ForumsNewsToodledo Update August 2019


Toodledo Update August 2019
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shelbyp

Posted: Dec 10, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
yes I paid! actually it is one of the cheaper alternatives to TD.

I haven't experimented fully yet:

-repeating tasks work, and reminders are flexible.
-subtasks: currently I like the fact that you have a 2 panel view where you can create a checklist on the RHS for the task. This is NOT a real subtask. you should check what level of subtask you need. For me this is sufficient, I prefer not to have many levels of subtasks.

In the past I have always used Outlines for complex subtask hierarchies, but there you cannot have all the fields you have for a subtask though.

I have found that using tags+customSearches+IFTTT, I can get what I want done (I have hudreds of tasks, many repeating, many pages of notes and about 20 outlines some with 100+ entries). Although it takes some configuration time to setup, I am able to get it to work smoothly for my needs.

Actually there have been numerous discussions here about the +/- of varous tools, in many cases a clever use of tags+custom searches+IFTTT will get most workflows done. The only thing I have never been able to simulate cleanly is dependent tasks, this would require another tool, which is probably too expensive for just this one feature.

I actually find the checklist feature of ticktick useful for modelling 1 level of dependent tasks which have an order. This is not possible easily in TD.
Ummagumma

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
My only gripe with TickTick is the service location. I did some digging and while the servers are claimed to be based in Hong Kong, it seems that the address for the owner of domain was in the mainland China. Not that there's going to be much distinction left, eventually, the way the events have been unraveling. China is notorious for industrial espionage and IP theft. Otherwise, it's a very nice service.
Duo

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Ummagumma:
My only gripe with TickTick is the service location. I did some digging and while the servers are claimed to be based in Hong Kong, it seems that the address for the owner of domain was in the mainland China. Not that there's going to be much distinction left, eventually, the way the events have been unraveling. China is notorious for industrial espionage and IP theft. Otherwise, it's a very nice service.


Which domain are you talking about?
Ummagumma

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
Over a year ago, probably in 2017, when I first started looking at TickTick, someone posted the address of the person who owned the domain, and it was in mainland China. I can probably still find the information.

I just checked, and now it's registered through some company in the US. TickTick team says that some of them are in China, some in the US, and that the non-Chinese data is stored on AWS servers in the US. This is all fine and dandy, however if their management or the key members of their team with access to user data are located in China, the physical locations of servers don't mean squat. It's extremely easy to apply pressure to someone in a country like China, especially if this someone is a Chinese citizen or has Chinese citizen relatives / girlfriend / friends.

This is probably not a big deal if you are using it for personal tasks. Nobody cares that your credit card bill is due on Friday. But work-related tasks have far too much project data.


This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
jzamoras

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
I'm still looking for a plan b if td goes down. Ticktick is what I like most, however I still can't find a proper subtasks feature replacement.
Duo

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Ummagumma:
Over a year ago, probably in 2017, when I first started looking at TickTick, someone posted the address of the person who owned the domain, and it was in mainland China. I can probably still find the information.

I just checked, and now it's registered through some company in the US. TickTick team says that some of them are in China, some in the US, and that the non-Chinese data is stored on AWS servers in the US. This is all fine and dandy, however if their management or the key members of their team with access to user data are located in China, the physical locations of servers don't mean squat. It's extremely easy to apply pressure to someone in a country like China, especially if this someone is a Chinese citizen or has Chinese citizen relatives / girlfriend / friends.

This is probably not a big deal if you are using it for personal tasks. Nobody cares that your credit card bill is due on Friday. But work-related tasks have far too much project data.


When you say some of them are in China, do you mean Hong Kong? If so please say that, rather than China (or Hong Kong, China, if you feel the need).

Also, as far as I know, they said that they formed while in the US (studying I think) then moved back to Hong Kong.

I used to use TickTick a lot and interacted with them from time to time and I don't remember them saying that some of them were in China.

Regarding data, I believe that they run two different systems; one for Mainland Chinese users, which would have data stored in China and one for everybody else, which has data stored on AWS in the USA. With all systems managed from Hong Kong.


This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
KBC1-Gold-Expired-May2020

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
@ShelbyP: You say you are moving to TickTick. Does that have a simple command that you can use to upload your entire ToodleDo XML backup and then get the essential functionality of ToodleDo to read your tasks, see the dates and times, set alarms and receive alarms, etc.?

The one thing I like about RTM is that is has an "import from ToodleDo function." I have about five years of tasks, recurring tasks, and notes with tasks in my ToodleDo file that I would rather not re-type.

