About the survival of our Data ( when Apps die )

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 9, 2025 at 01:08 PM

[Note: There are no answers in what follows; just musings on the topic of data portability.]

Not telling you anything you don’t know, but information comes in a variety of formats. When I bought my first PC over 40 years ago, the first software I purchased was a flat file database. I transcribed the list of books I’d read, which I had recorded in a composition notebook. I’ve been adding to the list for 40 years now. It has followed me to at least a dozen computers and in as many different applications, always exporting to a CSV file to be imported into the new application. Knock on wood, I’ve never lost any data from this list. Today it resides in Airtable.

I know there is nothing instructive about this example, as a CSV file is about as basic as it gets. I think the reality is that if you want to take advantage of some of the great features in the more artesian applications, you’re going to be vulnerable to losing your data someday. But then, having an established company involved is no guarantee. I remember when Symantec bought out my favorite app of all time, Grandview, then promptly killed it. The same is true for when Netmanage took over EccoPro. The truth is that anytime an app is handed from the primary developer to another, there’s a good chance it is already doomed. Not always, but usually. Even Obsidian has its vulnerabilities, especially if you rely on any third-party plug-ins, which are as vulnerable as any of these specialty apps—or so it seems to me.

The good news is that some of these artesian applications do hang on for a long time. Tinderbox has been going strong for over 25 years. Curio for almost 20. Same for Scrivener. Zoot has been around 30 years.

It’s rare that even a discontinued app will just stop working (unless it is strictly web-based), which gives you time to do what you can to bring as much of your work as possible into a new app. I suspect the best that you can do in a lot of cases is bring static PDFs into the new app, especially if the data is visual rather than textual.

In my experience, manipulating the data in these visual apps is where the value comes in. That is, thinking things through while building the maps, is where I get most of the benefit of using the app. So maybe there is some solace in the fact that you’ve already gotten good value from the now-abandoned application. And if you need to rebuild the map in a new app, it is a new opportunity to re-examine your efforts and perhaps develop new insights.

Steve Z.