Notifications

Everything Mahfouz has to tell you (exports, plugin installs and updates, errors saving, committing or syncing, task reminders) collects in the notification center. Open it with the bell button on the left rail, just above your account button, or press Mod9 Since 0.14.0: the center takes the place of your notes in the left sidebar, the way the People view does, and clicking the bell again brings your notes back. On a phone, Alerts, the bell at the top of Home, opens the center as a page, with a badge for how many are unread; its toolbar holds Filter, Do not disturb, Clear archive, Settings and Mark all read. Since 0.17.0 Proposals from external agents have their own plug button in the titlebar.

• A dot on the bell means there are notifications you haven’t dealt with; hover over the bell to see how many. A ring around it means something is running, and hovering shows what.
• The filter button in the center’s header switches between Unread, All and Archived and narrows the list by category; a dot on it means you’re not looking at everything unread. The double-check button marks everything read. Click a notification to mark it read and run its main action, such as opening a reminder’s note, or archive it with ×.
• A finished PDF export waits in the center with Open, Save… and Discard.
• A notification’s other actions are buttons on one row under its text, each with an icon. When the row is too narrow, buttons show only their icon; hover over one to see its name.
• Errors, and things waiting on you, also pop up briefly in the corner. A pop-up doesn’t take focus, but you can move to it with Tab and press Enter to run its main action; it stays up while it has focus. Closing a pop-up leaves the notification in the center. While the center is showing, nothing pops up: new notifications appear in its list instead.
• History is kept on this computer for 30 days. It isn’t part of your vault.

Sounds, device notifications and quiet time

Settings → Notifications controls how notifications interrupt you:

• Device notifications Since 0.17.0 (called System notifications before) appear in your system’s notification center while Mahfouz is in the background, for errors and things waiting on you. The switch is saved on this device only: your other devices and your collaborators keep their own choice. Each device starts from the vault’s old System notifications setting, once. See Device notifications below.
• Sounds play a short tone for errors and things waiting on you. They’re off by default.
• Mute a category to keep its notifications in the history without pop-ups, sounds or a badge. These settings are saved in .config/settings.md, so they follow the vault. The categories are Exports, Plugins, Vault, Sync, Editor, Publishing, App updates and Tasks. Muting Tasks turns that vault’s task reminders off entirely.

Do not disturb, the moon button in the notification center’s header, silences everything for an hour, until tomorrow morning, or until you turn it off. It applies to this computer only.

Device notifications Since 0.17.0

A device notification shows the notification’s title and its category after Mahfouz ·, such as Mahfouz · Sync, never its details. A title can still name a note or a task, as it does in the notification center. Clicking one brings Mahfouz forward and runs its main action.

On the web, and in the installed app, turning on Device notifications is the click that asks the browser for permission; Mahfouz never asks at any other time. If you’ve blocked notifications for web.mahfouz.app, the switch can’t be turned on and says Blocked in this browser’s site settings. Allow them there, then turn it on. On iPhone, notifications need the Home Screen app: see Notifications on iPhone.

Task reminders while Mahfouz is closed Since 0.17.0

On the web, the same switch also brings your task reminders while Mahfouz is closed, wherever the browser can receive them: you’re signed in, the browser supports Web Push, and on iPhone, Mahfouz is the Home Screen app.

• These reminders say only A task is due or N tasks are due. Tapping one opens Tasks.
• To send them, Mahfouz’s server keeps your open tasks’ due times, to the minute, and nothing else: never their titles, ids or note text. Your browser’s push service (Apple, Google, Mozilla or Microsoft, depending on the browser) delivers each one, so it sees when a reminder arrives, but not what it’s for.
• The list of due times comes from whichever web device you used last. A task you complete only in the desktop app keeps reminding you until you open Mahfouz on a web device. A list that no web device has refreshed for 14 days stops.
• Muting Tasks, snoozing a task (it comes back when the snooze ends) and completing it each stop its reminder. Do not disturb applies only to the device it’s set on: it doesn’t silence the reminders on your other devices.
• If Mahfouz is open in a web tab, that tab shows the reminder and the one sent while closed is skipped. The desktop app can’t do that, so a reminder can show twice on a computer with the desktop app open.
• Signing out on a device stops its reminders.

The line under Device notifications says what to expect on this device. Only while Mahfouz is open. means reminders reach it only while Mahfouz is open, and the line says why when it can: you’re not signed in, the browser can’t receive them, or on iPhone, Mahfouz isn’t on your Home Screen.

New versions of Mahfouz

Since 0.17.0 When a new version of Mahfouz is released, a banner under the title bar says which version is out and which one you have. What’s new opens the release notes; Download opens the installer where one is available for your platform. Mahfouz doesn’t install anything itself.

• Mahfouz checks when it starts and then at most once a day. Mahfouz → Check for Updates…, or Check for updates at the bottom of the account menu, checks right away and always tells you the result, including when you’re up to date.
• If you installed Mahfouz with Homebrew, there’s no Download button; the banner shows the command to run instead: brew upgrade --cask mahfouz.
• Skip this version (the × on the banner) hides it until a newer version is released. Check for Updates… shows it again.
• If Mahfouz isn’t in front when it finds a new version, you also get one system notification for that version, unless Do not disturb is on.
• To stop the checks entirely, turn off Automatically check for new versions in Settings → Notifications. It applies to this computer only. Muting the App updates category stops the automatic banner too; Check for Updates… still shows it.
• On the web, the banner offers Reload instead: see New versions.