS
| to allow sync by something like syncthing
|
| - Moderately good UI (nice to have: live preview of
| markdown)
|
| - Core features not behind a paywall (e.g. siyuan can't
| sync, notenook missing important features)
|
| - Nice to have: push notifications for tasks/reminders
| celsius1414 wrote:
| I keep thinking about how much feature lists like this
| could be matched by the Finder/File Explorer and my
| favorite text editor.
| darkmuck wrote:
| Yes of course but not on android. Also I'd prefer the
| same app/experience across platforms.
| Joeboy wrote:
| Also Logseq is moving towards some sort of "database
| storage", which I think entails moving away from plain text
| files.
| jayflux wrote:
| I really think you're trying to use the wrong tool for the job
| here. Joplin isn't designed for your notes to be modified
| outside of the ecosystem, the notes themselves are markdown so
| you can export or transfer them, but you can't simultaneously
| edit them outside of Joplin. For that you're better off with a
| folder of markdown files which you can push to Git.
|
| Joplin is essentially an open source version of Evernote and a
| great alternative for people who enjoyed that style of
| application.
| ashishb wrote:
| > The way it worked was that they stored new/existing notes in
| an SQLite table with UUIDs. This of course makes it very
| difficult to use bash tools, other IDEs, etc. to work with your
| notes after Joplin has ingested them.
|
| This is the real deal breaker for me for evaluating any note-
| taking tool.
|
| If the Obsidian app dies tomorrow, my notes will be fine.
|
| If Joplin gets abandoned, then I will have to deal with all the
| imports/exports into a new tool.
|
| Bash tools are really powerful.
|
| One can even take a git (not just GitHub) backup of one's
| Obsidian notes easily.
|
| With binary files like SQLite, the git backups work, but they
| don't provide a meaningful diff.
| grepfru_it wrote:
| Trilium.
|
| https://github.com/zadam/trilium
| mdaniel wrote:
| https://github.com/zadam/trilium#trilium-is-in-maintenance-m...
| seems relevant, and that's above and beyond the license
| difference between the two (I'm not looking for trouble, I'm
| only saying they are different)
| lf-non wrote:
| There is an ongoing community effort to revive it:
| https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes
| whalesalad wrote:
| I've been running this in my homelab since 2021. Can't live
| without it now.
| har777 wrote:
| I've been using Joplin for years. It was always a bit slow but I
| recently updated it and now the app takes over 30 seconds to load
| :|
|
| It's sync feature is super seamless though!
| azaras wrote:
| Org-mode is the way for Emacs users.
| terminalgravity wrote:
| The reason I learned emacs. I absolutely love it.
| ews wrote:
| the gateway drug to Emacs, I started with org-mode and 10+
| years later, it took over my entire life.
| brokegrammer wrote:
| Happy Joplin user since 2020. Self-synced using Syncthing. Great
| note-taking tool overall.
| msm_ wrote:
| Since Evernote died, I've been looking for a thing to replace it
| with. I've tried dozens (not exaggregating) note-taking solution.
|
| Right now I've reverted to the good (?) old "plain markdown files
| in a git-synced repository. Of course it comes with its own set
| of downsides, but after migrating (and sometimes leaving behind)
| my notes so many times I like how portable and universal plain-
| text is.
|
| (I want to give a shout-out to Tiddlywiki. It stands out among
| the plethora of solutions I've tested, and I still sometimes use
| it for my mind-maps or designs).
| sebastiennight wrote:
| What do you mean by "Evernote died"? To the best of my
| knowledge they are still up and running?
|
| Probably even released some new ToS to scrape all user data for
| AI training, I imagine.
| bmurphy1976 wrote:
| I'm sure the parent means Evernote has suffered from
| enshitification and monetary optimization. The Evernote you
| get today is not the same as the Evernote from 15 years ago.
| monodeldiablo wrote:
| I don't know if you've tried Obsidian, but it's just a tool
| that sits atop your pile 'o Markdown files. No vendor lock-in
| or special databases. I use Syncthing to sync the files between
| devices and git to periodically back them up to a private repo.
|
| I've had to be careful to steer clear of all the plugin
| nonsense that's tempting to dive into as a distraction from
| actually using the tool, but Obsidian is surprisingly awesome
| right out of the box.
|
| I use the daily note template tool to generate a structured
| agenda for each day, which removes the friction that used to
| keep me from daily journaling and second brain stuff. Now I
| can't live without it. It's been life-changing for me, as a
| person previously crippled with ADHD and perpetually living in
| a state of intense anxiety.
