How to use any cloud backed notes app with NC ?
I guess google notes are backed by IMAP, and notes.app for mac can read/write to such backend. Is such a thing planned in future NC improvements ?
Sorry, my english is not as good as I wish, I meant : how to use mac notes.app (which can be backed by cloud) with NC ?
don’t worry… no need to be sorry 
what language do you prefer… we have a category “International Support” where you can post your request in your language, but replies may be limited to native speakers.
if you speak German… dann kannst du gerne einfach deine Frage auf Deutsch stellen.
Hi @thomas.p
Nextcloud doesn’t offer an IMAP server, and as far as I know, there are no plans to implement one.
Also, as you probably know, IMAP is primarily used for managing email boxes. So it’s quite unique that Apple uses it as a storage backend for Notes. At least I’m not aware of any other popular notes app that does this. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t any. 
Either way, to be able to synchronize directly from a Notes app on your Mac to Nextcloud, the app must support WebDAV as a storage backend. Alternatively, you could use an app that stores the notes locally on your Mac as regular files (ideally in Markdown or plain text). In this case, the notes could be synchronized via the Nextcloud Desktop Client.
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Addition:
If you install Nextcloud Notes on your server, there are also various third party apps, that can synchronise via the Nextcloud Notes Rest API, as @scubamuc already mentioned, incl. a Nextcloud Notes Desktop client, which is meant to be a replacement for Apple Notes. Although that one hasn’t received any updates since 2020, so not sure how well it works in 2025.
yes ok thanks a lot
I was wondering if NC could by any means offer backend for notes, whereas it does for emails/contacts/calendars/etc, and also what was needed to achieve the full support of “Internet Accounts” Apple feature.
Well, that will probably never happen, since many of these things are proprietary, especially when iCloud is used as the backend.
However, as far as I know, macOS supports at least CalDAV and CardDAV for contacts and calendars, as well as WebDAV for files.
Obviously, IMAP isn’t proprietary either, but it needs to be tied to an email address with a corresponding IMAP server — and since Nextcloud doesn’t provide an email server, that option is unfortunately off the table.
OK I see
But it also supports MS Exchange as a backend.
I mean : I didn’t think Google nor Yahoo would have implemented any Apple techno in order to be integrated within Apple OSes, but maybe. And on the other hand, I think even less that Exchange would have integrated a Apple proprietary techno to allow that.
Alternatively, what about email used for Federated Cloud Share ? couldn’t it be used there ?
Yes, that’s correct. Apple Notes supports Exchange as a backend, not the other way around.
In the case of Nextcloud, this would mean that Apple Notes would have to support Nextcloud, or rather one of the backends that Nextcloud provides, such as WebDAV — an open standard, by the way.
I suppose it can be used with any email account that supports IMAP (not 100 % sure), but the notes will then be stored on the IMAP server of the email provider hosting the respective mailbox.
In theory, it’s possible to host your own email server, but that’s certainly one of the more difficult things to self-host, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it — and definitely not for the sole purpose of syncing your Apple Notes.
Also, I’m not an expert on Apple products, but I suspect that IMAP support in Apple Notes is more of a legacy feature from the pre-iCloud era. I wouldn’t bet money on Apple supporting it forever.
I wouldn’t bet on it neither.
I would just like the full thing to be available with Apple devices — and, I confess and it is my opinion, apps, 'cause they are most of the time well designed — since only notes are missing (messaging is not provided by NC afaik).
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