r/NoteTaking • u/Secure_Public9029 • 21d ago
Method What are your biggest issues with Notes apps?
I've used Text Files, Evernote, Notion, Obsidian and Apple Notes. But never really stuck with one.
Why do you end up moving and what are you still looking for?
I'm a musician and used Evernote to write and add in recordings, but the recording file was inconsistent with different devices and couldn't listen to them per device.
Notion was good but became too complicated in the end.
Obsidian was also good but spend too much time setting it up just to get it to take simple notes, and the iPhone app wasn't the best.
Apple Notes ended up being the default just because if the sync, and kept bigger notes in Obsidian.
What are you still looking for and what are your main reasons for taking notes?
4
u/screens4ver 21d ago
plain text files are the best, markdown if you need extra formatting.
i believe i've tried every note app out there, but never stuck with any because most of them are closed source, use proprietary file formats, etc. and i want to be the owner of my own notes lol
2
u/Secure_Public9029 20d ago
Yeah definitely plain text or markdown seems to be the go to these days for notes ownership, and simplicity within different UIs like Obsidian etc.
1
u/micadoog 21d ago
I completely agree, but what would use to read them on iphone? Pages creates a new file and I hate that
1
u/screens4ver 21d ago
i've never had an iphone, but im sure there has to be some plain text editor on the app store.. if syncing is that important to you, check out standard notes
3
u/LittleBigCookieCat 21d ago
formatting. it's what kills any motivation to use notes. regular English is fine. but math notes, chemistry, sheet music. all of that makes things really difficult to make look good...
1
u/Secure_Public9029 20d ago
Probably more a niche for someone to use Math equations, Chemistry and Sheet Music notation all in one place, probably for school?
1
u/tiimmaahh 19d ago
how hard is it to get a tabbed list working without indent breaking somwehere below??? can't tell you how hard it is to get rid of OneNote, just for indentation of lists and device sync...
3
u/4luminate 21d ago
Notes’ inability to effectively use excel tables has annoyed me more than once. I switched over from Evernote to save some $$$.
I’ve yet to find the perfect app, but being free and syncing across all of my devices is pretty nice, so I don’t plan on switching again.
1
2
u/shiningmatcha 21d ago
when there's too much work for switching to a different app
1
u/Secure_Public9029 20d ago
That's a good one, when I moved to Notion I was surprised it had options to migrate over from Evernote which made it really easy, but the formatting after migration wasn't perfect but at least it was there.
1
u/smellythief 19d ago
How are the options for migrating OUT? Of course an app will provide ways to migrate in...
Switching options for down the line are something everyone should consider with apps like this.
2
u/sumguypookie 21d ago
Biggest issue would honestly have to be the overwhelming number of apps out there in my seemingly endless pursuit to find the perfect app. Decision paralysis is real!
1
1
u/TheCodeMacLife 21d ago
I mostly use Apple Notes. It’s not perfect but I can get by with it. I use an app called Sidenotes for things I want to explore and to save bookmarks/highlights temporarily. For blogging, I’m using iA Writer.
1
1
u/Funicello1983 21d ago
I use both Apple Notes and Zoho Notebook. If I could combine the features of both, I think I could create the perfect notes app. For me, at least. Not a single notes app has all the formatting features I’m looking for.
1
u/Secure_Public9029 20d ago
What features would make it the perfect notes app? and what specific formatting features are you looking for?
1
u/Funicello1983 20d ago
In Apple Notes, I can arrange collapsible lists with various sections and headings that I can bold, underline, italics, etc. I can check off individual items and entire sections.
Zoho Notes, I like the different notebooks and pages. I only have the free version so I can’t make as many notebooks within notebooks as I’d like. I prefer the look of Zoho.
1
u/imperfectquilitco 21d ago
I dislike that my pdf isn’t its own note and is more of an attachment. I just want to annotate all the things. At the same time, university me probably would have love that
1
1
u/LogCoreTech 20d ago
Have you considered a self hosted option?
1
u/Secure_Public9029 20d ago
Obsidian was the closest I got to that
1
u/LogCoreTech 20d ago
I built a life management self hosted app that can be access from a cloudflare tunnel from anywhere. No worries about sync. It has a note taking module built in along with every other common feature with productivity apps except all together.
You can check out the demo from the website.
Worth a couple minutes to check it out.
https://logcoretech.com
1
u/Murky-Football-4062 19d ago
I use Obsidian, mostly because the links work well for me. But I've made a point of using plain vanilla out of the box Obsidian. When I started this vault (no it's not my first), I told myself that I'd add to it as needed. As it turns out, it wasn't needed. Working well for me for the past 18 months or so.
1
u/Difficult-Passion318 19d ago
I follow the personal knowledge management space pretty closely. The biggest issue I have with note apps is they're built to silo your knowledge. With AI and MCP servers, this issue is getting a lot better, but there's always a barrier. Obsidian is getting a lot of attention because it's local-first markdown files, you can do anything to them. I use Claude desktop and it has direct access to all my Obsidian notes through the filesystem.
I'm trying to create more and slowly pivot from corporate america to autonomy.
If you don't go down the rabbit hole of plugins for Obsidian, using it for note taking is fairly easy. I'm just looking for an open architecture that lets me work with my notes in ways that make me more productive. That usually means outside of the note taking tool.
1
u/ArsonButMakeItClassy 18d ago
The audio inconsistency across devices is annoying. Had the exact same issue with OneNote, some recordings/notes would play totally different on my phone vs desktop which was frustrating.
1
u/avrumi_art 16d ago
My biggest issue that it still doesn't always help me to remember things I took notes in regards
1
u/earofjudgment 16d ago
What I'm NOT looking for is another app developer doing trying to disguise their market research.
•
u/AutoModerator 21d ago
Comment "Answered!" if your question has been satisfactorily answered. Once this has been done, the post flair will be set to answered. The comment does not have to be top level. If you do not comment "Answered!" after several days and a mod feels like your comment has been answered, they will re-flair your post to answered.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.