How to sync notes between computers, with or without the cloud

Many notes apps sync by keeping your notes on their own servers. Barside works the other way: your library lives on your own computer, and you choose how it reaches your others. There are three ways to sync notes between computers in Barside. Cloud sync, part of Barside Plus, keeps notes the same on every computer where you turn it on, a few seconds after each change. Encrypted cloud backup, also part of Plus, brings your whole library back on a new computer from any day of the last 90. And the free ZIP backup moves everything in one file, whenever you like.

This guide shows how to set up each one, what travels and what stays on each computer, and what cloud sync is not.

Three ways to sync notes between computers

If you work on two computers every week, such as a desktop at the office and a laptop at home, cloud sync is the one you want. If you are moving to a new computer once, a ZIP or a cloud backup does the job. Barside Plus costs US$20 a month or US$200 a year, plus sales tax, and includes both cloud sync and cloud backup.

Turn on cloud sync on each computer

1. Get Barside Plus. In Settings & backups → Barside Plus, sign in to Barside (with Google or an email code, the same account as Spaces), then choose Monthly · US$20 or Yearly · US$200. Checkout opens in your browser, on Stripe.
2. Turn on sync. Open Settings & backups → Cloud sync and turn on Sync this PC. On Linux the switch is called Sync this computer, and in Barside for Mac Sync this Mac. Barside says "Cloud sync is on. The first sync is starting."
3. Do the same on your other computer. Install Barside from the download page, sign in with the same account, and turn on sync there too.
4. Keep working. Changes sync a few seconds after you make them, every 30 seconds while Barside runs and the computer is online, and at once when you choose Sync now.

The first sync is gentle. A computer where Barside was just installed, with only its welcome note, takes your synced library as it is, without a second "Personal" workspace. A computer that already has notes of its own adds them to the synced library, so two libraries become one.

Settings → Cloud sync shows the state in plain words, such as "Synced today at 9:41" or "Waiting for the internet. Barside syncs when this PC is back online.", with the space you use and how many items and files are synced. Changes you make offline wait and go out when you are back online.

What syncs, and what stays on each computer

These stay the same on every computer where sync is on:

• Workspaces, with their bookmarks and bookmark groups.
• Notes, with everything inside them: text, checklists and their due dates, reminders, and the articles you saved in Reading, which are notes too.
• Templates and repeating notes.
• Agent settings: scheduled agents, saved workflows and the meeting agent setting.
• The assistant's memory.
• The files in your notes: images, video, audio, drawings and saved webpages, up to 2 GB each.

These stay on each computer:

• Settings: your theme and the themes you made, your mode, hotkeys, aliases, favorites and the rest. A laptop can use Light while a desktop uses Aurora.
• Where windows sit, and which notes are pinned to the desktop.
• Agents' run history and approvals, and recording and meeting settings.
• Saved passwords and two-step codes, clipboard history, AI keys and sign-ins. These never sync and are never in a backup.

Spaces and meetings are online already, so you only sign in on each computer to see them. Your AI connection is per computer too: connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or OpenRouter again in Settings → AI.

When the same note changes on two computers

Sync is built for real life, where you sometimes edit on both computers before they catch up:

• Both versions stay. When a note changes on two computers at the same time, one version stays in the note, and the other becomes a second note with "(conflict copy)" after its title, in the same workspace. Both computers end up with the same pair. Settings → Cloud sync says so for a day: "A note changed on two PCs at the same time. Both versions are kept: look for “(conflict copy)”."
• Small differences do not make copies. When only details differ and the title and text are the same, the later version wins.
• Workspaces, templates and repeating notes: the later change wins.
• Agent settings and the assistant's memory are merged item by item.
• An edit beats a delete, both ways, so a note you deleted on one computer but changed on the other comes back.
• Your cursor is safe. A note you are typing in is never replaced under you. An open note shows changes from your other computer as they arrive.

