mdbase Connect
Connect is the account that syncs and shares your collections. This page explains what you choose for each collection, what mdbase can read, and how apps, people and devices get access.
Cloud copy or Private
When you turn on sync for a collection, every device that syncs it keeps a complete copy as ordinary files and works offline. Each change is locked on the device before it leaves. mdbase passes it to your other devices and can’t read it. You choose one of two options for each collection:
- Cloud copy
- The default for new accounts. mdbase also keeps a readable copy of the collection and holds its key. Web apps keep working while your devices are off, and a new device joins when you sign in.
- Private
- End-to-end encrypted. Only your devices hold the key, so mdbase can’t read the collection. Apps reach it through one of your devices, so one of them must be online, such as a computer running the desktop app.
The security page lists exactly what mdbase stores and can read in each case.
Add a device
For a Cloud copy collection, sign in on the new device. Once your account approves it, the device receives the collection key and downloads its copy. None of your other devices need to be online.
Cloud copy needs no encryption password. If you choose Private for a collection, you set an encryption password when you create your first Private collection, and mdbase shows you a recovery key once. Keep the recovery key in a password manager or on paper. To add a device, sign in and enter your encryption password or the recovery key. mdbase stores your key only in a form locked with your password, so it can’t reset the password for you. The recovery key is how you get back in if you forget it.
If you’d prefer mdbase to store no copy of that key, turn on strict mode. You then approve each new device from one you already have, by checking that both screens show the same six-digit code.
If you lose a device, remove it from your account. The collection gets a new key, so the removed device receives no further changes. It keeps the files it already had.
Apps ask first
An app asks for access to one collection and lists the operations it needs, such as finding, creating and editing records. You choose the collection and see what the app asks for before you approve it.
The permission is recorded with the collection, and every copy checks it: your devices and, for Cloud copy, mdbase’s copy. In a Private collection, a new permission takes effect once one of your signed-in devices has recorded it. You aren’t asked again on the device.
You can narrow or revoke a permission at any time. Removing an app never removes the collection, and your other apps keep using it.
Share a collection
Owners can invite people as viewers, who can read, or editors, who can read and change records. Both Cloud copy and Private collections can be shared. Open the collection’s sharing controls in the mdbase Editor and invite someone by email. They need a registered, verified Connect account.
Each member’s devices keep a full copy, and members can connect their own apps within the role you gave them. In a Private collection, an owner or editor approves a new member’s first device by comparing a six-digit code with them, in person or on a call.
You can change a member’s role or remove them at any time. A removed member stops receiving changes and keeps the files they already had.
Sharing covers a whole collection. To share part of one, make a separate collection. Edits that people make at the same time are combined field by field, and edits that change the same field are held for review. There is no live co-editing of a note.
If you used Connect before
Existing accounts move to the new sync system automatically, in waves. You don’t need to export anything, and your files stay where they are.
- Collections hosted by Connect become Cloud copy collections, with their records, files, record IDs and members. Folders that mirrored them join the new collection once the desktop app is updated. Edits that weren’t uploaded yet arrive then, or are held for review if the record also changed elsewhere.
- Local collections served by the Connector become Private collections when the updated desktop app takes them over on that computer. They keep their files, record IDs and app permissions, and they’re end-to-end encrypted, so mdbase can’t read them. Keep that computer online while it moves them.
- Apps need their current versions. Older versions can’t reach migrated collections and will ask you to update, and you may need to approve some apps again.
- Notes larger than 1 MiB move too. They stay as Markdown files but aren’t in the normal record index, so they may not appear in app lists or searches.
mdbase keeps the old system’s copy of each collection for 90 days after it moves, for recovery.
Get started
Create a Connect account, download the desktop app, or sign in to manage an existing account. See the apps that work with mdbase collections.