start-editor-button moved to notes top

This issue respects the following points:

I have read the FAQ
I have searched for existing issues
The issue affects the Notes Android app, neither the Notes server app nor the Nextcloud Android app.

Describe the bug

open app
open note
button to start the editor appears on notes top and overlaps content

Expected behavior

button to start the editor should be located on the buttom of the note and should not overlaps any content at all

Notes Android version

4.5

Notes server version

4.12.3

Nextcloud Android version

3.34.0 RC2

Nextcloud version

30.06

Device

Blackview Zeno 1, Xioami 9 T

Android Version

15, 11

App Store

Google Play Store
F-Droid
Huawei App Gallery

Stacktrace

No response

Can confirm this bug :(

In former versions, the button covered content at the bottom and my workarround has been to add extra empty headings.
Now the button moved even worse to the left upper side.
Why could you not simply return to the pencil/eye toggle in the action bar?

In former versions, the button covered content at the bottom and my workarround has been to add extra empty headings. Now the button moved even worse to the left upper side. Why could you not simply return to the pencil/eye toggle in the action bar?

I'm also affected by this issue. A button in the action bar would be my preferred fix. But a small button at the bottom right would be much better than the current button at the top left.

Occlusion caused by a button floating at the bottom could be solved by extending the scrollable range past the actual end of a document, into an additional blank space.

If it has to be a floating button, why inflate it with a lengthly text? This covers unnecessarily too much content. If you need a distinction between different edit modes, why not signaling it with different pencil icons?

The idea behind the floating button on the bottom is that it can be easily reached with the (right) thumb.

A button in the action bar would be my preferred fix

Amen to that! If the floating buttons over note contents in this project went and took a long walk off a short pier that would be very ok 😆

If the floating buttons over note contents in this project went and took a long walk off a short pier that would be very ok

A margin at the end of the scrollable content already solves the problem of content being obstructed.

Otherwise, arguments against it are strictly bound to personal distaste.

➕ 1️⃣ 👍 for returning to the pencil/eye toggle

Can also confirm this issue in v4.5.2 when "Direct Edit" is disabled. Also vote to return button to bottom left and have document overscroll to have lowest text scroll above the floating button.

It's very interesting, that on Android 16 one can see a toggling button (pencil <> eye) at the menu bar. Why isn't it working on Android 15?

@Phaet

@Phaet Thank you for pointing on this setting. It works indeed. The relation of this setting with position of the ugly button I can't nevertheless understand.

@Phaet

Thank you @Phaet !

@Phaet

@IngoBelka Just made a quick test: It depends on the setting of "Direkt bearbeiten" (Direct editing?). When switched on you get the pencil-eye-toggle and in this mode you can then switch between simple and rich text editing mode. This works for me in Android 12 and 16. Actually I was not aware of this dependency. Thanks for the hint.

This fixes one problem but then results in a floating action button over the note content in the bottom right hand corner for me. Do you have a fix that removes that one too @Phaet ? 😂

Sorry, no. I am not part of the developer team of this app. I just try to get along as many others here.
It's a shame that such an important app is not officiallly maintained by nextcloud.

It's a shame that such an important app is not officiallly maintained by nextcloud.

Officially it is 🙈

But in fact it doesn't feel like this. I know it's Open Source. But we also use Nextcloud at work (and pay for it) and the Notes app is a constant headache... (cf. opening note from widget creates new one instead, blue bars in widget etc.).
Don't get me wrong, I love Nextcloud! But it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep my colleagues away from OneNote or Apple Notes...

Same issue here from a lot of releases. I cannot use the rich text editor since it is so slow lo load.

Several new versions have been released in the eight long months since the issue first appeared, but it has not been resolved.

The button blocking the head of the document is a glaring mistake and a plain regression. It is easy to resolve, and until it is resolved, the application remains largely unusable. It is such a shame.

Direct edit is not a suitable workaround, in general. Operation in editing mode must be cleanly responsive to user interaction, and independent of network connectivity.

Completely agree that the floating button just needs to go away entirely, it is a huge UX fail. Even when it was in the bottom right corner, the "leave more space at the end of the doc" workaround is not a solution, it's a kludge.