|
| If you have any questions, I'm happy to help out. I was also an
| Evernote (and Joplin, and...) user for years and was never
| satisfied until I made a list of my requirements and discovered
| that Obsidian ticks all the boxes. Haven't turned back since.
| bmurphy1976 wrote:
| You can go crazy with the plugins for sure, but I found three
| to be particularly useful:
|
| 1. Google Calendar - this is a pain to set up, but once it's
| set up you can pull your agenda into a note.
|
| 2. Tasks - This allows you to write a query which you can use
| to consolidate multiple TODO lists into a single note.
|
| 3. Homepage - Always keep one note open as a pinned home
| page.
|
| Combine the 3 and I have a nice dashboard that shows my
| agenda for the day and all the various TODOs I have peppered
| through my vault.
| rustmachine wrote:
| I switched to amplenote, which im very happy with. And i tried
| all the other notetaking apps, from jopling (hate the lack of
| wysiwyg editor) over obsidian and all the rest. Amplenote is
| the first note-app I decided to pay for. It does everything
| evernote did, without all the crap. And a lot of things it does
| better.
| brof wrote:
| Maybe you'll like wiki.vim (not to be confused with vimwiki).
| I, like you, tried a lot of solutions, and it's the only one
| that's really stuck over the past couple of years. I think it's
| because it doesn't try to do too many things and is just a thin
| wrapper over a collection of text files (you can specify to use
| Markdown). Obsidian is fancier but I find that I've been able
| to replicate most of what I need and don't miss the extra bells
| and whistles.
|
| Oh, and I've found using a tool like gitwatch really helpful
| for keeping the repo synced without having to remember to
| commit.
| flkiwi wrote:
| After looking in vain for a browser-based Logseq (i.e., the way
| logseq used to be before APP EVERYTHING!!! began the downward
| spiral -- the next version won't even use markdown files), I've
| gone full Leeroy Jenkins on Silverbullet. It's not refined. It's
| not stable. But it's good enough, it lives in a browser, and it
| creates markdown. It's also incredibly customizable with Lua, but
| that's not necessarily a net positive for someone who wants an
| environment that works simply.
| swah wrote:
| Another alternative to Joplin is Upnote. It just works too.
| folmar wrote:
| Not really comparable: - not local-first - sends everything to
| Google, not encrypted as far as the website goes - you need a
| phone app to buy premium plan (really???)
| joekrill wrote:
| I'm really surprised I don't see more tech-savvy people talking
| about SilverBullet (https://silverbullet.md). It's not perfect,
| but very "hackable" and being actively developed. It's the best
| self-hostable note taking app I've found so far.
| exiguus wrote:
| As i understand it, it has no encryption build in. Maybe thats
| the reason.
| asimops wrote:
| I did not know it and so I had a look. While it looks
| promising, it does not have a install section on how to set it
| up as a systemd service, just docker...
|
| That makes it a hard pass for me.
| armsaw wrote:
| I was using this for a while and really loving it, however the
| dev just recently decided to undertake a rewrite into Lua which
| breaks all existing scripts, and changed how the online/offline
| paradigm works, which made me feel a bit skittish about whether
| it is going to be a stable long-term solution. I am really
| rooting for Zef here though and hope it settles into a good
| place soon!
| jamesgeck0 wrote:
| I like SilverBullet a lot; it's similar in philosophy to
| Obsidian. The biggest issue I had using it as a daily driver is
| that it's a website; there's no dedicated app. I like to have
| Obsidian hotkeyed as a toggle on cmd-' for instant access. As a
| Firefox user on macOS, I couldn't figure out a way to do that
| with SilverBullet, even with HammerSpoon scripting.
| runjake wrote:
| If SilverBullet were into acquiring more users (they may not
| be), they could use some major help with their site design.
|
| When I visit the SilverBullet link, I get a wall of text. And
| at the very top is a warning about versions and a link to
| migrating your data between versions, which leads to another
| extensive wall of text with various code and configuration
| examples.
|
| Many people, even busy tech savvy people, are going to shy away
| from this.
|
| To be honest, it looks kind of interesting to my inner nerd,
| but I think I'll stick with my "directory of plaintext Markdown
| files" that I've moved between apps as they've come and gone.
| benwills wrote:
| I have used Joplin daily for years. The only thing I _REALLY_
| wish they did was allow you to just store and display notes as
| plain text.
|
| Instead, there is always either markdown or rich text formatting
| involved. And there's no ability to disable that.
