Encrypted notes

Before you start

• Nothing to set up — the key behind it is made with your account.
• A clear head about what is protected: the title is not encrypted, only the body.

Steps

1. Pick Encrypted in the composer

   It has to be chosen by hand. Nothing you can type means "encrypt this", so there is no guess to make and no way to end up here by accident.

2. Give it a title you are happy to see

   The title is not encrypted. It shows on the card, in search results and down the rail, which is what makes the note findable at all — so name it *Router* rather than putting the password in it.

3. Write the body and save

   The body is encrypted before it is stored. From that point the board never carries it: a card fetch returns everything about the item except its content.

4. Reveal it when you need it

   The card shows a fixed row of dots — fixed width, so it says nothing about how long the body is — and a Reveal button. Pressing it fetches and decrypts that one note; Hide puts it back.

   Revealing one card does not unmask the note anywhere else, and nothing is remembered across a reload.

5. Editing asks first

   Opening one in the editor starts masked, with Reveal to edit. You can rename it without revealing anything — the title was never encrypted — but the body will not be overwritten by a draft that never loaded it.

What happens next

• The note sits on the board masked, and is tagged, pinned and archived like anything else.
• It is not searchable by its body — search reads what the board holds, and the board does not hold the body.
• It cannot be shared by link, and it is not in a data export. Both are deliberate: the whole premise is that the body leaves one item at a time, at your request.

If something goes wrong

Each row is what you see on screen. Symptoms are worded the way the app words them, so the sentence in front of you should be findable on this page.

Searching for words inside an encrypted note finds nothing

Working as intended. An app that decrypts everything to run a search has not really encrypted anything. Search the title instead, which is why the title is worth writing well.

“Could not unlock this note”

The reveal call failed rather than the note being damaged. Try again; if it persists, email us — the stored text has not been touched.

There is no Share option on the card

Correct, and it is not a setting. Encrypted notes cannot be shared by link.

Your export does not include them

Also correct. A bulk file of encrypted note bodies is the thing this kind exists to prevent. Reveal and copy the ones you need.

You want end-to-end encryption

This is not that. The body is encrypted at rest under a key held for your account, which protects it in storage — it is not a scheme where only your device can read it. Judge it on that basis.

Next

• Put something in the sack — The box at the top of the board, the four kinds of item, and the two keystrokes worth knowing.
• Share an item by link — Mint a read-only link to a note or a checklist. No sign-in needed at the other end, and it expires in a day.
• Export your data — Download a JSON file of your notes and checklists, tags included. What is in it and what is not.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] and tell us what the screen said. All the help articles are at Help.