iA Writer: Note, write, edit.

Clean and neat. Sorting file by descending date is not working though. Performance is also not steady, especually when under weak data signal; it often creates conflicted duplicates when you work in the folder synced with Google Drive. Sometimes when you are typing offline and then go online later again, the file disappears completely. Besides, it often gets back to the file list while you are just scrolling up. Compared to the macOS version, this Android version is minimal & not very reliable.

This was a 5-star app, however the most recent update has today resulted in constant "could not read file" errors. Those files have apparently not been backed up to Dropbox since the update, so I've lost about two weeks of work. EDIT: Apparently this app has been replaced with a paid-only version. Really don't appreciate you springing this on your users.

Randomly Deleting My Files. Steps to reproduce Created a file in Dropbox. Exit the file. Refresh by pulling down. The newly created file is now gone. To ensure it won't happen to my existing files, I've deleted the app. Thank you for the app up till now. Update : I tried reinstalling the app, but now there is a new subscription model in the app. Never knew you guys added a whole new app & discontinued this one.

I'm really in love with the Mac OS version of this app. I use it to do pretty much all of my writing barring quick notes and lists (Keep Notes) and whenever I'm forced to deal with Docx files. And this Android app has gotten steadily better since I started using it, but it still isn't perfect. The horizontal swipes used to navigate the app don't feel particularly smooth; the design doesn't really compare to the simple polish of the Mac OS version and doesn't feel exactly native to modern Android; the only way I can find to access the settings menu is by opening a file and pressing on the ellipses button, which is bizarre; syncing to Dropbox is great, but it seems like every time I open the app it's on a different page then when I opened it. I would just like to see more polish overall, and I understand their decision to make this app free on Android, but if it would mean getting a better app, then I'd be happy to pay for it.

I think the idea of the app is great. I love the preview mode and the option of get a pdf file from that. But you guys need to insert an undo button for those cases where the text simply disappears. Sometimes i'm just correcting words or blending some parts, then i'm going to look and the whole thing is gone. Please, take care of this. Because it causes uncertainty when you're using the app.

Great UI and easy to use. Two rants, though: 1) I cannot seem to figure out how I can save changes into a file. Whenever I hit the back arrow in the top-left corner, all my edits are gone. 2) When I rotate my phone screen 90 degrees, the width of the editor doesn't adapt to the wider screen, and only uses the central portion of the screen estate.

It was a great app to use, has a free night mode (Thank you!), and I could write, then close the app, and come back to where I left it. But then it suddenly deleted 3000 words of a document I was currently working on. I typed a word, everything blinked, then vanished, and I couldn't recover anything. Now I can't trust it, and I hate that I'm looking for other apps to try because I really liked this one.

I love the focus mode and intended to use this app for writing when away from my laptop. It opens files from my Dropbox, and I have no problem with the editor...but I just discovered none of the work I've done this week saved. As I skim through reviews, I find I'm not the only one with disappearing work. Save yourself time and frustration. Skip this app. I can find the .lock file in Dropbox's history from when I was working on a .txt, so I know I didn't just dream I was writing or get my files confused, but the corresponding .txt wasn't modified. Even the app's recent document view shows the file's modified date as the week before, when I used the Word app instead. The inability to save one's work is a critical, trust-shattering failure for any writing app. There is no "Save" option in the menu, no autosave feature I can find, no clear explanation of some other function to use to preserve one's work - nothing. All that time and content is simply gone. The developer's support page for the android app version (which has a list of keyboard shortcuts that excludes CTRL+S) is entirely unhelpful. All the time I spent writing with this app and all the time I spent scouring the developer's android app support page for a solution has been wasted.

i cannot describe how furious i am to see that all of my hard work has been erased so suddenly. i had a document with over 1200 words and when i went back to write in it today, i see that nearly all of it was gone. i only have 300 words left. ----- the app overall though, is great. i would suggest adding a feature where you can add images in the document.

This is my go-to app for note taking while using a physical keyboard. The shorcuts are great. I have some issues occasionally (using a physical keyboard): Sometimes, while typing (I noticed it happens more frequently when you alt-tab), the app randomly sends me back to the folder screen while losing all unsaved progress. It might be a misclicked shortcut, or typing something while the cursor is not selected inside the text (some global app shortcut, maybe?), but it happens quite often. I now have to click "back" every now and then to make sure the text saves and I lose less work whenever this issue happens. Maybe you should add a setting for autosaving every X seconds in order to prevent this?

Hi, I had moved all the files to Google drive while changing phones. The files are only visible for a second and if you are lucky enough to click it, it says cannot load file. This is a brilliant app and I just lost all my files. it would be extremely helpful if you could help me retrieve those files. Please help. If retrieval of this works then this app is surely a five star kne. Thanking you

Great app for taking notes, and it's good enough for writing even project reports, essays and other schoolwork. It has a very simple interface which is great. It has most, if not all, of the options I would ever need. One thing I find weird is that settings is only accessible when I have a document open. I would like to have it somewhere else.

