Install memrynote

Download the desktop app from memrynote.com/download/desktop. The download page detects your platform and offers installers for:

• macOS — Apple Silicon and Intel
• Windows — the installer lets you choose the install location, so you can install to a drive other than C:. Each release also ships a MemryNote-<version>-win.zip on the GitHub releases page — unzip and run Memrynote.exe directly if the installer fails on your machine
• Linux — AppImage and .deb

On macOS you can also install with Homebrew:

brew install --cask memrynote/tap/memry

After installing, head to First Run & Vault Setup to create your encrypted vault.

Automatic Updates

memrynote checks for updates in the background and prompts you to restart when one is ready. Both the check and the download are optional — turn either off in Settings → General.

The install itself runs after the app has closed. If the installer does not apply the update, memrynote tells you on the next launch and offers to download the installer so you can run it yourself. Running it over your existing install is enough — your vault and settings are untouched, and you do not need to uninstall first.

It is still worth reporting, because the app's log holds the reason. Send us the log file along with the report:

• Windows — %APPDATA%\memrynote\logs\main.log
• macOS — ~/Library/Logs/memrynote/main.log
• Linux — ~/.config/memrynote/logs/main.log

On macOS, updates cannot install at all while the app runs from a read-only location — the mounted .dmg you downloaded, or a copy still sitting in ~/Downloads, which macOS runs from a temporary read-only mount of its own. There is nothing to report here: drag memrynote into your Applications folder and open it from there, and updates start working. Settings → General → App Updates says so directly when this is what is blocking you.

On Windows, an update can also be blocked by a file in the install folder being held open — antivirus and leftover memrynote processes are the usual causes. The installer works around this on its own now, and it writes an install.log next to the app (typically %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\memrynote) that names the file it could not move. That log is the most useful thing you can send us if an update still fails.

A failed Windows update can no longer remove the app. The installer keeps the old version in a backup folder next to the install folder until the new files are fully in place, and restores it automatically — at the next Windows sign-in at the latest — if anything interrupts the install, including shutting the PC down mid-update. For the same reason, an update is no longer installed while Windows itself is shutting down; it simply applies the next time you quit the app.

An install under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\MemryNote came from the earlier installer. It moves to the new installer on its own, once, on the next update: the app downloads the new installer alongside the update, checks its signature, and after you quit it removes the old install and installs the new one in %LOCALAPPDATA%\MemryNote. Your vault, settings and search index stay where they are. There is nothing to do, and the app opens again by itself when the switch is done. The Start menu entry comes back at the same place; a memrynote pin on the taskbar may need to be pinned again, once.

If the release you are updating to does not carry the new installer yet, the update installs the way it always has. An update there can be blocked by a file in the install folder being held open, usually antivirus or a leftover memrynote process. The installer works around that on its own.

On either one, an update is never installed while Windows itself is shutting down. It applies the next time you quit the app.

Run from Source

Use the source workflow if you are contributing or testing local changes.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24.x, using the version pinned by .nvmrc
• pnpm 10.30+
• Git

Setup

git clone https://github.com/memrynote/memry.git
cd memry
nvm use
pnpm install
pnpm dev:desktop

Sync Server Development

The sync server is a Cloudflare Workers app. Run it separately when working on sync behavior.

pnpm dev:sync-server

Before a Pull Request

Run the focused checks for the area you changed. For broad changes, use the full gates.

pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test