Thanks...


This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
KBC1-Gold-Expired-May2020

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Okay, to answer my own question, above, I installed the TickTick Windows app and the iPad app. It does have an Import from ToodleDo function, but, you upload a csv file, not an xml file.

I think are important ToodleDo functions missing. Tags do not upload, but apparently you can add new tags to tasks. I did not find a batch edit function. Did I miss it / is it there somewhere?

It is hard to evaluate the free version, since important parts are missing. I guess you can pay the fees, do an eval for a few days, and then request a refund if you do not like it. That seems like a hassle. Depending on how you pay, you might have to request the refund from Apple or PayPal. That's always been a major hassle for me in the past when I tried to do that.

Too bad they do not have a limited 5 day trial or something, where you can see the whole app without paying.

Also, my tasks include names and phone numbers and email addresses of my friends and colleagues. I am not sure how secure this solution is, so that worries me. I guess I could say the same about ToodleDo, especially with the new owners...

SO... not ready to switch away from ToodleDo. If it goes away, I will consider TickTick, but there are some thing missing for me.

After a very quick look at TickTick, I like RTM better.


This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
Purveyor

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Never mind.

This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
Ummagumma

Posted: Dec 12, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Duo:
Posted by Ummagumma:
Over a year ago, probably in 2017, when I first started looking at TickTick, someone posted the address of the person who owned the domain, and it was in mainland China. I can probably still find the information.

I just checked, and now it's registered through some company in the US. TickTick team says that some of them are in China, some in the US, and that the non-Chinese data is stored on AWS servers in the US. This is all fine and dandy, however if their management or the key members of their team with access to user data are located in China, the physical locations of servers don't mean squat. It's extremely easy to apply pressure to someone in a country like China, especially if this someone is a Chinese citizen or has Chinese citizen relatives / girlfriend / friends.

This is probably not a big deal if you are using it for personal tasks. Nobody cares that your credit card bill is due on Friday. But work-related tasks have far too much project data.


When you say some of them are in China, do you mean Hong Kong? If so please say that, rather than China (or Hong Kong, China, if you feel the need).

Also, as far as I know, they said that they formed while in the US (studying I think) then moved back to Hong Kong.

I used to use TickTick a lot and interacted with them from time to time and I don't remember them saying that some of them were in China.

Regarding data, I believe that they run two different systems; one for Mainland Chinese users, which would have data stored in China and one for everybody else, which has data stored on AWS in the USA. With all systems managed from Hong Kong.


1) They are indeed located in Hong Kong but someone found out some time ago that the person whose name the domain was registered to had a mainland address. See the first review here:

https://alternativeto.net/software/ticktick/reviews/

“ Ticktick.com was registered by a Damon Woo of Xihu Street, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310007, China.
His email address is [email protected]. (You can also find his phone number... and a whole bunch of other details.)”

Now, they’ve since changed the registration to what looks like some US intermediary company, but it’s clear that someone at TT lived in mainland China, or at least had an address there. And when I first read about this and checked for myself, about two years ago, it was still the same address.

2) This doesn’t really matter anyway because HK autonomy is quickly eroding and a small HK company will not have much leverage if the mainland authorities or criminals or a large corporation become interested in the data they have access to.

3) This is why the location of servers doesn’t mean much from data security perspective if the key people who can access them are located in a less secure place.

And this is why I just can’t trust them with my organization data. We are dealing with lots of somewhat sensitive projects (from business and technological perspective) across many industries and I just don’t want to have to self-censor every task and every note.


This message was edited Dec 12, 2019.
shelbyp

Posted: Dec 14, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
just to confirm, TickTick does not have a good import from TD, there is quite a bit of manual work. I also tested RTM, their import works well and gives me something close to workable.

Also TD subtask support is definitely better. Tehe workaround in TickTick would be to make the parent task a List. Ie the parent task is just a list placeholder. The tasks within the list are the subtasks. hen each task has the possibilty of having a checkbox list.

For me this is more than sufficient, and I love the fact that you can either use the task "notes" field for a description OR a checkbox list of items, but may not be usable for others. Additional the two panel display is really awesome for quickly scanning tasks with these checkbox lists.