Bluetooth keyboard used with this app creates system-wide lag after a minute of typing. This is the only app that causes this problem, and only a device restart solves it. This is a critical and debilitating flaw to the program, which is otherwise an excellent minimal writing app. Edit: Customer support has been quick to respond and has taken the time to troubleshoot with me. Issue remains, but they are looking into it.

I love the expanded markdown this offers. But god, is it unreliable when it comes to saving documents. I just lost a day’s work. Seems like you simply CAN’T use it without constantly syncing with some sort of Cloud drive to make sure you don’t lose your work. This is the second time all my documents were erased and the first time I’ve actually lost stuff from it. How can a program just delete documents like this?

The best pure markdown editor on Android. Simple, solid features, cloud integrations, and cross-platform. There are downsides, however. One is the inability to easily nest list items or indent content. Additionally, while the Google Drive integration is nice, it is also buggy. The app will create multiple files in Drive as I'm writing which is a pain to manage. Lastly, the desktop app has an ability to favorite folders and tag files for easy access and I wish the mobile app did the same.

My first impressions could not be better, UI is great, but the app is buggy. I just lost part of my work when I used "cut" and it deleted not just selected text but other text as well... and AFAIK there is no undelete and pasting only inserts selected text, not the unselected deleted text. When it happened first time I thought I just accidentally selected other text as well, but now it has happened multiple times and I am pretty sure it's a bug. This kind of bug is a deal-breaker.

At first my experience was great! The. Today I went to write and saw none of my previous entries as well iA had access to all of my photos and was asking me to open my files from Google drive which I had never done with this app. I chose it to be separate from. What I use normally and it should be my choice to save it to a drive or not. Needless to say none of my entries could be found! Just lots a year's worth of brainstorming and writing as this app is also on my ipad. Uninstalling it

Very basic. What I needed. No distractions. Only issue I have is sometimes the cursor is a little wonky. If you're scrolling up or down a bit and want to redo something, the cursor will automatically pop up at the last place you loaded off screen. Not a constant issue.... just often enough to be only slightly offputting.

This app has such promise, but glaring flaws exist. As another reviewer said, there is an "open from" UI, but it doesn't actually allow you to open files. Dropbox integration looks great, until you realize it only opens a portion of longer files, with no indication that it has done so, and you mangle something important.

I've been using this app for a long time and I love it. A few suggestions tho, an option for me to copy folder from drive to device and vice versa would be good. Currently I can only move them not copy. And another option would be encryption for folders and files individually but not the whole app. Thanks :)

I don't like going back to a note or poem I've written to be greeted by a flashing cursor urging me to make edits or additions. I like the way Monospace does it, where the first thing you see is just the text - for you to admire or contemplate - and then you can edit it if you like. An option for this feature would help me make the switch from Monospace, and give iA Writer a more tailored UI for those that use it primarily for notes or reference material.

Long press on document title often opens the file instead of showing the context menu. This makes actions like renaming difficult. General settings should be available from main screen, not from within a file. Response to an earlier review that certain issues were due to nature of Android is a shame, perhaps better not to release the app instead?

I use this mainly as a distraction-free typing tool on my Pixel Slate which is a Chrombook and while it indeed does its job, it is also somewhat irritating as for one bug. Whenever I hit enter and not shift-enter, the lower half of the screen flashes and when I hit enter again, it flashes again but lets me typing again. I believe this has to do with the app thinking it is a tablet because this area is usually filled with keys in tablet mode. Any way to turn this off would be super cool.

Pretty decent. There are major issues around. Deleting and copying texts sometimes malfunctions. Confusing navigation UI. No auto-backup to cloud services. Despite its shortcomings, it deserves a 5-star for the best markdown writing experience you can get on mobile. Hopefully these issues get addressed soon.

It's perfect for creating markdown files on Google Drive or Dropbox, but it has not support for other cloud services like OneDrive, Sync and pCloud. It does have a "open from" button that is suppose to open from a file on the phone but it only worked for creating files for me, I couldn't read them after they were created.

There is a veritable wasteland of slap-dash markdown editors available, most abandoned shortly after launch. IA Writer has fortunately hung around to be a solid mobile and desktop application with a smooth and responsive user interface, plenty of display choices, text export options, integration with Medium and WordPress, and local and cloud save with Dropbox or Gdrive. It'd be nice to see Box and/or OneDrive added in a future update.

Excellent free app for notetaking for school or work, and writing fiction. It saves your typing automatically: love this feature! iA Writer's typing font looks like a typewriter font. Which can be hard to read. However, it does have the nice option to read words against a black background to be gentle on your eyes. Unfortunately, you can't use it for emailing assignments to teachers though.

I love the app, and I recommend it to everyone who uses MD. Regarding the app, I have a suggestion: when a line is long, it leaves the words (or just a word) to the right of the page beyond the viewport so I cannot see it. However, in the Preview mode it is rendered fine.

Updated: good app, I finally found the settings: they can be opened from within a note. Not so intuitive but fortunately it works. I do have all kinds of folders visible in my Dropbox folder, which I do not want, still looking for ways to disable viewing those. But overall it seems to be working fine!