What is a good desktop/mobile app that allows me to sync notes between my computer and phone?

Posted by 8spd@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 30 comments

I've got Debian 13 and Gnome 48 on my laptop, and Android 16 on my phone.

I want to by able to have some PostIt note style application running on my both my phone and laptop, that allows me to sync notes to both. It would be good if the apps were lightweight, allowed for self hosting when I get around to it, but cloud based hosting to start with is better than requiring complex set up. And a clean, minimalistic UI is to my preference.

What do people recommend for this?

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Morphon@reddit

Joplin. Phone, Linux, Windows. Everything. I have mine doing its sync through OneDrive, but you can use the repository of your choice. It's great.

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EmptyBodybuilder7376@reddit

Are you able to sync over Linux (by use of OneDrive), too?

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Morphon@reddit

Yep. Super simple - in client. I don't have to point it at a sync folder on the system or anything.

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EmptyBodybuilder7376@reddit

I have been trying to get this to work with Google Drive.

I just assumed that OneDrive would be even more unlikely to have a (working) client for Linux, since its Micro$oft.

Can I ask which client you are using? Does M$ make one for Linux?

Thanks.

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Morphon@reddit

If you want to use OneDrive sync on Linux I would recommend either rysnc or "Onedrive" (which is a command-line tool written in D - that's my personal favorite).

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JustFiguringItOut89@reddit

I use Siyuan Notes and it works great. It has a plugin, Better Sync, for syncing if you want bypass their subscription. It's open source and self-hostable.

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kevin8tr@reddit

If your interested in self-hosting something, check out Silverbullet.

Stores everything in simple markdown files
Live preview
Programmable
Very light weight (reason I left Obsidian/Logseq)
Simple install/update with docker-compose. I'm using it with Podman/podman-compose.
Very lightweight
Under active development

It is quite powerful if you want to dig deep, but I'm just using it for simple linked markdown notes.

Here is a Youtube playlist from the developer that will give more detail: Welcome to Silverbullet

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nickname1917@reddit

Obsidian + rsync

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8spd@reddit (OP)

Wait a sec, I can run rsync on my phone!?

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nickname1917@reddit

yes, with termux

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gazpitchy@reddit

I like using simplenote just for notes. Super easy.

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life_not_malfunction@reddit

I have a stupid un-necessarily complicated setup, but it's mine and it works. Self-hosted Nextcloud with desktop and android apps, Nextcloud Notes on android, and Obsidian on desktop syncing to the Nextcloud folder.

Both the Notes app and Obsidian work with .md files, and it lets me reorganise my notes in Obsidian instead of them all living in one folder together.

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cidra_@reddit

Iotas on Linux Nextcloud Notes in Android

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Atijohn@reddit

syncthing, it's just a file synchronizer, you can just store your notes in a plain text file (or some other file format)

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ggabbarr@reddit

Irony is that even in 2025 all these smartphones with so much latest tech are still unable to open basic txt files without another app installed - atleast my samsung doesnt open txt files without an app installed supporting txt files.

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TipAfraid4755@reddit

Google Keep

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Careful-Major3059@reddit

Joplin

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Somnic_in_Capitza@reddit

I found Joplin to suck at syncing actually

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FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

This! \^\^\^

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libra00@reddit

I use UpNote, been using it since I was on Windows and was pleasantly surprised to discover they have a linux native client with an appimage. It doesn't really do post-it style notes you can stick to your desktop or whatever as far as I know, but otherwise it's a great, full-featured note app without the bloat of an Evernote or OneNote.

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ElSasori69@reddit

Hmm, if the app that you use let you choose where the actual files of your notes are stored you can technically use something like Dropbox to sync and qOwnNotes, qOwnNotes uses markdown so it would look good even if you open the file as a simple text file

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FrostyDiscipline7558@reddit

Joplin. You can self host the db just about anywhere, including Nextcloud. It's stored encrypted on the server and on the device... but doesn't require you re-enter your password to have it decrypt on your device. Once setup, you're set to go. Available for Linux, Mac, Windows, Android and IOS.

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Mr_Lumbergh@reddit

Of you were running KDE you could try KDE Connect. Not sure for Gnome.

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daemonpenguin@reddit

KDE Connect works on all desktops. The GNOME front end is called GS Connect.

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LeftShark@reddit

Obsidian. You can pay if you want it to handle the syncing, or it's free if you do it yourself via git

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krodiak@reddit

Google keep.

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FluffyWarHampster@reddit

No. Closed source and google……

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matt-x1@reddit

I use git but I'm not using an app from the store because in the past they always crashed and did offer too few features. Instead I've opened the terminal app (com.android.virtualization.terminal), installed git there with apt-get install (and ssh so I could generate a key...).

Well, a text-based UI is certainly a clean, minimalistic UI, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

One more tip: the terminal sometimes says "unrecoverable error" or similar. In that case I go back to the home screen and open it again and the error is gone.

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Marelle01@reddit

https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.simplenote.Simplenote