One place for cloud storage
Because your notes are ordinary files, they can live wherever you already keep files. Everything to do with cloud storage is in one screen: choose File ▸ Open Collection ▸ from Cloud… to open Manage Cloud Collections. It lists the cloud collections you already have, the ways to add another, and the accounts you have signed in to.
There are two ways a cloud folder can reach you, and the screen tells you which applies rather than asking you to know: a folder your provider’s own app already syncs to this device needs no sign-in at all, while one that lives only on the provider’s servers is reached by signing in.
Folders already on this device
Box, Dropbox, OneDrive (personal and business), Google Drive and iCloud Drive all present their storage to macOS as ordinary folders. If you have the provider’s app installed, choose From a Synced Cloud Folder… and pick the folder you want — no sign-in, because the files are already on your Mac. The row names the providers it can see set up here, so you can tell at a glance whether this applies to you. Everything works exactly as it does locally, and syncing between your devices is handled by the provider.
Cloud files are often online-only until something opens them. HelloNotes handles this deliberately:
- Online-only notes appear in the list with a cloud badge, so you can see what is not local.
- Opening one downloads it on demand, with a “Downloading from the cloud…” indicator while it arrives.
- Indexing skips notes that are not downloaded, so opening a large collection does not silently pull your entire library onto the disk. They are indexed once opened.
- The status bar shows how many notes are still online-only, and each note has Download (when it isn't local) or Remove Download (when it is) in its context menu.
Search covers notes that are downloaded. A note that has never been downloaded still appears in the list — its title comes from the filename — but it is not searchable until it is opened or downloaded. When a search is affected, the sidebar says so and offers to fetch what it is skipping.
Folders that live online
If you do not have the provider’s app installed — or do not want it — HelloNotes can talk to Dropbox, Box, Google Drive and OneDrive over their own APIs.
- Under Cloud Accounts, choose New Dropbox (or New Box, New Google Drive, New OneDrive) and sign in.
- Browse your folders in the picker that appears. A single click opens a folder; the path bar walks you back up.
- Press Open to add the folder you are in as a collection — with search, links, backlinks and the editor all working as usual. Saves are uploaded back automatically.
The folder’s structure appears straight away; each note’s contents download the first time you open it, so adding a large account does not mean waiting for a large download. Use Refresh in the status bar to ask the provider what has changed.
More than one account on a service
A personal and a work OneDrive are two different accounts, and HelloNotes treats them that way: each is signed in separately, keeps its own credentials, and appears on its own row. Choose New OneDrive again to add the second one.
Accounts start named after their service, so a second one is “OneDrive 2”. Use the pencil beside a row to call it something you will recognise — “Jane’s OneDrive”, or just “Work”. One account can supply as many collections as you like: it stays listed under Add a Collection, so adding a second folder from it takes one click and no second sign-in.
Sign-in uses the provider’s standard OAuth flow. Tokens are stored in the Keychain, and no credentials pass through us. Signing an account out removes its credentials with it.
All of this is the same on iPhone and iPad, in the same screen and under the same names.
Removing a cloud collection
Cloud collections you already have are listed at the top of the screen. The − beside one removes it from HelloNotes — it does not delete anything. Your files stay exactly where they are, in your cloud folder, and you can open the collection again later.
Editing on more than one device
If a note changes underneath you — another device, a sync client, another app — HelloNotes notices and tells you, offering to reload the version on disk or keep yours. It will not silently discard either one.
As with any file-syncing service, the usual advice applies: let a sync finish before editing the same note somewhere else.
A note on Git in cloud folders
Git and cloud-sync clients do not always get along: Git needs its object files present locally, and a sync client may keep them online-only or rewrite them mid-operation. HelloNotes therefore disables auto-commit for collections inside a cloud folder and shows a caution in the Git panel. Manual commits remain available when the folder is fully downloaded.
For version history, a local folder plus a Git remote is the more reliable arrangement — see Version history with Git.