Frequently Asked Questions

It is not feasible to continue development of this app, but we will not remove it from the app store while it is still functional. Nevertheless, you should make plans to migrate your data to another app. We have some suggestions and instructions for exporting your data.

You can find all of the details in this READ-ME file. You'll probably also want the iOS Shortcut mentioned there and/or the DEVONthink import scripts installer for macOS which also has the READ-ME text. Thank you for your support.

It doesn't have to be an either/or type of arrangement. Consider using Recall-It Notes in addition to Apple Notes. For example, if you need so store encrypted notes, Apple Notes is a good choice for those. For organizing a large number of notes, I prefer Recall-It's tagging to folders. Also, for long notes, I need search within notes.

Since Recall-It does not yet hava a Mac app, I tend to use Apple Notes as a scratchpad while working on my computer. I can later use the Share Sheet or drag-and-drop in Apple Notes to copy notes to Recall-It.

I can list some of the things I am using it for: saving my favorite recipes as easily searchable plain text (even though I also have a number of cooking apps); keeping lists of gifts that I have given and/or plan to give to various people; taking notes while reviewing how-to videos; making notes while learning a new subject (note taking reinforces memory, and helps to get back up to speed later); tracking when major appliances (model/serial numbers, support phone numbers) were purchased for warranty/maintenance, etc.; keeping PDF versions of their reference manuals for instant access; keeping photos of cards (front and back) that I might otherwise carry in a wallet.

Keeping checklists for relatively complicated activities like upgrading a phone, releasing an app, packing for a trip, etc.; creating a searchable database for info scraped from the web; tracking software bugs; tracking to-do items; maintaining a history of links and exerpts of the most useful web pages found while reasearching something; tracking beta for rock climbing; saving "Gotcha" notes (warnings, pitfalls, dangers, unanticipated consequences that are called out in documentation or instructions) with "gotcha" in the title and/or text for expedited searching; archiving anything that it took significant effort to find and I'm likely to need again; tracking the names of people I want to remember; tracking unreleased songs that are not currently available on Apple Music so I can augment my library later.

Keeping snippets of computer code or scripts; maintaining a list of the keyboard shortcuts that I find most useful for various apps; remembering "how-to" instructions for things I do infrequently; documenting non-trivail problems and their solutions; listing changes I'm planning for documentation, web pages, etc. for later "batch" processing; keeping list of apps, books, movies, etc. that I want to investigate; tracking the pairing codes and other setup info for HomeKit devices.

On the other hand, I generally do not document things at are easily searchable via Google.

Recall-It enables you to insert in-line attachments (images and PDFs) in your notes. Sometimes taking and saving a quick picture or screenshot is much more efficient than laborously transcribing information. (Don't forget to add a descriptive heading and maybe some additional explanatory text to expedite searching.)

You can insert attachments in several ways. In the note editor, move the cursor to where you want the attachment and use the pop-up menu to either take a photo or choose one from your library. The Share Sheet supports photos, and copy-and-paste can be used as well. On iPad, drag-and-drop can be used for photos and PDFs in much the same way it works for text. You can add mutiple attachments for any note, but you must add them one at a time. When viewing a PDF in Safari, you can copy it to a Recall-It note by invoking the Action Sheet and tapping "Copy to Recall-It" (not "Open in...").

Your attachments are not stored inside of your notes which are always pure plain text. Instead, notes contain a link to the appropriate attachmnet which is stored in the Recall-It iCloud Attachments/ folder. When you back up your notes, or when the app automatically backs up, only your text is duplicated. This keeps your backups small and fast. This also means that you might want to arrange for your Attachments/ folder to be backed up as part of your normal backup strategy.

Whenever you delete notes containing attachments, you will be given the option to also delete the attachmemts. The safest course is to not delete the attachments unless you are absolutely sure you want them gone. The main reason you might want to keep attachemnets is so they will be available if and when you restore deleted notes. (It is also possible for multiple notes to refer to the same attachment, and deleting for one will delete for all.) If you are concerned that saving all attachments will waste iCloud storage, Recall-It has a fix for that: Settings > Advanced > Check for Orphan Attachments. This function will scan all of your notes and generate a single note with all attachments that are not associated with at least one current note. You can use this note to view the unused attachments and (optionally) delete any or all of them.

