Cross-platform note-taking apps that allow you to sync and interact with notes and images across devices are essential if you want to stay organized.
Synchronization needs to be handled by a central server, which means that your jottings are controlled by a third party you may not fully trust, and which can monitor or delete your content at will.
By running Memos on Raspberry Pi, you control the server, and can take the privacy and security of your notes into your own hands.
Why Run Memos on Raspberry Pi?
Privacy is a difficulty commodity to come by in the 21st century, and most of the services you use on a day-to-day basis are directly controlled by corporations. You entrust your data to tech giants including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft—all of which appear to be willing to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for violating your privacy as a cost of doing business.
Notes apps have a simple purpose: allowing you to take notes on any of your devices, then read and modify them on any other device. You might create a shopping list on your desktop computer, for instance, then check off the items on your phone as you trawl the aisles of Walmart in search of anchovies.
There's no real need for a tech giant to be looking over your shoulder as you do this—or to be involved in any way whatsoever. Keep is a Google app, and you should already know that Google monitors what you write in its apps. In October 2022, Google was sued by the Texas Attorney General for collecting biometric identifiers without consent, and a month later agreed to pay almost $400 million to settle with 40 states for secretly tracking users' location. It doesn't need to know the content of your shopping cart or jotted love notes to your spouse, as well.
Sure, you can use Evernote as a cloud-based notes app, but there are limitations to the free service, and you have to pay for the professional version. Plus, your notes are still on someone else's computer, with no guarantees that an admin or employee isn't casually reading through your aborted attempts at 3AM poetry.
Memos is easy to install and will run quite happily on a Raspberry Pi. You can set it up with multiple users and provide secure note-taking, synchronization, and sharing with your whole family.
How to Install Memos on Raspberry Pi
If you're new to the world of self-hosting, you'll need to set up your Raspberry Pi as a web server before you start. Once that's done, connect to your Raspberry Pi using Secure Shell (SSH), then make a new directory for Memos, and use the cd command to move into it:
mkdir memos && cd memos Use the nano text editor to create a new Docker Compose file:
nano docker-compose.yml In the new file, paste the following:
version: "3.0"
services:
memos:
image: neosmemo/memos:latest
container_name: memos
volumes:
- ~/.memos/:/var/opt/memos
ports:
- 5230:5230
Save and exit nano with Ctrl + O then Ctrl + X. Bring up Docker Compose in detached mode with:
docker-compose up -d Docker Compose will download the relevant images and set up containers for Memos. When the process completes, open a browser and navigate to your-pi-local-ip-address:5230.
Create an admin account, and log in. Having verified that your Memos instance is working, and secured the admin account, it's time to open your instance up to the wider internet so that you can access it away from the house.
Visit your domain registrar and create a new record. Set the type to A, the host to "@", and the value to your public IP address. The TTL should be as low as possible.
On your Raspberry Pi, change directory again, and create a new Apache conf file for your domain:
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
sudo nano memos.conf Paste the following into the new file:
<VirtualHost *:80>ServerName your-domain.tld
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:5230/
ProxyPassReverse / http:/127.0.0.1:5230/
ProxyPreserveHost On
</VirtualHost>
Save and exit nano with Ctrl + O then Ctrl + X. Enable the new config with:
sudo a2ensite memos.conf You will need to restart Apache for the change to take effect:
sudo service apache2 restart To secure your connection with TLS, use Certbot to fetch and deploy encryption keys and certificates:
sudo certbot Select your domain from a list, then restart Apache again:
sudo service apache2 restart Memos is now installed and secure!
Use Memos to Take Notes on Raspberry Pi
Visit your Memos instance by typing your domain name into the URL bar of any browser, and you'll see that the connection is upgraded to HTTPS. This reduces this risk of a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack.
You'll need to sign in again using the credentials you created earlier. As you currently have no notes, this is a great opportunity to create some.
The most basic type of note is a text note. To create a text note, simply type in the box and press Save. You can upload images and other files by clicking the + icon, then choosing a file from your computer. For lists, click the checkbox icon, and just add a new item on each line. It really is that simple.
For each note, you can set the visibility to Private, in which case the note will be visible only to you; Visible to members will allow other users of your Memos instance to see the note; Public to everyone will display the note on the front page of your Memos instance without requiring a login. There are limited use cases for this.
A key feature of any notes app is the ability to tag and organize your notes and images. The easiest way to tag is using the "#" symbol. For instance, if your note says, "Remember to take the #dogs for a walk", a "#dogs" tag will be created. You can click on this to quickly find any other notes tagged with #dogs.
You'll see a calendar in the corner of the web app. Clicking on a date in the calendar allows you to see all the notes created on a particular day.
One interesting feature of Memos is the ability to integrate it with OpenAI. To do this, you must first obtain an OpenAI API key.
In your Memos instance, click Settings > Admin > System, and scroll down to OpenAI: API Key. Paste in your API key and hit Save.
You can now use the Ask AI feature in the left sidebar, although as one purpose of self-hosting is to decrease your reliance on external services, you may view this as more of an anti-feature. It would be good to be able to have Memos interface with a Large Language Model you can run on your own hardware.
While you're in settings, it's worth exploring other options. Some worth noting are Allow user signup and Maximum upload size. You can archive all notes you've finished with, then view them later, by checking the Archived tab. And at the end of a busy day, look back on the notes and pictures you've added with Daily view.
Use Apps With Memos on Your Mobile Devices
As a progressive web app (PWA), Memos looks and works just fine in a browser on your phone, such as Chrome or Firefox for mobile.
There are dedicated apps available, however. The best among these, in our opinion, is Moe Memos. This open-source app is very similar to the PWA, but comes with the added ability to snap notes directly using your phone camera.
Download: Moe Memos for iOS | Android (Free)
Self-Hosted Cloud Notes Apps Aren't for Everyone
While it's great to be able to host your own cloud notes app, secure in the knowledge you aren't being spied on or exploited, you may want to keep your notes off the web entirely. If that's the case, there are other ways to keep offline notes when you're out and about.
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