Your own sync
tagwerk has no server. Sync means your server — a Nextcloud at home, a university's ownCloud, a Synology in the cupboard, any WebDAV address — or another program carrying the folder for you. This page is the setup, the failure modes and the rules the sync follows, including the two it deliberately breaks with what other apps do.
What the sync moves
Four things, each by a rule of its own, and the rules are worth knowing because they decide what happens on a bad day:
- The day notes. Two-way. Uploads are conditional, so a device cannot overwrite a version it never saw.
- The day templates in
templates/, so every device builds its days the same way. - The tag colours
(
settings/tagwerk.colors), because a tag should look the same on the phone and on the desktop. - The licence
(
settings/tagwerk.license): present or absent, never replaced, never deleted — uploaded only when the server has none, downloaded only when this device has none.
A deleted day is not a deletion. Removing a note on one device does not remove it anywhere else — the risk of a tidy-up eating a year of notes is not worth the convenience. A removed template does propagate, because deleting one is an explicit act in the management UI and a template that came back would make that button a lie.
Setting it up
Settings → Sync. For Nextcloud and ownCloud the plain server address is
enough — https://cloud.example.org, and the
remote.php/dav/files path is derived. Synology and any
other WebDAV server take the full address of the folder.
For Nextcloud there is Sign in through the browser: the sign-in happens on your
own server's page, and the app is handed an app password of its own — it never sees your
account password. Where a server does not offer that, or where the account is behind
two-factor authentication, make an app password in the web interface and use that. An
address that starts with http:// is accepted and warned
about, in those words: username and password travel in the clear.
The sync runs when a note changes, when the app starts, and whenever you press the cloud in the toolbar. Under Check for changes it also runs on a clock — off, every 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, 15 by default — which is what makes a note written on the phone turn up on the computer without anybody pressing anything. That clock runs while the app is open. On Android there is a second one for the closed app: Sync in the background — off, every 15 or 30 minutes, every hour (the default), every 3 or 6 hours. Android picks the exact moment and may postpone it to save battery; whatever comes down goes straight onto the widget. On the desktop nothing runs while the app is closed. A run nobody asked for keeps to itself — no spinner, no turning cloud — and the button changes only for what the run found: changes still waiting, a conflict to decide, an error worth acting on.
A folder somebody shared with you shows up only after your account has accepted the share, and then inside whatever folder that account files received shares into — not at the top level, which is where people look for it first.
When it will not connect
The connection test names the stage it got to rather than reporting “sync failed”. There are six, and which one stops tells you what to fix:
| Stage | What a failure there usually means |
|---|---|
| Network available | The device is offline; nothing was attempted. |
| Server name resolves | A typo in the address, or a name that only exists inside your home network. |
| Connection and encryption | Wrong port, a firewall, or a certificate the device will not accept. |
| Sign-in accepted | Wrong credentials — with two-factor on the account, this is where an account password fails and an app password works. |
| WebDAV and notes folder | Reached the server, but the path is not a WebDAV folder, or not that one. |
| Write test | Everything works except writing: read-only share, quota full. |
Two providers behave differently from what their address suggests, and we walked into both ourselves:
| Provider | What to watch for |
|---|---|
| Hetzner Storage Box | Every sub-account has an address of its own — https://u123456-sub1.your-storagebox.de, not the box's. Under the box's own name the server turns a sub-account down. The app names the right address when it recognises the case. |
| HiDrive (IONOS) | The top level is read-only, so a notes folder there fails at the write test. Your folder sits under users/ and your account name — pick it there in the folder dialog, not at the top. And WebDAV is not part of every HiDrive plan: at IONOS the basic plans include it, at STRATO the private plans only get it with the protocol package. Without it the connection test fails although the address and the password are right. |
And one address that looks like wrong credentials in the test: if it begins with
http:// rather than https://,
the server usually forwards the request — and on the way there every app leaves the
login behind, because it was meant for the server that was asked. What comes back reads
as “not signed in” for a password that is perfectly correct. The app tells you which
address is meant when this happens.
A server that is not listed here is not a server that will not work: this is ordinary WebDAV, and most need nothing beyond an address, a name and a password.
When two devices write the same day
Uploads carry the version the device started from, so the server refuses a write that would land on top of something newer. When both sides really did change, nothing is thrown away: the local version keeps the file and the remote one is written beside it, for you to compare and settle.
2026-09-17.md 2026-09-17.sync-conflict-tagwerk.md
The name is Syncthing's on purpose — other tools already recognise that shape, and a conflict copy nobody's file manager understands is a file people delete without reading. The same thing happens without any sync at all: if another editor or a third-party sync client writes the day tagwerk currently has open, that version is kept beside it instead of being overwritten by the next keystroke.
Without our sync
The built-in sync is part of tagwerk Pro. What is not, and never can be: putting your notes in a folder of your own — on Android through the system folder picker — and letting Syncthing, the Nextcloud app or your desktop client carry that folder. A folder synced by another program is not a feature of this app.
That route is genuinely equivalent for the notes, and it is what many people here already run. Two differences are worth naming: those clients settle conflicts by their own rules rather than tagwerk's, and the licence file travels with the folder either way, which is what makes one purchase unlock every device.
What it costs, and what it does not
tagwerk Pro is €12 / US$12 once, bought in the app, no subscription, covering every platform we ship — because there is no server of ours to pay for. Your notes go to your server, and nothing about them reaches caliora: no account, no telemetry, no copy on the way through.
Something missing here, or something wrong? Write to , or open an issue in the tracker.