Documentation

A bit of Everything

Syncing Notebooks

You can sync your notebooks with a directory on your device, or with a few different repository types: Dropbox, WebDAV, and (experimental) Git.

Notebooks are written as plain text files in Org mode file format.

Synchronization is currently manual – you have to initiate it yourself by clicking the Sync button. Button is located in the navigation drawer.

Repository Types

Dropbox

The Dropbox app is not required for syncing, instead you will allow Orgzly to contact Dropbox on your behalf using the browser.

  • Go to Settings
  • Click on Sync
  • Click on Repositories
  • Click on Dropbox (if you already have some repositories, click the plus icon first)
  • Enter the directory inside Dropbox (without "Dropbox" part)

WebDAV

You can sync your notebooks over WebDAV with any service that supports it, such as Nextcloud, for example.

  • Go to Settings
  • Click on Sync
  • Click on Repositories
  • Click on WebDAV (if you already have some repositories, click the plus icon first)
  • Enter the URL, username and password

Optionally, if the server is using a self-signed certificate for example, you could add it here.

Directory (local storage)

Notebooks can be synced with one or more directories on your device.

  • Go to Settings
  • Click on Sync
  • Click on Repositories
  • Click on Directory (if you already have some repositories, click the plus icon first)
  • Click Browse and select (or create new) directory

Status Messages

After syncing is done, every notebook will have its sync status message updated.

No change

Notebook is already synced. Nothing to do.

Saved to URL

Notebook has been successfully synced by being saved to the repository represented by URL.

Loaded from URL

Notebook has been successfully synced by being loaded from the notebook represented by URL.

Notebook has no link and one or more remote notebooks with the same name exist

Orgzly doesn't know which remote notebook to use for syncing.

Each notebook must have a link to a remote notebook. Link is usually set automatically after the first sync. However, there are cases when this is not possible, or when the link is removed.

Link cannot be created after the first sync if:

  • Notebook was created in Orgzly, but there is already a remote notebook with the same name in one of the repositories
  • Multiple repositories are used and there is a notebook with the same name in them

Link is removed when:

  • Repository is renamed or deleted

Link can be set manually:

  • Open the list of notebooks ("Notebooks")
  • Long-click on a notebook
  • Click on Set Link
  • Choose a repository
  • Click Set

Link is set if you can see the URL next to the small link icon in notebook's details.

Notebook has no link and multiple repositories exist

Both local and remote notebook have been modified

If you modify a notebook in Orgzly and at the same time (before performing a sync) you modify its linked remote notebook, next sync will leave the notebook in a conflicted state.

When notebook is not synced due to conflict, you have two options:

  • Force Load to import remote notebook and overwrite the local version
  • Force Save to export local notebook and overwrite the remote version

These actions are available in notebook's contextual menu:

  • Open the list of notebooks ("Notebooks")
  • Long-click on a notebook to open the menu

There is currently no other way to resolve a conflict within Orgzly itself.

Manually merging the two, conflicting files when using Dropbox

When the local and remote notebooks have been modified in a Dropbox repository you can take advantage of the facts that Orgzly stores information in text files (in the Org file format) and that Orgzly will create a new copy of the file if you remove it from Dropbox.

For example, you might move the original, underlying .org file in Dropbox to a different directory, then tell Orgzly to sync the files again (which will cause Orgzly to create a new file (with the same file name)). You can then use an external tool (such as a diff program) to compare your original file and the file that Orgzly created. You can then determine what changes were made, and which ones you wish to keep.

Be sure to remember that the new file (the one created by Orgzly) is where you want to put your final, merged version of the file.

Notes for Org mode users

Notebooks are encoded in Org mode file format.

Generated Org files

When compared to your original Org files, files generated by Orgzly might differ in the amount of white space, outlined below. Any other difference would be considered a serious bug.

  • By default, tags are separated from the title with a single space character. You will lose your tags' indentation as if you had org-tags-column set to 0.
    • You can set Tags column in the app's preferences (under Settings / Sync / Org file format / Tags indentation), which should behave just like org-tags-column.
    • There is also a preference to make Tags column output compatible with org-indent-mode.
  • Unsupported metadata below header is part of note's content. As soon as any unsupported metadata is encountered, lines from that point until the next heading are considered part of note's content. You might find an unexpected new line between supported and unsupported metadata, because note's content is normally separated from heading by a new line.

If any of this is not working for you, please contact us.

Ignoring files in a repository

(Supported on Android 8 and above.)

For users who have a large number of .org files in their repository, and only want Orgzly to load some of them, a .orgzlyignore file can be added to the repository on a remote device. The file uses the same syntax as Git's .gitignore file, which lets you exclude or include files based on glob patterns. See the Git documentation for details on the syntax. If the repository contains a .orgzlyignore file, it will be consulted in the following situations:

  1. When looking through the repository for .org files to load.
  2. When renaming notebooks.
  3. When linking a notebook to a repository (to ensure that the resulting file name does not match an ignore rule).

Please note that the .orgzlyignore file is not consulted each time a notebook is saved to a repository, for performance reasons.

If the ignore rules are updated such that an existing Orgzly notebook suddenly matches an ignore rule, upon the next sync occasion, Orgzly will react as if the file has been deleted from the repository. This means that the notebook's repository link is removed, and a warning message is shown, but the notebook is not deleted from Orgzly. However, you will not be able to link the notebook to the same repository, unless you rename it to something which does not match an ignore rule. (It would also be possible to link the notebook to a different repository, with different or no ignore rules.)

FAQ

How much does it cost?

Orgzly is free.

Is the source code available?

Yes, the source code is available on GitHub.

I don't use Google Play, any alternatives?

Orgzly Revived is also available on F-Droid. Or you can download APK files directly from the GitHub releases page.

Dropbox sync option is missing

Are you using F-Droid version? Dropbox is only available in Google Play's version of the app.

Is there an iOS version?

No, only Android version is available at the moment.

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Contact

Email us at support@orgzlyrevived.com and visit Orgzlyrevived.com.

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