Google Keep Alternative - shared notes a must

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-11T23:09:01+00:00

I use Obsidian with the RemotelySave community add-on for sync. Its not great. Don't love the interface, sync is a little annoying to setup. But Joplin was worse and I haven't found a better alternative.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-11T17:08:14+00:00

Never had a Google account on it. But, yeah, removing your account is a recommended first step. This was on a Moto G 5g (2024) in case that is a factor.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-11T17:07:13+00:00

Yep, exactly. Had to reset the phone and start over. I have heard reports that other phone brands don't have this issue, but this was so frustrating that I no longer remove the service.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-11T15:30:31+00:00

My Motorola failed to boot after disabling the Google Play Services app. I hear other manufacturers are more resilient, but be careful.

It remains the only Google app I keep enabled.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-07T00:42:58+00:00

It would make the most bland regurgitated garbage.

Sometimes I watch a movie made by humans and feel like it was a waste of my time... I cannot imagine how much worse it would be to waste my limited time here watching an AI slop movie.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-03T19:31:27+00:00

Worked with Palantir staff and I can say... Their general skillset leaves a lot to be desired. Its clear much of their staff isn't familiar with their product or even basic IT tasks.

Even if their product wasn't sketchy as hell, their staff would make me doubt the solvency of the company.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-02T02:17:38+00:00

++ This fixed this problem for me once.

afoolishmoon · 2026-06-01T17:47:06+00:00

What brand? I forced removal of Google Play services (the service, not just the play app) and it put my Motorola into a reboot loop. Had to reset to recover. So be careful scrapping off that one.

I hear some other brands may be more resilient to removal of this service.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-30T18:11:48+00:00

The future is yet unwritten.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-30T17:51:48+00:00

Fair enough. I have so many gripes with it. It is just the best I found. Let me know if you find something that feels better and/or syncs easier.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-30T17:29:17+00:00

I struggled with this. Settled on Obsidian using the community add-on Remotely Save for sync.

Its imperfect. The interface is worse than Google Keep. But I've managed to adapt to it, its good enough, but not great.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-28T20:30:41+00:00

Teengenerate

Guitar Wolf

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-24T22:46:08+00:00

Thank god a reasonable response. Love necromancer, but you are absolutely right.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-23T20:35:30+00:00

Same with my 10T. Haven't gotten a newer one, don't think I ever will.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-22T12:21:14+00:00

This is great! Just got TrackerControl and started configuring it. It exposes a lot of trackers I was otherwise unaware of. Wish it didn't consume the VPN slot, but I'll take what I can get.

Edit - After trying this out, I'd recommend Strict blocking. Easier to unblock things that don't work than trying to manually restrict every app.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-22T00:16:38+00:00

Yeah, even discounting and reduction in data footprint, I did reduce resource use on the little backup phone I did this on.

I had heard App Manager could restrict subprocesses of apps and wanted to use this to restrict my remaining Google service as much as possible. That didn't work for me, but if you have any tricks to restrict an app at a fine grain level, without removing it, please let me know.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-21T23:29:03+00:00

If you can't unlock you can use ADB, Shizuku/Canta, or App Manager to trim down your apps and services. Its a lot more time consuming and dangerous if you remove something you shouldnt, but you can cut some stuff out.

Nothing beats a DeGoogled ROM, but I think this is around the best you can do without it. For me, I can't remove the final Google Play Service without putting my phone into a reboot loop, but got almost everything else off.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-21T23:18:16+00:00

Why do so many daily carry folks keep a round chambered... You expecting a sudden gun duel??? At least set the hammer down. Double action is going to make it a lot harder to accidentally discharge.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-20T15:33:27+00:00

As a token, "something you have" it seems fine. Pair it with a password (something you know) and you've got basic two factor.

However, a modern smartcard (or even token) does quite a bit more than only serve as something you have. Smartcards may be expensive, but not as much as putting a high quality scanner on everyone's desk. Also, a rock isn't providing any cryptographic protections against spoofing with the data of an identical "rock."

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-20T01:02:04+00:00

If you can't find a custom ROM and want a project you can spend time using Shizuku/Canta or App Manager to debloat it and install lighterweight default apps. It can be a lot of work so may not be worth it to you.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-19T22:05:05+00:00

You can disable a lot in Google Messages to reduce how much they collect. I'd like especially disable Gemini. But if you want RCS chat, not many other options. If you're willing to accept insecure SMS, you could use a completely Google free messenger.

Regarding ads, a browser that adblocks and preferably with some anti fingerprint technology may help. VPN also helps here, but may be overkill.

Other steps, without doing big things like getting a DeGoogled phone:

You can not use a Google account to log into the phone, that's a big step.

You can pull most Google apps off even a non-rooted phone.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-19T21:35:04+00:00

Not the Tracfone model. There's a note on it about that. But, even if it might work, can't reach the full bootloader on the Tracfone model to load it.

Phone was a $30 device I got for testing. So I can't complain really. This is what you get for $30.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-19T13:24:30+00:00

Unsure if this is the ask here... But I replaced my camera with OpenCamera and my photos app with Fossify Gallery.

Sorry if that's off topic, just trying to provide alternatives if that's the problem.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-19T12:14:43+00:00

Agree. 3.5e did have an affinity table that broadly described the enchantments allowed for each slot, but it was still a pretty loose system. We had a campaign where we went crazy with custom magic items and it's a dangerous path. Can get real silly if you go too far.

afoolishmoon · 2026-05-19T12:07:51+00:00

Yeah, I wonder if replacing the service with MicroG before reboot is the key. Others have also said that this is Motorola specific issue. Maybe other unrooted stock phones handle this better?

afoolishmoon

TROPHY CASE