I still haven't optimized my setup, but I like the TickTick features.
coolexplorer

Posted: Dec 15, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
The biggest bugbear of TickTick is that you are trapped in their database. There is no way to export your data to a universally accepted format if ever the need arises to move to another To Do Manager. You will have to recreate your tasks from scratch, which is a most painful task.
I will never want to be a hostage to China.
Also it indicates a lack of freedom of choice for the user/customer and a lack of confidence tin the attractiveness of there application.
shelbyp

Posted: Dec 15, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
Posted by coolexplorer:
The biggest bugbear of TickTick is that you are trapped in their database. There is no way to export your data to a universally accepted format if ever the need arises to move to another To Do Manager. You will have to recreate your tasks from scratch, which is a most painful task.
I will never want to be a hostage to China.
Also it indicates a lack of freedom of choice for the user/customer and a lack of confidence tin the attractiveness of there application.


I'm not promoting TickTick or anything (even though I have a subscription since I am still learning how to leverage all its features. However it definitely does have import/ export. Just go to settings=> backup and click Generate Backup to obtain a csv of your tasks. The output format is not "universally accepted" , but I don't know how universal formats really are. eg. TD contexts and goals need somehow to be converted to tags. Tags is the key "labelling feature which all these tools have.


This message was edited Dec 15, 2019.
jesse

Posted: Dec 19, 2019
Score: 3 Reference
It is really disappointing you offered lifetime to new subscribers but not existing. Having used this app since 2010, I'm cancelling my subscription based on the price increase and lack of any major changes in the 2 years since the company was purchased. Maybe you can make some progress and make the Gold/Plus a worthwhile investment in the future.

I'm off to find a better use of my money for now.
tjgraf_todo

Posted: Dec 20, 2019
Score: 3 Reference
Thanks to everyone on this (and other forums) as I worked through what was actually a difficult decision. Oddly personal impact to make a move from your task management system, but I am moving on (and surprisingly happy with the results) to TickTick as of this week. Tested it out, and surprised with the functionality, but for me the kicker was the ability to view your lists in customizable Kanban boards...what an improvement for my style!

I'm currently sitting on a paid Gold Toodledo account well into next year AND a "lifetime" subscription under another e-mail, on top of paying for premium TickTick, so definitely not a cost savings, but still happy with the outcome (it was never primarily about the cost, but rather the functionality and commitment). I'll still lurk around the forums for a while to see if anything changes, and I hope it does for those who remain.
davenelsonutah

Posted: Dec 21, 2019
Score: 2 Reference
Not really shutting down? Why would you say “not really” unless clearly you are headed that way? There was a time where I couldn’t get over how awesome this product was. I have now cancelled my renewal and will be using Trello or Infinity. Frustrating but this is a dated/dying product.
prusatomas

Posted: Dec 26, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
Some of you use paid Ticktick, so I would like to ask you some questions:

1. Can Ticktick use advanced sorting and grouping? E.g. I'd like to create groups of my tasks according to priority and then I'd like to sort items in every group according to due date. Is it possible to combine more rules (rules by rules. e.g. like in MLO)?

2. Can Ticktick use boolean operator NOT? (Source)

3. Can I edit/rearrange a table view? Can I select properties of tasks what I want to see in a table view (e.g. I can do it in MLO)?

4. It it possible to create subtasks with different properties (e.g. different tags) as their parrent task? Can I find and display subtasks separately from their parrent task in smart lists?

The reasons why I ask:
- Toodledo is dying for a long time, sorry.
- RTM can't display more info on the tasks list (https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/23351/) and a (adaptable/editable) table view is practical for me.
- MLO doesn't have a web interface (only a synchronisation), it is based on one person (the same situation as Toodledo) and online support is so oldschool.

Thanks for answers.


This message was edited Dec 26, 2019.
J O D

Posted: Dec 27, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
I know that is not what you are asking for, but from my experience Clickup on the free plan can be configured that way. But it may be too much for your needs. Also, the filter rules are a bit more limited.
jzamoras

Posted: Dec 27, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by J O D:
I know that is not what you are asking for, but from my experience Clickup on the free plan can be configured that way. But it may be too much for your needs. Also, the filter rules are a bit more limited.


clickup looks really nice even for the free version, thanks for the heads up ¿were you able to import toodledo tasks? ¿how can I add reminder to specific tasks?


This message was edited Dec 27, 2019.
J O D

Posted: Dec 27, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
I had been using Clickup for a year or so (Just now I am experimenting with another tool), the CSV import was not that bad, bad you have to do a clearing up. But it is doable. Reminders are not for tasks, they are separate and convert able into tasks. But there are also notifications, which can alert you for many things : https://docs.clickup.com/en/articles/845659-notification-settings
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