FAQs

Soot is a calm place to write your notes, on Mac, iPad and iPhone. There’s nothing to learn: your notes look formatted as you type, with nothing else on screen asking for your attention. Every note is kept as an ordinary file you can open in other apps, and with Soot Pro your notes sync between your devices, end-to-end encrypted.

No. The editor is free on every device, and your notes are stored on the device you write them on. With Soot Pro, your notes sync between your devices.

No, not to write. You only need one for Soot Pro, and you sign in with a link Soot emails you.

Not yet, but Windows, Linux and Android versions are planned. Sync is built to work across platforms, not only on Apple devices.

Yes. Your notes are plain Markdown files, a text format other apps can open. On a Mac they’re in the folder you chose for your library, and on iPhone and iPad the Files app shows them under On My iPhone ▸ Soot or On My iPad ▸ Soot.

Yes. Your notes are stored on each device, so you can read and edit them without a connection. With Soot Pro, changes sync when you’re connected again.

Not yet. With Soot Pro, earlier versions are kept as your notes sync, but the app can’t show them to you.

No. With Soot Pro, your notes are encrypted before they leave your device, and so are their file and folder names. Only your devices can decrypt them.

How Soot looks after your notes →

On a Mac, they stay where they are. Your library is a folder you chose, and deleting the app doesn’t touch it. Include that folder in your backups.

On iPhone and iPad, your notes are kept inside Soot, so deleting Soot deletes them too. If you have Soot Pro, they come back when you install Soot again, sign in and unlock your library. Any changes that hadn’t synced yet are lost.

A backup of your iPhone or iPad includes your notes as well, so restoring from one brings them back.

Your notes are included in its iCloud Backup, so restoring that backup onto a new iPhone or iPad brings your notes back, apart from anything you wrote after the last backup. You don’t need Soot Pro for this. With Soot Pro, your notes are on your other devices too, and they come back when you sign in on the new one.

$2.49 a month or $24.99 a year, with 10 GB for your notes and attachments.

Your notes stop syncing, and the copies already on your devices stay there. You can carry on reading and editing them in Soot.

On your Mac, yes. You can keep your notes in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive and let that service sync them between your Macs, but you can’t use Soot Pro to sync the same folder. These services copy whole files, though, so if you edit a note on two Macs before it has synced, one edit replaces the other, or you end up with a second copy of the note.

Soot keeps a record of what’s synced inside the folder, and if another service copies that record between your Macs, Soot can lose track of what you changed or deleted. To use Soot Pro, keep your notes outside folders those services sync, such as in your home folder. Edits made to a note on different devices are then merged, and Soot keeps a second copy only when two edits can’t be merged.

On iPhone and iPad, Soot keeps your notes in its own folder, so iCloud Drive and Dropbox can’t reach them. To sync your notes on iPhone and iPad with your other devices, you need Soot Pro.

Soot Pro is $24.99 a year for 10 GB. Obsidian Sync is $48 a year for 1 GB, or $96 for 10 GB. Both are end-to-end encrypted, and both merge edits made on different devices.

Yes, on the Mac. File ▸ Import Notes… takes an Obsidian vault, an export from Apple Notes, or a folder of Markdown files from Bear, iA Writer or anywhere else, with their pictures and files.

Import from Apple Notes →

Yes. Once you give an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT access to your notes on your Mac, it can read and edit them. With Siri AI, you can also ask Siri about them. Soot itself doesn’t write for you.

Your notes can work with AI assistants →