Sync and your devices
Every signed-in device holds a full copy of the vault. Sync keeps the copies equal; it is not a remote drive you read from.
What a device holds
Each device keeps the whole vault locally, in the browser's own storage. The app reads and writes that local copy, which is why it opens instantly and keeps working with no connection. Sync is the background job of making the copies agree.
That is the opposite of a cloud drive, where the file lives on a server and your device borrows it. Here the server is a relay. If it disappears, your notes are still on your devices.
Signed out versus signed in
| State | What happens |
|---|---|
| Signed out | Notes are saved in that browser profile on that device. Nothing leaves it. Clearing site data loses them. |
| Signed in | Vaults sync through the sync server to every device where you are signed in, including your phone. |
| Signed in, offline | Edits apply locally and upload when the connection returns. No action needed. |
Two devices editing at once
Edits merge. Vaults use CRDTs, so two people — or your laptop and your phone — can change the same note while offline and both sets of changes survive. There is no "last save wins" that silently drops the other side, and no conflict copy to clean up afterwards.
The exception is files on disk. If you have a vault folder open on your computer and the same note changed in both places, the app keeps the vault version and writes the other one beside it as a conflict copy, so nothing is lost. See working with local files.
What sync does not do
- It does not share notes with other people. A vault syncs between your devices. Access for another person or an app is a separate grant.
- It does not copy your file paths. Notes sync as content; attachments sync through object storage, not by pointing at a folder on one machine.
- It does not read secure vaults. Those are encrypted before they leave the device, so the relay moves bytes it cannot open.
Next: Working with local files.