Yes. The following video shows how to winnow down search results that contain too many irrelevant notes. Also, how to use <space> to complete typing and initiate a search, plus how singular search terms automatically match the plural as well.

Instead of using <space> to complete typing and initiate a search as the video demonstrates, you can tap directly on any completion to insert it into the search bar, and tap again on the same completion to initiate a search.

If you want to delete a single note, the easiest way is to locate it in the search results list and swipe from right to left on it. Then tap Delete.

Deleting an arbitrary group of notes is also simple, but requires more steps. If necessary, do a query that brings the notes to be deleted into the search results list. It's o.k. if there are other notes in the results that you don't want to delete. Tap the Edit (...) button on the results list and select just the notes you want to delete. Tap More.. followed by Delete. Notice that instead of deleting, you could have backed up or exported the selected notes. The following video shows the process for deletion.

The video below shows how to back up all of your notes to iCloud. This backup is used to restore a deliberately deleted note. (Also shown is how to delete an individual note by swiping left on it.) In practice, you would likely use the last auto-backup to restore a note you accidently deleted.

Recall-It follows a very simple rule about backups and restores: it will not restore a note if any version of that note currently exists in the database, regardless of the timestamps. This means you can use any of your backups to restore accidentally deleted notes without worrying about duplicating or overwriting existing notes. This also implies that you cannot replace an existing note with a backed-up version unless you first delete that note. If you want to be really careful, you can back it up first.

Yes, the app supports the x-callback-url specification for inter-app communication. The basic idea is that another iOS app can “open” a specially constructed URL which launches Recall-It and instructs it to do something useful. You can see for yourself how this works by typing recall-it:// into the Safari address bar on an iOS device which has Recall-It installed. When you press Go, the app should launch, but nothing interesting will happen. To make something interesting happen, we need to append one of the actions discussed next.

Here is the general pattern (examples are broken into multiple lines for legibility):

recall-it://x-callback-url/action?
parameter1=URLEncodedValue1&
parameter2=URLEncodedValue2& ...

where the actions are described below, and each action has one or more (possibly optional) parameters. Note that all parameter values must be URL encoded. Normally, you would not construct such URLs by hand, but rather use an app such as Workflow to help create and run them for you

/create

This action causes Recall-It to create a new note based on the text and tags contained within the URL.

The URL must have a text= paramenter followed by the URL encoded text of the new note. It can also have an optional tags= parameter consisting of a URL Encoded space-separated list of tags to be applied to the new note. For example:

recall-it://x-callback-url/create?
text=This%20Is%20the%20Title%0A%0A
And%20this%20is%20the%20body%20of%20my%20new%20note.%0A&
tags=favorite%20junk

If your URL includes an x-success URL, the /create action will return the title of the newly created note as the title= parameter.

If your URL includes an x-error URL, this action will return any error messages via the errorMessage= parameter.

Here is a very minimal workflow that demonstrates how to create a new note via the Workflow app.

/add-to-note

This action causes Recall-It to add text to an existing note.

The URL must have a title= URL encoded parameter that specifies the exact title (including capitalization and any punctuation) of the note to be augmented. Also, there must be exactly one note with the specified title to ensure the desired note gets updated. The URL must also have a text= URL encoded parameter that specifies the text to be added. Finally, the URL may have an optional where= parameter, which must have one of the values: top, bottom, or replace. (bottom is the default if the where= parameter is not present.)

When text is inserted at the top, it is placed immediately after the last character of the title. This implies (assuming you want a blank line after the title) that your replacement text should generally begin with 2 newlines, and not have a newline at the end (since there will presumably already be a blank line after the title).

When you specify where=replace, your replacement text is inserted immediately after the last character of the title, and replaces the rest of the existing text. This implies (assuming you want a blank line after the title) that your replacement text should generally begin with 2 newlines. How it ends depends on your requirements. If you don't include any newlines at the end, then another workflow appending text to the end would have to include the desired number of newlines at the beginning.

When you specify where=bottom, your text is appended at the end of the exising text. Whether or not you begin your replacement text with newlines depends on what you expect to be at the end of the current text. (See above.)

Your URL may include optional x-success or x-error URLs. The return values are the same as those for /create documented above.

Here is a very minimal workflow that demonstrates how to add text to a note via the Workflow app.

