How do you capture things quickly across devices in a self-hosted setup?
from oldany@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 24 Mar 20:08
https://lemmy.world/post/44695913
from oldany@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 24 Mar 20:08
https://lemmy.world/post/44695913
I’ve been struggling with something that sounds simple but is surprisingly annoying:
capturing content quickly across devices in a self-hosted environment.
On Android there’s share, on iOS shortcuts, on desktop copy/paste… but everything feels fragmented.
I often end up losing things or postponing them just because capturing isn’t frictionless.
Curious how others handle this.
threaded - newest
I have started using nextcloud talks
note to self, your chat app of choice will have something similarYeah I tried similar approaches too (notes to self, chat apps etc.)
They kind of work, but I always felt they weren’t really designed for this use case — more like a workaround.
What I was missing was something more “frictionless”, where capturing is basically instant and doesn’t depend on context.
what sort of stuff are you looking to capture? images, text, code, thoughts?
Pretty much everything 😄
The problem (for me) wasn’t what to capture, but how fast and from where.
I tried things like Linkwarden too — great tool, but still feels tied to specific entry points (browser extension, app, etc.).
What I kept missing was something more “universal”, where capturing is always one step away regardless of device or context.
use a lemmy community that only you can post too?
Yeah that’s actually what I tried at some point too 😄
But I always felt it’s still a workaround — you’re adapting a tool that wasn’t really built for capturing.
The friction is lower, but it’s still there.
I keep thinking there should be something more “native” to this use case, something that sits between devices and apps rather than inside one of them.
I have linkwarden set up for this.
On Android I share to the linkwarden app to save, on pc i use the Firefox addon.
Sure it’s fragmented but I’m already used to doing things different between mobile and pc anyways.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
[Thread #189 for this comm, first seen 24th Mar 2026, 20:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
If it’s text, I move everything to obsidian which is installed on multiple devices and uses my self hosted minio server to sync.
If it’s links, most go into my linkding setup. If they’re read later, to Instapaper.
Files, I tend to use minio directly to drag and drop. If it’s genuinely use and throw, like moving memes, I use Tailscale Drop (or Send, or whatever it’s called) to move between devices.
Yeah that makes sense — I ended up with similar setups at some point.
What always bothered me a bit is exactly that fragmentation: different tools depending on what you’re capturing and from where.
It works, but it feels like you’re constantly switching “mode” depending on context.
I keep wondering if capturing should really depend on the destination at all, or if it should be something more uniform.
The problem with that to me at least, is that there’s no one uniform way to capture things. Notes and videos and images and files all need different contexts and views. I hate Pocket and similar services for this reason - it feels too “media” friendly, too focused on videos and links and PDF files. When most of my read later is text - articles and such.
Yeah — that’s exactly the feeling I kept running into.
At some point I stopped trying to adapt existing tools and ended up building something around this idea of “uniform capture”.
It’s basically a very minimal layer where you can send anything (text, links, quick notes, etc.) from any device in one step — without worrying about where it goes or how it’s structured.
Still early, but it’s been working surprisingly well for me in daily use.
Tell me more!
Sure 🙂
What I ended up building is basically a very minimal “capture layer”.
The idea is simple: no matter where you are (phone, browser, desktop), capturing something should always be the same action.
In practice:
Everything goes into the same place instantly, without deciding upfront what it is or where it belongs.
No tags, no structure, no “mode switching”.
Just capture first, decide later (or never).
I built it mainly because I was tired of stitching together different tools depending on context.
If you want to take a look: github.com/oldany/dropmind
That looks cool! And… I think we can extend it to iOS and android apps. The benefit being drag and drop simplicity and sharing sheet access, instead of shortcuts, which have always felt wonky to me.
I’ll play with it first. Thanks for the link!
Yeah I get what you mean 🙂
Shortcuts work (that’s what I’m using on iOS right now), but they can feel a bit “indirect” compared to something more native like share sheets or drag & drop.
Curious to hear how it feels once you try it — especially what feels frictionless vs what doesn’t.
I dunno if it would help, but between my phone and my computers (and one of my local servers) I use KDE Connect. Read about whatever I’m working on with the phone, share > kde > device, boom the clipboard is filled with whatever, or the link is automatically opened. Then proceed with the thing on my computer. Need to think or read about something but need to step away from the computer? Just copy it on the desktop, and again the clipboard is filled on the phone.
And of course sharing tabs on Firefox/derivatives.
Yeah KDE Connect is great for device-to-device flow, I’ve used it too.
What I always found tricky is that it works really well once you’re already “in the flow”, but not so much as a quick capture entry point.
