How to use Mobile Org to talk to your Emacs Org Mode universe in the cloud. =========================================================================== 1. Learn org mode. See http://orgmode.org/ for that. 2. Tell .emacs where you keep your org files, in particular the ones used for building your Org agenda, e.g.: ;; This is just an example. The way you do it might be ;; completely different, and that's fine, as long as you wind up ;; with `org-agenda-files' set usefully. (custom-set-variables '(org-agenda-files (quote ("~/org/work.org" "~/org/inbox.org" "~/org/hobbies.org" "~/org/people.org" "~/org/private/personal.org")))) Some people keep all their Org Mode files in one directory, but that's not strictly necessary. You can have them scattered in multiple places, as long as `org-agenda-files' knows about them all. The important thing is that they all have unique basenames -- they're all going to live in a single directory on a remote server, so they must have unique names. 3. Find a host on the public internet where you have an account with SSH access. Log in and create an (empty) directory in your homedir to store org data: $ ssh my-safe-host.digitalocean.com $ mkdir MobileOrg Note that you'll most likely be accessing this host via passwordless ssh from the machine(s) where you run Emacs, and via password-over-ssh from your mobile phone or other mobile device. If you don't fully trust your mobile devices with important passwords, that's okay -- just make sure choose a cloud host where compromise would not be a serious matter. 5. Tell .emacs where that server-side directory is. Note that the "/host:path" format below tells emacs to use tramp, which allows emacs to read/write files over ssh: (setq org-mobile-directory "/my-safe-host.digitalocean.com:MobileOrg") (setq org-mobile-inbox-for-pull (concat org-directory "/index.org")) 6. Push your org files to the server: 'M-x org-mobile-push'. Emacs tramp *may* prompt for your ssh password (unless you have ssh-agent set up properly, which hopefully you do), add new properties to your bullets, compile data, and push everything up. It creates a special 'index.org' file as well, which acts as a table of contents for all the data. 7. Install MobileOrg on your android device. In the setup wizard, tell it you have an SSH account. Give it your SSH credentials, and the path on your server where the data lives (include the "index.org" at the end). Whenever you click the "sync" button, it will read from the server. In some versions of Mobile Org, right afterthe initial setup you will see it sitting there with a big circle spinning seemingly forever in the top bar. If that happens, don't panic -- just tap the "sync" icon next to it (the two half-circle arrows that form a complete circle by pointing to each other's tails). Mobile Org will sync your files down and present you with various views, including an Agenda View option at the top that is probably what you want first. 8. Use your org files on the road. You can even modify or add new items from your Android device. From time to time you should sync with the server, and before leaving your mobile device and going back to Emacs, make sure to sync one last time so all your changes are saved. 9. In emacs, run 'M-x org-mobile-pull' to pull changes from the cloud.