/search

This action causes Recall-It to perform a search. Becaue an arbitrary search can return many results, Recall-It remains open displaying the results.

The URL you specify must contain either a terms= or a tags= parameter (or both). The values for both parameters must be URL encoded, and they are specified exactly as you would type them in the Recall-It search box.

If your URL includes an x-error URL, this action will return any error messages via the errorMessage= parameter.

Here is a very minimal workflow that searches for all notes containing the word “documentation” with the tag “recall.it” via the Workflow app.

Recall-It Notes is designed to sync automatically. Syncing happens in the background, so in most cases, changes you make on one device should be waiting for you when you open the app on another device. However, since syncing involves the cloud, it is not instantaneous and there are opportunities for apparent glitches, but actual failures should be quite rare.

If you think there is a syncing problem, the first step it to determine if that really is the case. Check the Status Bar (next to the WiFi icon) for a small spinner. If present, it is likely that the most recent changes have not finished uploading to or downloading from iCloud. Until that happens, the app cannot update its state. If the spinner is not present and you still think there is a problem, check the following:

• Are you connected to the Internet via WiFi or LTE?
• If you are using a device with cellular data, make sure it is enabled for the app. (On your device, tap Settings > Cellular and scroll down to Recall-It. Make sure the switch is ON.)
• Is iCloud syncing for Recall-It enabled? Check by tapping the gear icon to bring up the Reacll-It settings and scrolling down to the "Use iCloud for Syncing" setting. Any changes you make while this switch is OFF will not be synced.
• Try a manual sync by pulling down on the Notes list.
• If you were expecting an item you modified on another device to appear at the top of the results list on the current device, refresh the list by tapping the Search box and immediately tapping Cancel.
• Make sure "Background App Refresh" is turned on in iPhone/iPad Settings for Recall-It.
• A glitch that affects updating of in-memory data can look like a sync problem. Re-syncing by pulling down on the Notes list should fix things. Otherwise, try force-quitting and re-opening the app. When you exit, wait about 10 seconds before force-quitting to avoid interrupting the sync which occurs every time the app goes into the background.
• If you saved a note using the Share Sheet on another device and it has not appeared on the device you are currently using, it is possible the note has not yet been added to the database. An iOS limitation prevents the Share Sheet from writing the note you save to the database. Instead it is staged for addition the next time a sync occurs in the Recall-It app on that device; you can force this by launching Recall-It after you save something via the Share Sheet. If the device where you saved via the Share Sheet is not handy, you can force a sync remotely by changing a note (but NOT any note you appended to that has not synced!) on the current device and letting that sync to the remote device which should then load and sync back the Share Sheet additions.
• Conflicts can appear to be syncing problems. See known issues/bugs.

There are no known "show-stopper" bugs. The following issues are fairly innocuous, rare and/or hard to reproduce:

1. When editing a note, the app becomes very sluggish for a short period of time, as if something is hogging the main run loop. I've only observed this a few times in a year of testing, and only on 2 of 4+ devices. It seems to cause no harm other than the interruption. I'm very interested in other observations, especially knowing if it is correlated with whether the app is showing ads or not, or whether there is an association with using universal clipboard.
2. The app currently does not attempt to merge conflicts (either automatically, or with your assistance). You can create a conflict by editing the same note (differently) on two different devices before syncing has had a chance to finish. In this case, you will lose one set of changes. This is generally not a problem because syncing occurs in the background even if the app is not "open" on your other devices. If you do want to edit a note that you just edited on another device, pull down on the search results list to see if there is anything waiting to sync before you start editing. If you don't see your earlier changes in the note editor, cancel and wait for the sync to complete. Note that it is all right to edit a note that you have not just edited on a different device while a sync is occurring.
3. In the iOS 12 beta, tapping an image or PDF attachment causes it to "flash" but (usually) the viewer does not launch. You can work around this by tapping and sliding your finger very slightly (I slide to the right) before releasing. The same applies to toggling checkboxes in notes.
4. Occasionally, when editing a note, the on-screen keyboard hides the last several lines of the note. You can restore normal operation by rotating your device to landscape mode, then back to portrait.
5. (Fixed) On the iPhone version, a bug prevents the PDF search field from being dismissed when you tap Cancel. This will be fixed in the next version. Until then, an easy workaround is to tap any of the search results to show it in context (and thereby cancel the search).