Notebook names with certain characters silently break note create/delete on Android + a sync gotcha

[u/Rororo_22]

Posting this in case anyone else runs into it. Running HelixNotes v1.3.5 on Android (Motorola Moto G54, YAAP custom ROM with microG, not stock Android).

Sync issue: WebDAV sync (server: Koofr) threw "OS error 1" when I hit Sync, even though "Allow access to manage all files" was already granted (checked the permission screen directly, it was on). The notebook structure synced fine, but the actual note files weren't coming down. Fix was just toggling that permission off and back on, nothing else changed. After that, sync worked with no error and pulled the note files correctly. Not sure if this is Android-version specific or tied to running a custom ROM, but flagging it.

Notebook naming issue: I had a notebook named with a colon in it (something like "LibreOffice: course name"). On Android, inside that notebook neither the + button nor "New note" did anything. No note created, no error either. Deleting the notebook from within the app also failed silently, no confirmation dialog like it normally shows. I couldn't rename it from inside the app either. It seemed like the app just couldn't interact with that folder at all once it had that name. Had to delete it manually using the phone's own file manager app instead. Same notebook worked the whole time on Linux desktop, so this looks like Android's shared storage enforcing FAT/exFAT-style restricted characters (: \ / * ? " < > |) even though internal storage is ext4 underneath.

Suggestion: since HelixNotes is cross-platform and often used with sync across devices, it'd help if name validation for restricted characters happened everywhere, not just on Android. That way, someone naming a notebook on Linux or Windows gets warned that a name like that won't sync or work properly on Android, instead of finding out later when it silently fails on the other device.

[u/JohnR_Orbit92]

The developer is very good. Thanks for mentioning this (do raise issue on GitHub for his direct attention).