FUTO Notes settings explained
FUTO Notes has a short Settings screen: theme, language, where your notes are stored, sync, crash reports, updates on desktop, and a Full reset. Every setting is stored on the device and none of them sync, so each device keeps its own.
Open Settings
| Platform | How |
|---|---|
| Desktop | Press Ctrl/Cmd+,, or click the gear in the sidebar. On macOS it is also under FUTO Notes → Settings…. |
| Android | Tap the gear in the top bar of the note list. |
| iOS | Tap the gear in the navigation bar. Close the sheet with Done. |
What each platform has
| Section | Desktop | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Change or reset the notes folder | Shows the path | Choose device or app storage |
| Appearance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Language | In-app menu | Opens iOS Settings | In-app menu |
| Sync | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Issue reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Updates | macOS, Windows, AppImage | No | No |
| About | Version line at the bottom | Yes | Yes |
| Danger zone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Appearance: Theme
Theme has three choices: Light, Dark, and Auto. Auto is the default, and it follows your operating system’s light or dark setting and switches when that changes. A new choice applies right away, with no restart.
Language
The app interface is available in English and Simplified Chinese (简体中文). Changing the language changes the app’s own text only. It does not touch your notes, their filenames, search, or sort order.
- Desktop: the Language menu lists System first, then each language by its own name. System uses the first language in your operating system’s preferred list that the app has, and falls back to English. The change applies immediately.
- Android: the same menu. On Android 13 and later it is the same setting as the app’s language in Android’s own settings, so changing it in either place changes both.
- iOS: there is no menu in the app. The row reads Open iOS Settings and opens FUTO Notes in the iOS Settings app, where iOS lets you pick a language for the app. iOS only offers that choice when your device has more than one preferred language; otherwise the app follows your device language.
Storage
The Storage section shows where your notes are. For what’s in that folder and the default location on each platform, see where FUTO Notes stores your notes.
Desktop: change the notes folder
Click Change directory and pick a folder. The app asks you to confirm, then restarts using the new folder.
Note: changing the folder does not move your notes. The confirmation says it plainly: “Existing notes in the current directory will NOT be moved.” Your old notes stay where they were. To bring them along, copy the files into the new folder yourself.
If you picked a custom folder, Reset to default switches back to the default location, also with a restart.
If the folder goes missing, for example because it was on a drive that’s no longer plugged in, the app doesn’t create a new empty one in its place. Settings shows “This folder is no longer reachable. Choose it again, or reset to the default location.” and both buttons still work. Reconnect the drive, pick the folder again, or reset to the default.
Android: Storage location
Storage location offers two choices:
- Device storage (recommended): a folder in shared storage you can open from the Files app, back up, and use with other apps. It needs the “All files access” permission, and requires Android 11 or newer.
- App storage: private to FUTO Notes. Android deletes these notes if you uninstall the app.
The Folder row below it shows the full path. When you switch to an empty location, the app copies your notes there, checks the copy, and restarts in the new location. If the new location already has notes, it asks before opening them instead, and it never merges the two sets; your current notes stay where they are. While sync is connected, you can’t switch to a location that already has notes. Disconnect sync first.
iOS: notes folder
The Notes folder row shows the path to your notes. It can’t be changed.
Sync
The Sync section is where you connect the app to your own sync server, enter your sync password, and disconnect. On iOS and Android it is a single row that opens the sync screen and shows whether this device is synced or local. See self-host FUTO Notes sync to set up a server, and how sync works for what the controls do.
Issue reporting
Share crash reports controls whether the app offers to send a report after a crash, and Send crashes automatically skips the question. Send feedback opens a form for bug reports and suggestions, and it works whether or not crash reports are on. See crash reports and feedback for what each one sends.
Updates (desktop)
Automatically check for updates is on by default. While it’s on, the app checks about once an hour and tells you when a new version is available, and the button under it checks now or installs the update and restarts. Turning it off stops the checks and hides the button. The toggle is locked while an update is downloading or waiting for a restart.
This section only appears where the app can update itself: macOS, Windows, and the Linux AppImage. If you installed from the apt or rpm repository, your package manager handles updates and the section is hidden. iOS and Android update through their app stores. See updates.
About
On iOS and Android, About has an Open source link to the source code and the app Version. On desktop, the version is the last line of Settings.
Danger zone: Full reset
Full reset permanently removes all notes and app data from this device. It is always the last section in Settings.
When you tap it, the app asks “Permanently delete all notes and app data? This cannot be undone.” Nothing happens unless you confirm; on iOS and Android the confirm button is Delete everything. Then it:
- Stops sync, disconnects from your sync server, and removes the saved sync password from this device.
- Deletes everything in the notes folder: notes, folders, images, and the app’s hidden files.
Warning: Full reset deletes every file in the notes folder, not only the notes FUTO Notes created, and it does not go through the trash. If you pointed the app at a folder that holds other files, they are deleted too.
Your sync server is not touched. The reset disconnects before it deletes anything, so the deletions are never sent to the server, and its copy of your notes stays as it was. To remove that copy, delete it on the server itself. The server’s data directory holds everything it has; see self-host FUTO Notes sync.
If the reset fails partway, the app says so: “Full reset failed. Your notes and settings may not have been fully removed.”
Next steps
- Where notes are stored: default folders and what lives outside them.
- How sync works: what the Sync section connects to.
- Crash reports and feedback: what Issue reporting sends.