Even though I promised myself I would not post again in any talk until I made a later post to appreciate Anytype and compare it with Notion, but I found a big problem after using this app for only two months for actual use. My most frustrating dealbreaker right now, after only 2 months of actual use, is the security of my data. Anytype promotes itself as the most privacy-safe app, and I agree with this 100%. However, Anytype also promotes itself as the ‘everything app,’ which means you can save all your notes and easily create your own PKM or Second Brain in one single app, right? This is what I was planning to do after a few years. That means I will move data like journal logs, goals, projects, notes, finance trackers, tasks, archives, wikis, and many more from Notion to Anytype.
What frustrates me the most are the strange decisions regarding owning my data, the lack of options for backups with their limitations, and specifically the many bugs of this app. There is also the addition of lacking clear instructions on how to save or backup these data.
A little background of my two months real use
(You can skip this part, Btw. LSS: I lost my data multiple times.)
First of all, I had an idea to move one of my early projects from Notion to Anytype because I liked the speed of the app, privacy, relations, types, widgets, and many other features so much. The project was a collaboration with one of my partners. Because I liked it so much, I created a new advanced system to add and organize the ideas of the project. Multiplayer was not yet available in the official release, so on my second day of developing the system and moving my files, I decided to switch to the pre-beta release just to test the multiplayer. I encountered an infinite loading screen, so I did what I could: restart the app, reboot the OS, or switch back to v0.39, but none of these worked. I was still stuck on the infinite loading screen, so my only option was to uninstall and install the app.
At this point, I saw that all my data was lost. I panicked a little. I found my private space deleted and my personal space reverted back almost 3 weeks. I hadn’t noted anything in the personal space, but I found out from the many useless data that I had put just to test it, and the profile pic. I wasn’t that mad because I was just making a system and fixing the issues that I encountered importing from Notion to Anytype. But I was definitely paranoid. I wrote about it, and it got fixed. But before the release of v0.40 by a week or so, I decided to switch again to the latest pre-beta release. The infinite loading screen was still present, but when I went back to v0.39, it didn’t delete that data and the loading screen got fixed. So, this was a great job. It turns out the problem was that I used a local-only network. And yes, I’m aware that the developers know that the local network is still not stable.
But after I logged out and switched to the Anytype network, the infinite loading screen got fixed. However, I encountered another bug after logging in with the Anytype network. Even though I got a pop-up of a broken space bug with a logo of a Mushroom from Mario World, I don’t remember a lot, but I was finding a lot of my data broken probably because I didn’t let the Anytype node back up my data into the cloud for enough time. So, I was finding some data deleted or broken images in everything. I didn’t panic, but from the first time I lost data, I was regularly backing up my data. And I found out even the backups have limitations and bugs like It didn’t show the icons in callouts, even though the exports from Anyblock and often after backup I get a message of failed importing, which is absurd. And I have a lot of scenarios like that from I got failed messages after uploading pictures and many more related to the data in general.
What the dealbreaker for me in The Data security
Bugs
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The many bugs encountered in the app include failed importing of data from Anyblock exports itself, along with missing images in blocks, callouts, object icons, covers, etc.
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Numerous issues related to uploading images, especially in PNG format or images with the same name, for example, having many images titled “Untitled.”
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A severe bug causes the creation date of an objects to match the date of the template itself, so you cannot determine the actual creation date of the object/page.
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I count this as a bug even it’s not as important for me but I found it in the community which the [viewer able to export the shared space]
(Viewers can export entire shared space) -
Some issues related in entering your login key and never able to enter because some problems, it was not severe problem. but sometimes this make me wish if there’s option to “editor” mode that’s mean no recovery key and you able to use Anytype like a notepad or like obsidian specifically all your data is not encrypted nor there’s any interfere of Anytype nodes. this’s might be a problem because maybe the whole structure built in that, but hey you can sync across devices in obsidian If I’m not wrong.
Missing
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The export should include some data information related to space settings, like the main homepage, default object type or the Pinned types that are not included in the Anyblock export. so you don’t have to do this manually.
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[Must be added] When you export a shared space, all objects created by your mates become attributed as your own even with the Space member object relations. If you lose your data and try to fix everything by importing a backup to a new space to revert everything back, every object becomes created by the owner, which is ridiculous. I know this would not work in a private space, but it should work if you added your mates first and imported the data to the space. Or even in a private space, by creating a ghost space member for these partners; they may not be members anymore in the space, but it’s like knowing who made what.
Features Must Be Added
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Backups for the entire vaults with the option to import this data at the login screen of the app. Upon logging in with the key, this backup would include all data along with profile preferences and settings. i know I can simply make backups for the data folder manually or use software for the backup since i can now move the storage folder into any location but it will be much better to be both in mobile and desktop app
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Recurring backups every certain amount of time at a specific location chosen by the user whether backup for the whole data or some spaces
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Choosing the network should not be on the login screen. Instead, one of two solutions could be implemented: make every space in the vault independent, such as choosing local-only for the personal space and using the Anytype network for a specific shared space, so it works like distributing the data for each space. The option I prefer is making it easy to switch between two profiles/vaults. You could log in to two vaults with the addition of a PIN code to switch between them if preferred, and each vault would have an independent network type.
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An option to import to a new space instead of the current space. The new space should not have default widgets from Anytype nor any piece of data.
Instruction
- I hope from Anytype team to make clear instruction related of how to manage your data from moving storage path, import/export, etc.. whether in mobile or desktop in Anytype docs and hopefully youtube too.
Message for Anytype Team
Even though I found that most of the problems I had were due to choosing the local-network type or being in the Pre Beta Release, I doubt that. However, I can blame myself for some of them. Having the option to back up my data efficiently with all my vault without any bugs interfering, like losing some images in callouts, blocks, icons, covers, or even the image of the space it will be my top priority. I’m not sad about losing some spaces twice, since now I have been using Anytype for over 3 weeks stable now with my mate and backing up every now and then.
I have become paranoid and doubtful about moving my PKM/Second Brain files into Anytype in the later years. If this happened to bigger data like these and I didn’t make a backup or the backup fails me, I will lose my mind. Anytype has a responsibility to offer and fix bugs related to the data because it claims it’s the ‘everything app.’ If I lost something like a second brain, it’s like I’m losing my actual memory. It might feel like I’m writing this post angrily, but it’s the opposite. I know some of the bugs have already been fixed or are on the way to being fixed, so I hope these concerns will be gone soon.
At least you know the risk, so many don’t…