Encrypted cloud backup: your library on a new computer

Cloud backup, also part of Barside Plus, is a different tool. Once a day, while Barside runs and the computer is online, it backs up your notes, media and settings. Everything is encrypted with AES-256-GCM on your computer before it is uploaded, with a key that only your computer and your recovery key can open.

To set up a new computer from a backup:

1. Install Barside and sign in with the same account.
2. Open Settings & backups → Cloud backup and enter your recovery key: 7 groups of 4 letters and digits, which you saved when you turned backups on.
3. Under Restore a day, choose Restore this day. Barside downloads and checks everything first, and nothing changes until you choose Restore now.
4. To back up this computer as well, turn on Back up automatically there. A new computer does not start backing up by itself.

A restore replaces the library on that computer, after a safety copy of the old one, so it suits a new computer or a fresh start rather than daily use. Unlike sync, a backup includes your settings and your own themes. Sync and backup also work well together: sync passes a delete to every computer, and a backup lets you go back to any day of the last 90. You get 50 GB for backups, and when it is full, the oldest backups make room. Local-first storage and private backups explains every layer.

The free way: move everything in one ZIP

Without Barside Plus, you can still take your whole library to another computer:

1. On the first computer, open Settings & backups and scroll to Take everything with you.
2. Choose Export backup and save the file, named with the date, like Barside-backup-2026-09-29.zip. Typing backup in the search bar opens the same save window.
3. Copy the ZIP to the other computer, on a USB drive or any way you trust.
4. On the other computer, open the same section, choose Restore backup and pick the ZIP. Barside checks it, shows how many workspaces and notes it holds, and asks before it replaces anything.

The ZIP holds every workspace and note, your bookmarks, images, video and audio at their original quality, drawings, templates, Reading items with their highlights, reminders, the assistant's memory, your preferences and your own themes. Barside restores backups up to 8 GB of uncompressed contents and saves a safety copy of the library it replaces. This is a one-way move, not sync: whatever you change afterward stays on that computer until you export again. The ZIP is not encrypted, so keep it somewhere safe.

What cloud sync is, and what it is not

Cloud sync is optional, off until you turn it on, and not end-to-end encrypted. Barside's privacy page says it plainly: Barside stores the content you sync on its servers (Supabase) so that it can keep your computers up to date. That content is encrypted in transit and at rest. Barside processes it only to provide sync and the features you use, to keep the service secure, and when the law requires it, and does not look at your synced content unless you ask, for example when you ask for help.

The server can read what you sync, and that is on purpose: cloud agents, also part of Barside Plus, need cloud sync to run your scheduled agents while your computers are off. If you want nothing readable on a server, leave sync off: a ZIP never leaves your hands unless you send it, and cloud backup is encrypted on your computer, so Barside cannot read it. See the notes on cloud backup too.

You stay in control:

• Turn it off on one computer. Barside says "Cloud sync is off on this PC. Your notes stay here."
• Delete the cloud copy. In Settings → Cloud sync, Delete the cloud copy asks first: "Sync turns off on all your PCs. Each PC keeps its own notes and files."
• If Barside Plus ends, sync stops, your computers can still download for 30 days, and then the cloud copy is deleted. Every computer keeps its own notes.

Limits worth knowing

• Space. Sync holds 50 GB per member and up to 200,000 items. A file over 2 GB stays on its computer, and Settings says how many files did not sync.
• Systems. Cloud sync is in Barside for Windows, for Linux and for Mac. There is no phone app.
• A connection. Sync needs the internet; your library keeps working offline and catches up later.
• Two separate things. Sync keeps notes in step; it is not a backup. Keep cloud backup on, or export a ZIP now and then.

Which one should you use?

• A writer with a desktop and a laptop: cloud sync on both, and cloud backup on one, for a safety net.
• Someone moving to a new computer: a ZIP backup, free, or a cloud backup if you already have Plus.
• A consultant who wants nothing on a server: ZIP backups only, kept on an encrypted drive.
• A team: share notes to a Space instead. Sync is for one person's own computers, while Spaces share copies with other people.

For how Barside stores your library in the first place, read the local-first note-taking app guide.

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