|
| That always seemed odd to me to force that kind of decision on
| users.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I suppose you can enclose whole notes in a code block (```)
| jl6 wrote:
| I don't understand... occasionally I use markdown and switch to
| the viewer mode to see it rendered, but most of the time I stay
| in the editor mode where everything is just plain text.
| benwills wrote:
| I do that. And it's not bad. But it still doesn't treat the
| input/interface strictly as plain text.
|
| I can't remember all the little things that happen, which
| wouldn't happen in a plain text editor, but if you type
| hyphen-space, then hit enter, the line is deleted and your
| cursor stays on that line instead of advancing to the next.
|
| It's a trivial example, but things like that happen.
| xchip wrote:
| How big is the stack need to take notes?
| exiguus wrote:
| I choose Joplin over 10 years ago. Because of encryption, multi-
| client & self-hosting ability and easy import and export of
| notes. I did this because i want to securely own my private data.
| Every other tool, I looked before and after, is not able to do
| this.
|
| Fun Fact: Beside the Joplin App, you can use any other Editor to
| edit notes (of course after they are encrypted).
| I_am_tiberius wrote:
| I wish Joplin had better collaboration. I want an e2e encrypted,
| cloud-based solution my entire team can use. Notion UX is great
| but is useless to me without e2e encryption - and it becomes
| expensive for teams. Skiff marketed itself as secure but was
| immediately acquired by Notion.
| Magma7404 wrote:
| Not only collaboration but separating notes between my home and
| my work. Even with the expensive plan, I cannot have 2 accounts
| linked to the same setup but where the work account would have
| a access restricted to the work notes. I still use the cheapest
| plan for personal sync, but I can't use Joplin for work and it
| saddens me.
| mnls wrote:
| The most complete open source Note taking app and exceptionally
| supported, it has its official Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux
| app. Exceptional (and e2ee) sync options too.
| aborsy wrote:
| Joplin sync with Joplin server is superb!
|
| There is a backup feature exporting all notes to markdown. Is
| there a way to backup up all notes this way based on a schedule?
|
| That would address the issue with dependency on a database.
| brocket wrote:
| I migrated all my notes to Joplin (including importing Evernote
| and OneNote) and have been using it for awhile but performance is
| it's biggest issue.
|
| (1) Importing notes takes forever, I'm talking hours, even if
| you're pointing to a local notes folder.
|
| (2) There is no background sync on mobile so every time it's open
| the app, wait a 10+ seconds to sync, then open the new note. I've
| found myself keeping important notes on Keep for quick access.
|
| (3) All notes and resources are in a flat folder so if you have a
| large database filesystems will struggle and break in strange
| ways. I guess I hit some limits in OneDrive and it can't list all
| files so I started missing notes. I ended up doing an audit and
| found a couple dozen things not syncing. Now I'm paranoid I'll
| lose more notes and commit all changes to a git repo.
|
| I still think there isn't a better alternative in my case and
| plan to make improvements to address my pain points.
| andrewaylett wrote:
| I'm somewhat surprised that 44 comments in, it looks like I'm the
| first to mention Roam: https://roamresearch.com/
|
| It obviously wasn't the first note taking app, and it's very much
| not Free, but the nature of its linking sparked Obsidian and
| Logseq's growth. I've been a happy paid user since the early
| days.
|
| The biggest reason I stick with it is that it supports both being
| E2E encrypted _and_ synchronising, without me having to set
| anything up. I wouldn 't mind running a server, but (unlike many
| in the comments) I actively _don 't_ want my tool to operate on a
| pile of Markdown documents on the filesystem: because then I need
| to worry about maintaining those files everywhere I want to
| access my notes. Roam will automagically drop an encrypted backup
| on my laptop every day, my regular backup system will take things
| from there. For day-to-day use, sync is per-block and effectively
| live.
| mattwilsonn888 wrote:
| Using Joplin right now. I wouldn't say I'm blown away by it, but
| it fits some simple needs for a digital notebook:
|
| * Markdown and LaTeX working stably out of the box. * Side-by-
| side view. * (Isolated) File and folder browser in the immediate
| UI
|
| I originally started with it because it's Open Source and can
| link to other documents saved in Joplin - I don't actually use
| that feature though.
|
| Other than that it's fairly sane. Just works, no real bugs so
| far, and you can export in a variety of different convenient
| formats; I've come to trust exporting as a single .jex (Joplin
| Export) file, but MD and HTML are supported.
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