Support

There are keys for each of these in the bar above the keyboard while the search field is focused.

Results are ordered by how well a note matches: a hit in the title counts for far more than one in the body, and a recently edited note gets a mild nudge upward. Exact matches are listed before matches found by stemming (which is why recipes can turn up a note titled “Sourdough recipe”).

If a note is missing entirely and you wrote it somewhere else, see “Can I bring markdown in from another app?” below.

As separate files, each one encrypted on your device before it is written. By default they are in the app's own folder; turning on iCloud storage moves them to your own iCloud Drive instead.

Because they are encrypted, they are not files you can read by opening the folder — their names are opaque identifiers and the titles are inside the encrypted contents. To get readable copies, use Export All Notes in Settings.

Settings → Storage → Store notes in iCloud Drive. Your files are moved into your iCloud container rather than copied, so there is one library, not two. The switch works in both directions, and if iCloud is unavailable the app falls back to local storage rather than leaving you without notes.

That happens when the device isn't signed in to iCloud, or when iCloud Drive is off. Check Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Drive on the device, then come back. The switch is also disabled briefly while a move between locations is still in progress.

With iCloud storage on, Settings has a Refresh from iCloud button, which pulls in notes written elsewhere. If it still doesn't show up, confirm both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account, that iCloud Drive is on, and that the file is visible in Files → iCloud Drive → Sumi.

Yes — Settings → Import Markdown. Choose files, or a whole folder, and each one becomes a note, encrypted like everything else on the way in. .md, .markdown and plain .txt are all read, and files that aren't UTF-8 have their encoding worked out rather than being skipped.

Copying files straight into the Sumi folder no longer works, and this is why: the app can only read notes sealed with your key, so a markdown file dropped in beside them is somebody else's file as far as it is concerned. Importing is what seals it.

From the notes list. Renaming rewrites the note's first line — keeping its # or bullet marker — and renames the underlying file to match.

Also from the notes list. Sharing hands over the real .md file, so AirDrop, Mail, Messages and Save to Files all receive something any other app can open. Printing renders the markdown as laid-out pages rather than printing the raw source.

Settings → Privacy → Require Face ID (or Require Touch ID, depending on your device). Opening Sumi then asks for it, and falls back to your device passcode. The match is made by iOS; the app only learns whether it succeeded.

Yes — Settings → Privacy → Clear Search History empties the list of recent queries the search bar offers you. The word suggestions come from your notes themselves, so those stay.

Delete it from the notes list, or simply empty it — an empty note removes its file. There is no in-app trash, so a deleted note is gone from the app, and the deletion carries to your other devices.

One exception, on purpose: if you deleted a note on one device while editing it on another, the edit wins and the note comes back. Coming back to a note you have to delete twice is a smaller harm than coming back to one that is gone.

Two ways, and they answer different worries. An iCloud or Finder backup of the device includes your notes, still encrypted, and restores them with your Keychain. For a copy you can read without Sumi at all, use Settings → Export All Notes: every note as plain markdown in a zip, which you can put wherever you like.

The exported zip is not encrypted. That is what makes it useful, and worth keeping somewhere you would be comfortable keeping your notes.

Settings offers System, Light or Dark. System follows whatever the device is set to.

Sumi is an iPhone and iPad app. There is no web version: the notes are encrypted on your devices, and a web page would need a copy of the key.

Because notes are plain markdown inside the encryption, Export All Notes gives you files any markdown editor can open, and Import markdown brings them back.

Nothing — the app collects none. See the privacy policy for the detail.