FlosForge ArEm Buddy for reMarkable tablets
Your reMarkable notes on your computer, saved as PDFs
Connect your reMarkable tablet over USB and explore every notebook, PDF, and EPUB in a clean desktop library—complete with folders, thumbnails, and instant search. Read your notes comfortably on your computer, upload new documents, and back up everything as PDFs organized in the same folder structure as on your tablet. It talks directly to the tablet’s built-in USB web interface, so no cloud account or subscription is needed. Free and open source under the MIT License.
- Over USB, no cloud account
- Every note saved as a PDF
- Skips what has not changed
Sample data: every name, site, address, company and figure shown is invented. Any resemblance to a real person, business, product or website is coincidental and implies no affiliation, endorsement or relationship of any kind.
- Runs on
- macOS, Windows and Linux
- Connects
- USB, to your tablet only
- Saves
- PDFs, plus optional .rmdoc backups
- Account
- None
Your whole tablet, as a library on your computer
Browse every folder, notebook, PDF, and EPUB from your tablet in a comfortable grid with visual thumbnails and page counts, or switch to a clean list view. Filter by document type, star your favorites, sort by modification date, and select documents with standard keyboard and mouse shortcuts just like in Finder or File Explorer.
- All notes, Favorites, Recently modified, and an expandable folder tree
- Grid and list views with navigation breadcrumbs, sorting, and type filters with item counts
- Standard selection: click, ⌘/Ctrl-click, Shift-click, or a dedicated multi-select mode
- Upload PDFs, EPUBs, and native .rmdoc archives by dropping them onto the window or any folder
Read a note without picking up the tablet
Double-click any notebook to open it immediately in the built-in reader, styled to match your preferred theme. A thumbnail sidebar lets you jump between pages smoothly. Zoom in on handwritten details, print pages via your operating system’s standard print dialog, or open the document directly in your default desktop PDF viewer.
- Page counter, smooth zoom, and keyboard arrow navigation
- Print directly using your system dialog, formatted cleanly one page per sheet
- Export individual pages or entire notebooks as high-resolution PNG images
- Smart local caching ensures previously viewed notes reopen instantly without re-downloading
Every notebook saved as a PDF, in the same folders
Back up your entire tablet, a specific folder, or just selected notebooks with one click. Your folder hierarchy is mirrored faithfully on disk. If you have Google Drive for desktop installed, backups can save straight into your local My Drive folder so Google backs them up automatically—without FlosForge ArEm Buddy ever needing access to your Google account. You can also choose Documents or any custom folder.
- Incremental backups skip notebooks that haven’t changed, keeping file dates intact
- Optional raw .rmdoc backup files saved alongside PDFs in reMarkable’s native format
- Version history preserves modified notebooks in a dated _versions folder instead of overwriting
- Merge multiple selected notebooks into a single cohesive PDF document
Search the text inside your notes
Find handwritten thoughts and documents in moments. Search queries match notebook and folder titles, as well as the indexed text inside every downloaded document on your computer, ignoring case and accents. When a note matches by its text content, the search results highlight the specific line found.
- Indexes typed notes, imported PDFs, EPUB books, and handwriting converted to text on the tablet
- Scope your searches to your current folder or search across your entire library
- System, light, and dark modes across nine thoughtfully designed color themes
- Manage multiple tablets by nickname and switch between them with a single click
See it working
Take a look at the user interface of the application.
Hardware and connection boundaries
The app operates strictly through the tablet’s built-in USB web server, which sets these inherent boundaries:
- It cannot delete notes, reorganize pages, or create new folders on the tablet itself
- Tablet tags are not exposed over USB, and page counts appear once a document is downloaded to your computer
- Handwritten notes are searchable only when converted to text on the tablet before downloading
- Notes deleted on the tablet remain safely archived on your computer rather than automatically removed
Questions about FlosForge ArEm Buddy
Do I need a reMarkable cloud account or subscription?
No. FlosForge ArEm Buddy connects directly to your tablet over a USB cable using the device’s built-in USB web interface. You can enable it on your tablet anytime under Settings → Storage → USB web interface.
Can it back up my notes to Google Drive or cloud storage?
Yes, conveniently and privately. When Google Drive for desktop is installed, the app can save PDFs directly into your local Google Drive folder, allowing the official Google app to handle synchronization in the background. FlosForge ArEm Buddy never accesses your Google account or credentials. You can also select OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or an offline folder.
Can the app delete or modify notes on my tablet?
No. The tablet’s USB web interface has no capability to delete or modify existing notes on the device. The app can read documents and upload new PDFs or EPUBs, but it cannot delete or change what is already stored on your tablet.
How every FlosForge app works
-
No telemetry
No analytics, no crash reporting, no usage pings. Not configurable — simply absent.
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Local storage only
Your data stays on your own device, stored in private application sandboxes under your control.
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Open exports
Everything exports to standard formats you own (CSV, GPX, JSON, Markdown), with zero lock-in.
Getting it running
Download a prebuilt release from the GitHub Releases page, or clone the repository and build it yourself. Then turn on the tablet’s USB web interface and plug it into your computer.
Before you start
Because releases are built independently without expensive paid Apple or Microsoft developer certificates, macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen will show an unverified app warning on first launch. Download exclusively from the official GitHub Releases page. Also, please let active document downloads finish: interrupting the tablet during an export can leave its built-in web server temporarily unresponsive, which is why the Stop button finishes exporting the current notebook before disconnecting.
What you need first
- A reMarkable tablet with Settings → Storage → USB web interface turned on
- macOS (Apple silicon or Intel), Windows 10 or 11, or Linux, on x64 or ARM64
- To build from source: Node.js 18.17 or later, and Git
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Download a build
Pick the installer for your operating system from the Releases page: a .dmg for macOS, a .zip archive for Windows, or an AppImage for Linux.
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Open it the first time
On macOS, drag the app to Applications, open it, then choose Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security, and allow local network access when prompted. On Windows, extract the zip archive and run the executable; if SmartScreen appears, click More info, then Run anyway. On Linux, mark the AppImage as executable and run it.
chmod +x FlosForge-ArEm-Buddy-*.AppImage -
Or build it from source
Clone the repository, install dependencies with npm, and start the app.
git clone https://github.com/dimitriostzr/flosforge-arem-rm-tablet-helper.git cd flosforge-arem-rm-tablet-helper && npm install npm start -
Try it without a tablet
A built-in mock tablet with sample notebooks lets you explore all features without needing hardware connected.
npm run mock-tablet # in one terminal npm run start:mock # in another
Free software · MIT · not sold
Free and open source
FlosForge ArEm Buddy is released under the MIT License. It is not sold — there is no paid version, no licence key and no tier — and the licence is the whole arrangement. In plain terms:
- Free to use for personal, academic, and commercial purposes with no fees, subscriptions, or paywalled features.
- You are free to inspect every line of source code, customize the application, and share your changes.
- Whatever you redistribute keeps the original copyright notice and the MIT licence text.
- The MIT licence covers the code; the FlosForge name and project icons remain reserved branding, so distributed forks should use their own name and icon.
- Provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. You remain responsible for keeping backups of your important documents.
Read the MIT licence text The LICENSE file in the repository
Free, and the source is public
FlosForge ArEm Buddy for reMarkable tablets is free software, published in full on GitHub. Download it, audit it, or fork it. It is offered without a support commitment, so read the README first and try it on a machine you can afford to experiment with.