|||

PTPL 102 · No App Lasts Forever — Tips For Your Data Bug-Out Bag

nvALT users take note — you’re about to lose everything!

Plain text, Paper, Less (PTPL) Productivity Digest, text-based image by Author

No app can ever be guaranteed to last forever; Free and Open Source (FOSS) is great, but only if you have the skills to do the job. nvALT users take note: you need to act now to change one vital setting before it’s everlastingly too late! I list four habits that can help you pack your digital bug out bag.


There’s bad news about your favourite app, sorry

No app is guaranteed to last forever; not one. And certainly not your favourite app.

The impending death of nvALT (a superbly simple, easy to use plain text app) is a good example. If you are or have ever been an nvALT user and you don’t want to lose access to all your notes, you need to read and hearken to this post by the nvALT-father, Brett Terpstra. Like, now!

Screenshot of a Mac window showing nvALT. There’s a list of files on the left, and the active file shown on the right. It’s in French.

Image from https://www.aya.io/blog/nvalt-prise-de-notes/

The Low-Down on nvALT

In a nutshell, the situation is this:

  • nvALT is at the end of its life
  • It’s open source, but shows no signs of being updated by the FOSS community
  • If your nvALT files are currently being stored as a database, when the app stops working you will lose access to your files forever

You need to go to Preferences > Notes > Storage and change Store and read notes on disk as” to Plain Text Files.” Once this is done, you can keep using nvALT until it no longer works, and then easily port your plain text files into another app. My recommendation if you like this kind of app is to stop using nvALT immediately if you haven’t already, and switch to The Archive, or Obsidian.

When I opened my copy of nvALT after reading Brett’s post I found that my notes were indeed stored as a database. Oops! It’s the default storage option, and back when I was using the app I didn’t know about details like that.

After making sure my files were safe I played around in nvALT for a bit, just for old times’ sake, and was quickly reminded just how dang COOL it is. So, so simple! And it can read and write to my Obsidian vault (the latter only in .txt format, sadly).

All was going well until nvALT crashed, about three minutes into my play session. So, yeah…if you have had notes in nvALT at any time, now might be a good time to check where and how they’re being stored.

nvALT is (was?) the kind of app that make me happy my notes are my notes, and can easily be worked on in multiple apps that bring unique features, moods and energy to the table. FYI nvULTRA (nvALT’s replacement) is still in development, not expected any time soon but definitely still expected — sometime.

How goes your data-prepping?

So how are your notes? How would you manage if everything that’s currently in a proprietary format were suddenly inaccessible? This is not sensationalism or scaremongering; it’s a reminder to put good habits in place now, so that the (eventually inevitable) death of an app is but an inconvenience, not a crisis.

Kepano, on Obsidian:

These days I write using an app I helped make called Obsidian, but it’s a delusion to think it will last forever. The app will eventually become obsolete.

Being prepared is as simple as doing one or more of the following (as applicable) daily, or after each significant revision —

  • Export your spreadsheets as CSV files
  • Export your working documents in graphics apps, as PDFs
  • Save your rich text documents as plain text, and/or export to PDF
  • Compose text offline before posting it online (the internet is a fickle beast)

To keep the bug out bag analogy going, you then need to pack those exports into a portable format. Something that will outlast internet outages, fires, floods, and earthquakes. All the fun stuff. In my article on why I’m happy to keep three backups of everything, I neglected to mention hard copies. Not having any of those is the achilles heel of my otherwise iron-clad system, something I should fix but am putting off.

There are other best practices for data preservation; what are yours? How do you pack your data bug-out bag before it’s needed?


I love hearing from readers, and I’m always looking for feedback. Why do you read Plain Text. Paper, Less? Is there anything you’d like to see more, or less of? Which aspects do you enjoy the most? Found a typo? Let me know in the comments, on Mastodon, or hit reply if you received this as an email.

No AI content: all words and pictures 100% human made. Download productivity goodies, including a soon-to-be-released updated Obsidian Planner demo vault, here.


Follow my RSS feed, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox  

 

My posts cost you nothing to read, but a goodly amount of effort on my part to put together. If you’ve found value here I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it, or to make a contribution to my support jar

Up next PTPL 101 · Forget Perfectionism — Raw Notes Are Real Notes PTPL 103 · 4 Practical, Fascinating Uses of Plain Text in the Wild
Latest posts PTPL 129 · Live Out of Your Notes the Way Tom Lives Out of His Car Inktober 2024 PTPL 128 · Keep Your Content Separate From the Container in Which It Lives PTPL 127 · On Backing Up Paper, and Static Websites for Tiny Archives Efficient App Agnostic Tasks in a Single Plain Text File (Obsidian Optional) PTPL 126 · What the Dash-Plus System Looks Like in My OBTF and Analog Notes Word Puzzles (that aren’t Wordle) PTPL 125 · Choosing Between Digital and Analog, and a Plain Text Accounting Update How to Keep Your Wheels Turning Smoothly Despite the Automation Paradox PTPL 124 · Saving Safari tabs as Markdown links, and Mono Fonts in Obsidian Looking Through Windows (From the Outside In) PTPL 123 · ‘Analog Office’ Blog and Tomoe River Planner Recommendations Mastodon and the Fediverse — Social Media’s Brighter Future Celebrating Independent Indie Blogs PTPL 122 · Aligning Your Task List with Your (Changing) Values PTPL 121 · Getting Focused With a 4-Quadrant Weekly Planning Matrix PTPL 120 · Quick Add vs Text Expansion in Obsidian Touch Typing For Classic Book Fans Your Name in Landsat Psst — They Don't Know What You're Talking About PTPL 119 · Yes, You Can Be Plain-Text Enlightened and Still Use Apple’s Reminders! PTPL 118 · My Simple, Sensible Plain Text to Proprietary App Workflow PTPL 117 · Oh, You Like Making Notes! Why Not Use… ? PTPL 116 · Plain Text Accounting Level 1, Complete! PTPL 115 · There’s Something New at the Top of My One Big Text File PTPL 114 · Obsidian, Silver Bullet, and Org-Mode—3 Different Approaches to Working With Notes PTPL 113 · Some Free Tools Cost Too Much PTPL 112 · Organise Your Stuff— Alternatives to Bartender and Hazel PTPL 111 · You Only Need 2 Calendar Categories For Effective Time Management PTPL 110 · How to Easily Type  macOS ⌘ Modifier Keys PTPL 109 · Households With Written SOPs Are More Resilient Than Those Without
... ... ... ...