AppFlowy

Configuration

• AppFlowy can be ran in cloud mode (using AppFlowy servers), on your own server (self-hosted cloud) or locally. Currently I use it only locally as I don't need the collaboration features, but with a multi-device synchronization via Nextcloud. This works well.
• Make sure AppFlowy is actually in local mode, as this has an impact on the data path. In cloud mode without an account (which is a strange combination but apparently possible), everything works like on local mode but the data directory is "data_beta.appflowy.cloud" instead of just "data" (so for instance, if your path "flutter.io.appflowy.appflowy_flutter.path_location" is "/home/elvanor/life/app-data/appflowy/data", the actual directory would be "/home/elvanor/life/app-data/appflowy/data_beta.appflowy.cloud").
• On 0.10.3, to change the mode via the interface, you need to go to Settings -> Cloud Settings and choose "Local" for Cloud server. Note that this parameter is also kept on the ~/.local/share/AppFlowy/shared_preferences.json, via the key "flutter.kCloudType". The value should be "0" for local mode ("2" meaning cloud mode).
• AppFlowy is a Flutter application and as such does not respect correctly font sizing (on KDE). The only workaround I found so far is to launch the application with the GDK_SCALE environment variable (so for instance env GDK_SCALE=2 /usr/local/opt/AppFlowy-0.10.3-linux-x86_64.AppImage). This works but unfortunately GDK_SCALE accepts only integers so it won't work with GDK_SCALE=1.7 which would have been ideal.

Upgrading

• Upgrading AppFlowy can be very dangerous. Make sure you backup the whole database (/home/elvanor/life/app-data/appflowy/) before attempting an upgrade.

Location of data

• In local mode, the data path location (let's call it APP_FLOWY_DATA_PATH) is by default ~/.local/share/AppFlowy/data. However, you can change it in the file ~/.local/share/AppFlowy/shared_preferences.json, by using the key "flutter.io.appflowy.appflowy_flutter.path_location". For instance:

"flutter.io.appflowy.appflowy_flutter.path_location":"/home/elvanor/life/app-data/appflowy/data"

• Note that this folder contains another directory with a random number as name (480979045434003456 for instance), which seems to correspond to a session id. It contains the database file, see below.
• As it can be difficult to change the location of data (do not try to move files inside the data folder!), you can use the Import feature from AppFlowy (Settings -> Manage data -> Import data). Choose the base data directory. It will work correctly but may require a restart of AppFlowy to be visible, and as it creates a subpage, you may need to move the imported page(s) around.

Database File

• It's not clear which files actually host the contents of your documents. APP_FLOWY_DATA_PATH/480979045434003456/flowy-database.db may be an important file, but APP_FLOWY_DATA_PATH/cache.db also contains critical data (last user session information, which is needed for AppFlowy to properly start). Note that those two files are Sqlite databases.