Folium Try the preview

Start small. Keep your notes.

A short guide to installation, moving in, and recovery.

Install and try it

  1. Choose the download for your desktop. macOS: open the DMG and drag Folium to Applications. Windows: run the installer. Linux: use the package for your distribution, or make the AppImage executable and open it.
  2. Keep the default notes folder or choose your own. Click Capture your first thought and write a Minimo. You can add sync later in Settings.
  3. On the Board, press Enter to capture. In the Minimo notebook, use the Capture button or Cmd/Ctrl+Enter. Give a task a day in Planner, or develop a thought into a Quarto at your desk.

The desktop trial lasts 14 days. Reading, search and export remain available after it ends. Android and iPhone/iPad companions are in development; there is no mobile download to install yet.

macOS preview: open the DMG and drag Folium to Applications. This preview is ad-hoc signed but not notarized. If macOS blocks the first launch, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and use Open Anyway for Folium.

Windows preview: the installer does not yet have a verified publisher signature. If SmartScreen shows a warning for the Folium file downloaded here, choose More info → Run anyway. The MSI and EXE install the same application.

Linux: choose DEB for Debian/Ubuntu, RPM for compatible RPM-based distributions, or AppImage. AppImage may need your distribution's FUSE 2 package. These x64 packages target glibc 2.35 or newer.

Public preview, no key needed

The preview starts a 14-day trial on first launch. Purchases and license activation are not open yet. After the trial, reading, search and export remain available.

Cloud sign-in is not configured in this preview. Keep notes locally, or use a folder managed by your existing file-sync service. Export ZIP backups before moving notes.

Automatic updates are off for the preview. Get later builds from the download page; your notes stay in their existing folder.

Bring a few notes first

Folium does not currently offer a one-click Notion or Obsidian migration. Start with a handful of useful thoughts: create a Quarto for each idea and copy the relevant text. Keep your original export as a separate archive.

Quartos aim for 700 characters; longer text is kept and prompts you to simplify. Use Resources for references and longer excerpts. Folium notes use Markdown with their own metadata and IDs: choosing a folder of arbitrary Markdown files is not a reliable import.

Notes are Markdown; canvases, planner data and attachments use additional files. To move or back up the whole collection, use Settings → Backup → Export backup. Restore into an empty Folium vault. Keep the archive outside the notes folder and test a restore before relying on it.

Recover a deleted note or sync conflict

Deleted notes and preserved versions of sync conflicts live in your vault’s hidden .trash folder. This is a recovery folder, not a complete history of every edit.

  1. On desktop, Settings → Recovery → Open recovery folder locates the folder for you. You can also show hidden files in your file manager and open .trash inside your vault.
  2. Quit Folium before changing files, so sync and autosave cannot run during recovery. Make a separate copy of the entire vault, including its hidden folders. The regular backup export omits the trash folder.
  3. Open the timestamped copy in a text editor and check its contents. The simplest recovery is to copy the needed text into a new note in Folium, leaving both files intact.
  4. If you need to restore an original file and its links, preserve its original ID and metadata. Remove the timestamp prefix only on a copy, and return that copy to the correct original drawer or quicknotes folder. Do not overwrite an existing file; compare and merge the content first. The trash filename does not record the original drawer.
  5. Reopen Folium and check the recovered content. If a restored card does not appear in search, use Settings to rebuild the index. Stay offline while checking and reconnect only after confirming the result.

Mobile data lives in the app’s private storage. Keep a synced copy or an export before uninstalling; uninstalling can remove local notes. Recovery by file manager is a desktop workflow.

Need a hand?

Email support@folium.ink with your operating system, Folium version and the steps that led to the problem. Do not send your license key or private notes.