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Settings reference

Every section on the NoteTrace Settings page, and where to read more. Per-user sections apply to the signed-in account. Admin sections apply to the whole server and only appear for the admin role. Use the search box at the top of Settings to jump to a section by name or keyword (search for "keep", "lock", "shopping", "shortcuts", "density", or "ntfy", for example).

Settings is grouped into Display, Integrations, App, and Admin. On a wide screen the sections sit in a rail on the left; on a phone each opens as its own page.

Profile (per-user)

Top of the page: avatar, name, and role. Opens the profile page for display name, password, biometric sign-in (Android), and sign out.

Display

Appearance (per-user)

  • Theme: System Default, Dark, or Light.
  • Accent Color: preset accents, Lavender by default.
  • Navigation Style: Auto (the default) fits the screen: tab bar and ☰ menu on a phone, icons beside the page on an unfolded foldable or small tablet, the full sidebar on a larger screen. Or pick Bottom Tab Bar, Side Panel, or Both.
  • Persistent Sidebar: on wider screens the sidebar stays open (on by default; from 600px with Auto, 768px otherwise). With Auto, an unfolded foldable or small tablet remembers its own choice of icons or the full sidebar. With Navigation Style set to Both, the tab bar sits beside it. Collapse it to icons with the button beside the logo.
  • Start Page: open NoteTrace to Notes (the default), Tasks, Reminders, or Archive.
  • Reduce Motion, Page Banners, and Animation Style, shared with the other Trace apps.

The pinned sidebar collapses to icons with the button beside the logo, and the ☰ at the top of the icons opens it again.

Notes

How notes behave, rather than how the app looks.

  • Card Density: Comfortable or Compact. Per device.
  • Show Every Checklist in Tasks: Tasks lists every open item from every checklist, not just dated items and checklists set to Show in Tasks. Off by default; synced to your account.
  • Note Order: Last Edited or Your Order (the order you drag notes into). Synced to your account.
  • Swipe to Archive (touch screens): swipe a card sideways to archive it, with Undo. Per device.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts (devices with a keyboard): single-key shortcuts on or off, and View to see them all. Per device. See Keyboard shortcuts.
  • Link Previews: show the first link's title, image, and site on cards. Synced to your account.
  • Templates: the notes you saved to start from, with Rename and Delete (with Undo). Synced to your account. See Templates.

Regional (per-user)

  • Date Format: YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, or natural.
  • Time Format: 12-hour or 24-hour. Also used by reminder times.

Integrations

Trace AI (per-user)

Provider, key, and model for the Trace assistant. See Setting up Trace.

  • Transcribe Voice Notes: Trace writes out new voice notes (on by default). Needs OpenAI, Gemini, or an OpenAI-compatible Whisper server.
  • Summarize Long Recordings: a recording over 10 minutes also gets a short summary when it is transcribed (off by default). Shorter recordings have a Summarize button on them instead. See Voice notes.
  • Transcription Model: overrides the default speech-to-text model name. Empty uses the default. With OpenAI, whisper-1 gives transcripts with timestamps. See Voice notes.
  • Read Text in New Images: Trace reads the text in every image you add (off by default; sends each image to your provider).

See Trace in NoteTrace.

CookTrace (per-user)

Link a CookTrace server with its address and an API token with the shopping scope, or unlink it. Linked, Shopping appears in the menu. Needs a NoteTrace server, so it's unavailable in Android local mode. See CookTrace shopping list.

App

Server Connection (Android)

Switch between local mode and a server, and see sync status. See Local vs server-connected mode.

App Lock (Android, per-device)

Lock NoteTrace and Lock After. See App Lock.

Notifications (per-user)

  • Enable on This Device: reminder notifications on this phone, or in this browser while NoteTrace is open. Set per device.
  • Browser Permission (web): asks the browser once to allow notifications.
  • Exact Reminder Times (Android): appears only when the phone isn't letting NoteTrace fire at the exact minute, with an Allow button.
  • Push Service: None, Apprise, Gotify, or ntfy, with a Send Test button. See Push notifications overview.
  • Note Reminders: when on (the default), the server sends due reminders through the push service. See Reminders.
  • Tasks Due and Time: one notification a day listing checklist items due today and overdue. Off by default; syncs across devices. See Due dates and Tasks.

Import & Export (per-user)

Google Keep, Evernote, Memos, Blinko, and Markdown import, and Markdown export. See Import and export.

Backup

Full backups, scheduled auto-backups (admin), restore from a zip, and the portable JSON export. On Android local mode, a local backup zip. See Backups and restore.

A full backup holds everything the server keeps: accounts and their settings, notes with their checklist items, labels, attachments, version history and sharing, Trace chats, OIDC providers and links, pending invitations, API tokens, webhooks, and the uploads folder (images, voice notes, drawings, and files). Left out on purpose: sign-ins in progress, password reset tokens, the notification log, and the link preview cache, all of which are short-lived or refill themselves.

The Android local backup (local mode) holds the same note data from the device: notes, checklist items, labels, attachments, version history, settings, and Trace chats, plus the files themselves. Sync bookkeeping stays on the device.

Updates

Stable or Dev channel and the in-app updater. See Release channels.

Diagnostics

Server and sync status, for troubleshooting.

Admin

Users

Invite people, change roles, reset passwords, and remove accounts. Accounts are also who you can share notes with. See Local users, invites, roles.

Authentication

Password policy, session length, and OIDC providers. See OIDC / SSO overview.

API Tokens

Personal access tokens (prefix note_pat_) for scripts and the MCP endpoint. See Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Webhooks

Signed outgoing webhooks for note.created, checklist.completed, and reminder.fired. Needs WEBHOOKS_ENABLED=1. See Webhooks.

Email

SMTP for password resets and invites. See Email / SMTP.

About

Version, links, and licenses.