A floating button at the bottom, combined with trailing vertical padding, is now a standard design pattern.

I disagree that such a a solution is a kludge, but the button obstructing text at the top simply defies any reasonable defense.

May be standard, but nevertheless a Google UX design failure.
The intention obviously is to reach this button easily with the thumb on a smartphone.
But then the rest of the action menu is on the top? Rather grazy.
As in Google play store, where the action menu is split between top and botton.
The search button is on the button, but the search string has to be entered at the top.

We need not to follow every idiocy.

A floating button at the bottom, combined with trailing vertical padding, is now a standard design pattern.

I was meaning if the user has to add that vertical space to their notes (which is 100% a kludge). If the app is adding the padding to the viewport, thats less bad, but still not great.

If the app is adding the padding to the viewport

Correct.

Instead of eternally debating about the UX failures of floating action buttons, let's fix this bug first and potentially make further improvements afterwards.

I've submitted a pull request which correctly aligns the button to the bottom: #3294

The problem was that instead of being anchored/aligned to the scrollView itself, it was anchored to the other floating button for the rich text editor. As these buttons are seemingly never displayed at the same time, the anchor point was missing and the button simply appeared at the top.

I agree that the buttons to switch between the three editing modes needs an overhaul (it's inconsistent, sometimes unintuitive and I even somehow managed to crash the app by switching between modes), but that needs further discussion / a proper design idea.

If the rich text editor is disabled, edit mode can be enabled with the floating action button, but to return to preview mode, the button is located in the title bar. The button previously in this location (favorite toggle) moves to the dropdown menu. This is inconsistent and provides for a bad user experience. Either putting a toggle in a FAB or in the title bar is fine, but it should be consistent
The floating action buttons also contain a text label, which makes the button very wide and IMHO rather ugly. An icon-only button with a tooltip on long-tap might be better

Somewhat related: The note opening behaviour button seems to be broken on main:

In previous versions (34.0.0), there is a fourth "remember my last selection" option and all other options correctly select the appropriate mode each time a note was opened.
On my current dev build (241c146 from current main branch + 1 unrelated commit), this "remember..." option has disappeared and the other options "plain edit mode", "plain preview" and "rich edit mode" lose their functionality and all behave like "remember my decision in previous versions. (remembering even across app restarts)

Thank you for the creating the pull request.

I agree that resolving the regression should be a much higher priority than deciding on the optimal design. The earlier design certainly was not perfect, but also was vastly better than the more recent behavior.

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start-editor-button moved to notes top #2852

This issue respects the following points:

Describe the bug

Expected behavior

Notes Android version

Notes server version

Nextcloud Android version

Nextcloud version

Device

Android Version

App Store

Stacktrace

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start-editor-button moved to notes top #2852

Description

This issue respects the following points:

Describe the bug

Expected behavior

Notes Android version

Notes server version

Nextcloud Android version

Nextcloud version

Device

Android Version

App Store

Stacktrace

Activity

Joedmin commented on Oct 3, 2025

Phaet commented on Oct 16, 2025

russell-phillips commented on Oct 18, 2025

brainchild0 commented on Oct 19, 2025

Phaet commented on Oct 19, 2025

Phaet commented on Oct 19, 2025

cheywood commented on Nov 5, 2025

brainchild0 commented on Nov 15, 2025

7usr7local commented on Nov 16, 2025

Bubsbilby commented on Dec 15, 2025

IngoBelka commented on Jan 2, 2026

2 remaining items

IngoBelka commented on Jan 3, 2026

Go-rom commented on Jan 6, 2026

cheywood commented on Jan 12, 2026

Phaet commented on Jan 12, 2026

g-work commented on Jan 28, 2026

benjuade commented on Feb 5, 2026

brainchild0 commented on May 23, 2026

AceJase commented on Aug 1, 2026

brainchild0 commented on Aug 1, 2026

Phaet commented on Aug 1, 2026

AceJase commented on Aug 1, 2026

brainchild0 commented on Aug 2, 2026

ykahveci commented on Aug 2, 2026

brainchild0 commented on Aug 3, 2026

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