Marginalia support
Questions, bugs or ideas? Write to us. We read every message.
Alzefa Labs, postal address and phone number: see the Impressum.
Questions and answers
How do I add a feed?
On the Feeds tab, tap + (or "Add a feed or website" when your library is still empty) and type the address of the site or of its feed. If you give a normal website address, Marginalia looks for the site's feed and offers it to you. Marginalia reads RSS, Atom and JSON Feed.
How do I import or export my subscriptions (OPML)?
Open Settings and choose "Import or export feeds (OPML)". Import reads an OPML file, such as one from NetNewsWire, and keeps its folders. Export writes your subscriptions and folders to an OPML file that you save wherever you choose.
How do I highlight text and add notes?
In the reader, select text and pick a colour from the bar that appears. The free colours are yellow, blue and rose. Tap a highlight to add a note, change its colour or delete it. You can also write one note on the whole article with "Article note" in the reader's menu, and see all of an article's highlights and notes in one list.
What is the journal and how do I export it to Markdown?
Each article can have one journal entry. It collects the article's highlights and notes and has room for your own reflection. The Journal tab lists entries by date, and the Search tab searches highlights, notes, entries and articles. To export, open Settings, choose "Export to folder" and pick a folder once, such as an Obsidian vault. Marginalia then writes each entry as a Markdown file with front matter, and you can export one entry or all of them. Re-exporting is safe: if you changed a file yourself, Marginalia writes a separate conflict copy instead of overwriting it.
How do I back up and restore my library?
Open Settings and choose "Backup and restore". "Back up now" saves your whole library, with its feeds, highlights, notes and journal, as one file in a place you choose, such as Files. To restore, pick that file; Marginalia shows what it holds next to what is on the phone and asks before it replaces your library. The file is not encrypted, so keep it somewhere you trust.
How do I save a web page from the share sheet?
In Safari or another app, tap Share and choose Marginalia. The page is saved to your library, where it appears under "Saved", and you read it in the same clean reader. You can highlight it and add notes like any article. It is stored on your iPhone, so it opens offline too.
Can I read offline?
Yes. Articles that you star, or that have a highlight, a note or a journal entry, are kept on your iPhone with their images. Saved pages are always kept. In Settings, "Offline and storage" lets you choose what else to download, with Wi-Fi only on by default, how long to keep it and a storage limit.
What will Pro add?
Marginalia is free, and a one-time Pro unlock is planned. Pro is planned to add extra highlight colours and reading themes, automatic export whenever an entry changes, and reminders that bring back past highlights. Sync between your devices through iCloud Drive is planned for a later version and is also planned as part of Pro. Nothing you wrote is ever locked: reading, highlighting, the journal, Markdown export, OPML and backup stay free.
Where is my data stored?
On your iPhone. Marginalia has no account and no server of ours, so your feeds, highlights, notes and journal never leave the phone unless you save a backup or an export yourself. The app connects only to the websites you add or open, never to us.
What happens if the app crashes?
Marginalia saves a short crash report on your iPhone and sends nothing. You can see the reports in Settings, under "Crash reports", delete them, or send one to us yourself if you want help.
What do you do with my data?
We collect none. Read the privacy policy.