Researchist keeps your library the same on every device signed in to the same Apple Account, using iCloud.

What syncs

• The library itself: papers, their details, colors, and collections.
• The PDF files, stored in iCloud Drive.
• Highlights and notes, because they are saved inside each PDF.
• Paper Intelligence results, stored next to each PDF, so a paper processed on your Mac is ready on your iPad.
• Themes and custom colors.

Set it up

Sign in to iCloud on each device and make sure iCloud Drive is on. On first launch, Researchist shows Syncing iCloud Library while it fetches your papers; this can take a moment with a large library.

Without iCloud

If iCloud is unavailable, Researchist stores everything on the device. Papers added while offline sync later.

A paper is still downloading

Large PDFs are downloaded on demand. If you open one before it has arrived, you'll see The PDF file is not yet downloaded from iCloud. Wait a moment and try again.

Conflicts

If the same paper was edited on two devices while one was offline, Researchist asks you to Resolve iCloud Conflict. Pick the version to keep; the other is discarded.

Shared with Essayist

Researchist and Essayist use the same iCloud reference library. See Researchist & Essayist.