Finding things

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Search

The search icon searches items, locations, log entries and contacts at once, including serial numbers (spaces and dashes are ignored). Results are grouped, and each result says where the words were found. Location paths show in a different color so you can see at a glance where something lives. Items in locked places never appear until the locked places are showing.

Each item in the results has a three-dot menu with Move to… and Delete….

Finding either of several things. Put a comma between searches and Stowed finds items that match any of them: camping, fishing, hiking finds the gear for all three trips in one list. Words within one part still all have to match, so red tent finds things with both words. An item that matches more than one part is listed once.

Tags

Tag names are searched too: a matching tag is listed with how many items carry it, and tapping it shows those items. Tags are edited in Settings > Tags, where you can rename, recolor, merge or delete them. With Pro, a tag can also be made private (see Locks, PIN and private tags).

Filters

The filter button narrows the item results by collection, status, category, tags, location or a custom field. With only filters set (no words typed) you get a plain list of the items that match. When you pick two or more tags, a switch chooses whether items need all of them or any one of them.

Export what you found

The search screen's menu > Export results makes a spreadsheet of the items found. A dialog asks which columns to include (collection, name, location, category, serial numbers, value and so on); your choice is remembered for next time. Then you can share the file or save it to the phone.

A packing checklist for NoteMagic

Say you are packing for a camping trip and the gear is tagged camping and spread over several places. Search for camping (or camping, fishing), then use the search screen's menu > Checklist for NoteMagic…. Stowed makes a checklist for NoteMagic, our notes app, with a section for each place the items are kept, named by the full location (Garage > Shelf 2), so you can gather everything from one place at a time. The places are in alphabetical order, the items in each are by name, and items with no location go last under No location. Each item appears once, every box starts unticked, and the last line says when it was exported.

• You choose the title of the note and what follows each item's name: how many (when more than one) and the brand. Your choices are remembered. If the results come from more than one collection, each heading starts with its collection.
• The checklist is free. It leaves out sold, gifted and lost items, and, as with every export, anything in a locked place or with a private tag unless locked places are showing.
• Send as text is the easy way: choose it and then NoteMagic in the share sheet. NoteMagic creates a new note with real checkboxes. (NoteMagic only accepts shared text, not files, which is why a file you share does not list it.)
• Or save the file (a Markdown file) and in NoteMagic open Backup and export, choose Import, and pick it. It is a plain Markdown task list, so other notes apps can read it too.

Totals

In a collection's menu, Totals shows the value and the price paid, overall and by category and location. Sold, gifted and lost items are left out, and so are items in locked places while they are hidden.

Each category row also shows how many items and units are in it, and tapping a category lists its items.

Storage used

A collection's or place's menu > Storage used shows how much room its photos, attached files and pictures of places take on this device, and the items using the most. The records themselves are tiny; photos are almost all of it. A backup includes all of those files, so it is about the same size. Settings > Storage and photo size shows the same for all your collections together.

Keeping photos small

• Size of new photos (Settings > Photos): Large (2400 pixels on the longest side, the default), Medium (1600) or Small (1024). It only affects photos you add from now on. Photos picked from Google Drive or the files app, which arrive full size, are brought down to the size you chose.
• Make photos smaller (on the Storage screen): pick Large, Medium or Small and Stowed tells you how many photos are bigger than that and about how much space it would save. Tap the button to do it. Each photo is checked before it is replaced, photos that are already small, in another format (such as HEIC) or unreadable are left exactly as they are, and you can cancel part-way: what was done stays done.
• The originals are kept until you confirm. After making photos smaller, the Storage screen shows Originals kept. Undo puts every original back exactly as it was; Delete originals frees their space for good. Originals are never part of a backup.
• Making a photo smaller removes the details a camera adds to it, such as where it was taken.
• Before a big backup. When you make a backup and your photos and files take more than a set amount (200 MB unless you change it in Settings > Photos > Warn on backups when photos exceed, or set it to Never), Stowed shows how big the backup will be and offers Make photos smaller… or Continue the backup. Nothing is changed unless you choose to make photos smaller. A backup shows its progress while it is made.

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