Simply Customize It 1.5.2: Try Templates on 3.30 for Yourself
Simply Customize It 1.5.2 is now available on Mac (waiting on review for iOS). It’s a small update, but there’s a story behind it.
How We Got Here
A little over a week ago an email (thanks) let me know that their custom templates were no longer showing up. After updating to the 3.30 beta on both my reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro Move I realized that the JSON file the app uses for custom templates is no longer being read and seems to load them another way.
I next went to Reddit to see if anyone else noticed this and saw a few comments, added my own post, tested some more, and then shared what I’d found both here, through email, and on my socials.
Kyra
I plan to update this post as I learn more.
Then another email came in and I realized the app should tell you, itself, what's happening in case you're not on my email list or following me on my socials. What started as a simple message became an update that includes pausing template syncing, uploading, and clean up when on a reMarkable running 3.30 or later... but it also included why with a link to the main post for current news.
Why This Update
After submitting the update someone else on Reddit shared about trying .template files on 3.30. I’d already tested that and it hadn’t worked, but hoped I'd made a mistake and went to try one more time... just in case... then realized I couldn't as I'd locked myself out. I started adding a debug toggle just to try... and quickly realized if I wanted to try for myself all of you may want to do the same too.
What’s New
Your templates are safe in the app either way and sleep screens work just like before. That said here's what specifically changed:
Off By Default
The pause from 1.5.1 is still on by default. If your reMarkable is on 3.30 or later template syncing, uploading, and clean up stop with a short note explaining why. And now that note tells you where to turn the template steps on if you’d like to try anyway.
Optional: Test Templates
In each device’s details in Profile you can now turn on “Run template steps on 3.30 anyway.” That lets syncing, uploading, and clean up run on a reMarkable on 3.30 or later. The switch is saved per reMarkable and per Apple device, so turning it on for your Move on your iPhone won’t change your reMarkable 2, or your Move on your Mac.
Clearer Notes
I went over the wording on all the notes I added in the last update, updated the What's New sheet, and added more cases for when you do sync the templates.
What’s Next
My honest guess is that this change may be here to stay and that reading templates from the templates.json file, which is what this app uses, may not come back.
From my testing, the new way seems to be adding .template files as documents on the reMarkable. That has some upsides: they sync through the reMarkable cloud to your other devices and survive updates. But using it isn't accessible for people without Connect, doesn’t support PNG or SVG templates, and it’s a much bigger change from how things worked before. As such I’m still researching before deciding anything.
Either way I’m keeping an eye out. In the meantime though this update lets you see it for yourself while, if reMarkable does restores the old way, you can keep going right away without waiting for another app update.
Thank you for the emails and the patience.
Kyra 💕
Did this save you time?