Like, it helps moving things around — but not necessarily deciding to capture something instantly in the first place.
That’s where I always felt something was missing.
What exactly do you mean by “capture”?
Good question — I don’t mean organizing or saving things long-term.
I mean that moment when you see or think something and don’t want to lose it.
Like:
The problem for me is that if capturing that takes more than a second, I often just don’t do it — or I postpone it and forget.
So “capture” is really just that instant: taking something from wherever you are and storing it somewhere with zero friction.
You probably want linkwarden: github.com/linkwarden/linkwarden
I’m not sure if it handles non-link content like a random thought. Maybe a note-taking app for that; plenty of previous discussions on those if you search.
For this I just send a message to myself on Signal (or sometimes WhatsApp). I know, it’s not a perfect solution, but for these simple things it’s good enough and pretty much content agnostic.
Yeah I used that too for a while — it works surprisingly well, but I always felt it’s more of a workaround than something designed for capturing.
@oldany @frongt second linkwarden for the links. I'd suggest note discovery for the quick note. https://github.com/gamosoft/NoteDiscovery
I haven’t seen anyone mention Readeck. I use Readeck for those ‘read it later’ articles, etc. It has a Firefox extension. I’ve found it works very well. You can highlight a paragraph of an article, and save that to Readeck as well. In fact, when I consult with AI, I’ll highlight the entire page and shoot it to my Readeck instance, otherwise it will just link the AI platform and not the content.
Lowest common denominator: Plaintext / Markdown files?
They’ll work with Logseq, web browsers, notepad, your phone… and maybe sync it all via syncthing?
That’s what I use.
I also write up my system notes in Logseq with the intention that I’ll just sync in my ansible files too… one day…
This, in combination with ‘copyparty’ as a Docker container with a volume mapping to my files. Edit locally, and edit from anywhere.
I use silverbullet for that. Its like Obsidian but completely online/in browser. Also very much expendable with plugins and scripts
Only thing missing is file sharing.
I think a second brain service, like maybe Trilium that you can host, could be a solution. Capture, tag, link, analyse, find back
Yeah I tried going the “second brain” route too (Trilium, Obsidian, etc.)
What I kept running into is that they’re great once something is already in the system — but capturing still feels like a separate step where you have to think about where it belongs.
I started wondering if capturing should be completely independent from organization, and almost “context-free”.
More like a thin layer you can hit instantly from anywhere, without deciding anything upfront.
Self hosted Standard Notes?
Syncthing functions as a sort of decentralized Dropbox or Google drive, by keeping folder content synchronized across any number of devices. I haven’t tried the iOS clients, but android, Linux, and windows work great.
Yeah Syncthing solves the “where does the data live” part really well.
What I kept struggling with is the step before that — actually capturing something in the moment, from whatever context you’re in.
Even with sync in place, I always felt like I still had to decide where to put things and which tool to use.
That’s where it starts to break down for me.
On my phone, my Screenshot folder is syncthing’d to my desktop, so most of the time, capturing something in the moment is as simple as dragging three fingers down my screen. My Camera and default Download folders are also syncthing’d, so just taking a picture or saving something from a browser has it captured across my devices.
I also use Tududi, which has Telegram integration, for the quick note. Taking the note is just a matter of sending a message in Telegram, which is available on all my devices. Signal’s “Note To Self” feature is also useful; I trust it more than Telegram for sensitive data. In Firefox on my desktop, I have “Automatic Tab Opener” (Browser extension) pulling up my Tududi inbox every hour, reminding me to actually deal with the notes I have previously taken.
That’s actually a really solid setup.
What always got me personally is exactly that — over time I’d end up with multiple “entry points” depending on context (screenshot, chat, browser, notes…).
Each one works, but I’d still need to mentally switch between them depending on what I’m capturing.
I kept wishing for something where the entry point is always the same, no matter the context.
So long as you’re manually processing everything, screenshots work for all of that. You can take a note in any text box anywhere, and screenshot it. Chat message? Screenshot. Browser? Screenshot. Notes? Screenshot. You can even take a photo and then screenshot it to capture it into your workflow.
I have Shutter (apt install shutter) on my desktop, and I’ve changed the Print Screen key to shortcut to “shutter -s”. This lets me capture an area of my screen with one button (and a mouse drag). Bam, more screenshot.
The downsides of screenshot are obvious, of course: Extracting the text from the screenshot is a bit of a pain in the ass. If you really want to keep the same entry point, though, you could setup a script to OCR newly captured screenshot/photos to extract the text. An OCR-friendly font might make that pretty reliable.
Now I want to improve my setup…