About the survival of our Data ( when Apps die )

Posted by Graham Rhind
Jun 9, 2025 at 09:39 AM

Yes, this is a constant and recurring theme for me when I consider my workflows and data security. I’ve experienced a lot of hassle over the years, with programs such as Ariadne, ConnectedText, WhizFolders and DocxManager being abandoned or just suddenly no longer working. And, like you, I have never been able to smoothly import the data into a new application even when the format is fairly standard, such as docx or html. There has always been a need to tweak. It took me a year to get my largest project into ConnectedText and then recently 2 months to get a slim-lined version of that project into RightNote. But again, as you say, often the best software for my needs is from small independent developers, so the risks are high.

I try to pick up on signals that a developer is moving towards abandonment - bugs not being investigated, forum posts being ignored and so on - and act accordingly. This is by no means fool proof! I avoid programs that work only online or depend on somebody else’s servers to operate. For one project I duplicate all work in two programs as the chances of both going under at the same time is small (and also, as one is Microsoft Word, the chances of it outliving me are high). For other data I have a system of exporting to standard formats at regular intervals so that the amount of data I would lose if it stopped working would always be limited. That’s a lot of extra work, though, as my data is scattered around a lot of different programs. I try to reduce that number to simplify my life, but that also increases the impact if any of the programs used get abandoned. Sometimes I choose software from a vendor which I know is unlikely to stop supporting it, such as OneNote.

I would also be interested to know how others tackle this perennial issue.