REVIEWS / NOTE TAKING / OWNER INSIGHTS
🦉 WE READ 805 OWNER COMMENTS
Apple Notes: what owners actually say
Apple Notes is beloved for quick capture and ecosystem integration, but owners frustrated by data lock-in and limited export keep building hacky workarounds to liberate their own notes.
What owners complain about
- Data lock-in / export limitations COMMON
Owners feel 'held hostage' — no clean way to export notes. Multiple users built custom scripts and tools (AppleScript, Python) to extract data from the SQLite database, calling the process a 'hack' with 'dragons'.
- No Markdown support SOME
Several users note Apple Notes lacks Markdown input, which limits utility for people who want plain text workflows or interoperability with developer tools.
- Inferior for long-term knowledge management SOME
Users report moving to Notion or Obsidian because Notes lacks the structuring, search, and database-like organization needed for accumulated knowledge. One user with ~6,000 notes found the 'Second Brain' approach 'overwhelming and pointless.'
- IMAP syncing is feature-limited FEW
While Notes can sync via IMAP instead of iCloud, 'many features are not supported' when doing so — making it an unreliable alternative for non-Apple workflows.
- Sync issues across Apple devices FEW
One user reported iPhone never properly synced with other Apple devices (iPads, MBP), persisting across multiple iPhones and iOS versions.
What owners love
- Deep Apple ecosystem integration
Owners love that Siri, Shortcuts, and Apple Pencil all work seamlessly with Notes — scribbling quick notes, voice capture, and automation are frictionless.
- Best-in-class quick capture
Described as the 'go-to application to capture unstructured memos while researching.' Users treat it as short-term memory for shopping lists, temporary reminders, and quick captures.
- CRDT-based collaboration
Notes uses conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs) enabling shared notes and multiple concurrent edits without conflicts — a technically sophisticated feature owners appreciate.
- Standard protocol support
Can use IMAP, CalDAV, and CardDAV instead of being forced into iCloud — giving owners some flexibility in how they sync.
- Free and already installed
No cost, no setup — it's just there on every Apple device, making it the path of least resistance for basic note-taking.
Surprising patterns
- Multiple developers have reverse-engineered the Notes SQLite database to build site generators, CMS tools, and export utilities — there's an entire cottage industry of 'Notes liberation' tools.
- A common workflow is using Notes as 'short-term memory' (shopping lists, quick captures) while maintaining a separate system like Notion or Obsidian for long-term knowledge — owners deliberately segment their tools this way.
- Some users who went deep into the 'Second Brain' movement with thousands of notes eventually found the whole approach overwhelming and scaled back to simpler systems.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Anyone who needs cross-platform access (Windows/Android), Markdown-based workflows, complex database-like organization, or reliable data export — Apple Notes will feel like a dead end you'll eventually need to escape.
Synthesised from 805 real owner comments across 5 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →