Settings And Preferences

The Settings screen is the source of truth for available options and defaults. This page documents selected behavior that is not obvious from the labels; it is not an exhaustive copy of every setting. Platform differences are described in 3.05-Web-App-vs-Desktop.

Global Settings

A search box sits above the settings tabs. Typing into it searches every tab at once and lists the matches in a dropdown, each showing the section it belongs to and, where a specific option matched, that option's label. Picking a result switches to the tab it lives on, expands the section, and scrolls to it. Searching for a tab name lists everything on that tab. Settings that are not collapsible sections — the Appearance group (dark mode, theme, and wallpaper), sound, plugins, and sync setup — are searchable too.

Localization

• Datetime format locale — Controls numeric date formatting and the 12/24-hour format of times the app displays. The ISO 8601 option uses YYYY-MM-DD and a 24-hour clock. With ISO 8601 selected, weekday labels in Schedule, Habits, and Planner follow the app language. The System default option follows your browser or operating system regional locale; when formatting data for a locale is not available, dates fall back to British English (en-GB) formatting.

  This setting does not affect time entry fields — the time input in the schedule and deadline dialogs is a native browser control, and browsers render it in the clock format of the browser or operating system UI language, which a web page cannot override. On a 12-hour system that field shows 02:00 PM even with a 24-hour locale selected here; the stored time is still correct.

Miscellaneous

• Show current countdown in the tray / status menu (macOS only) — Shows the active timer or countdown in the desktop status menu title. When this is disabled and current-task display is enabled, the title can show the current task instead.
• Automatically check for new versions (desktop only, default: on) — Once a day the desktop app asks the GitHub releases API whether a newer version has been published and shows a dismissible notice linking to the download page. No personal data is sent, nothing is installed automatically, and each version is announced at most once. The setting (and a manual "Check for updates" link in the settings footer) only appears on builds without their own update channel; Microsoft Store, Mac App Store, and Snap builds update through their stores and never check.
• Enable local REST API (desktop only, default: off) — Starts a localhost HTTP API on http://127.0.0.1:3876 for local scripts and tools. Every request except GET /health must include the generated access token as Authorization: Bearer <token>. The token is shown below this setting and can be regenerated, which invalidates the previous token immediately. This is a breaking change for older API clients that used the API without authentication.

Tasks

• Show current task in the tray / status menu (macOS/Windows only) — Allows the desktop tray or status menu to show the active task. On macOS, the current countdown setting takes priority while it is enabled.
• Enable Markdown formatting in task notes (default: on) — Notes are edited in an editor that renders markdown as you type, showing the plain syntax only on the line you are editing. Turning this off replaces that editor with a plain text box everywhere notes are edited (task notes, project notes, and the fullscreen editor); the note text itself is unchanged either way.

Short Syntax

• Enable deadline short syntax — Parses !<deadline time> while entering task titles. This option is disabled by default.

Idle Handling

• Enable idle time tracking — When enabled, Super Productivity will detect when you are away from the computer and show an idle dialog asking what you did.
• Minimum idle time — The amount of time you need to be away before the idle dialog is shown. Must be at least 1 minute: the desktop app never reports shorter idle periods, so anything lower is rounded up to about a minute rather than honoured. Idle is sampled every 30 seconds, so the dialog can appear up to that much after the threshold is reached.
• Only show idle dialog when a task is active — Only show the idle dialog when a task is currently being tracked.
• Suppress idle dialog during work sessions — When enabled, the idle dialog will not appear while a focus mode work session is running. Useful when you are working at the computer without active keyboard/mouse input (e.g. reading, studying, or writing exams). Default: off (opt-in).

Keyboard Shortcuts

See 3.03-Keyboard-Shortcuts for full list.

Plugins

See 2.21-Manage-Plugins for installation, configuration, permissions, and the plugin trust model.

Sync & Export

Automatic Backups

• Enable automatic backups — Creates local backups automatically when supported by the current platform.
• Restore latest automatic backup — Android only. Restores the latest usable automatic backup and replaces the current local data after confirmation.
• Maximum backup files — Desktop only. Limits how many automatic backup JSON files are kept in the backups/ folder; older files are deleted once the limit is exceeded.

Project, Tag, Today, And Inbox Settings

Basic Settings

• Enable Project Backlog — Adds a separate backlog list to the project.
• Hide project from sidebar — Removes the project from the sidebar project list. The project stays active: its tasks can still appear in cross-project task views such as Today, Planner, Schedule, Boards, and Search. The sidebar visibility menu remains the place to show the project again; project short syntax does not match hidden projects.

Theme

Theme settings can include background images for light mode, dark mode, or both. When at least one background image is set, the background contrast and blur sliders are shown. The blur slider defaults to 0px. When at least one mode has no background image, the colored background tint setting is shown. See 3.09-Theming for theme details.