iThoughtsX was a native Mac app for years, then with an iOS-only mobile companion (iThoughts2go) and finally a Windows version. Then Toketaware ceased trading. The downloads vanished. It's gone from the App Store, and if you upgrade your Mac or phone, there's no guarantee you can get it running again.

I have maybe a hundred or so maps dating back to 2011, some of them have 70,000 nodes in them, so converting them all has never been an option for me, I just want read/edit access back to them, especially from my Mobile.

So I built a browser version. It runs entirely client-side and (hopefully) it 'feels' like the original as much as possible. Read Up on the software journey here

The beta is live at ithoughtsx.com/beta. (I was lucky to grab one of the old domains)

This is FREE, I'm not advertising, just offering a solution to those like me that lament the day that iThoughts went away!

What works today

File handling

Open .itmz files via file picker, drag-and-drop, or, if you install it on your mobile's desktop as a PWA App, you can get OS file association.

Viewing and navigation

Full tree rendering with fold/unfold. Keyboard navigation with arrows for parent, child, and sibling movement. Click to select, double-tap to edit, long-press to drag.

Editing

Inline text editing (double-tap or Enter). Tab creates a child, Enter creates a sibling, Delete or Backspace removes a node. Drag-and-drop to reparent on both mouse and touch. Reorder siblings with Cmd/Ctrl+Arrows. Reparent with Cmd/Ctrl+Left (promote) or Cmd/Ctrl+Right (make child of previous sibling). Fold or unfold with the period key or by toggling the region. All edits sync back to the file.

Search

Full-text search across the entire map, or scoped to a subtree ("From Here")

Mobile editing (touch toolbar)

On touch devices, a bottom toolbar gives you tappable buttons for everything that normally needs a keyboard

Cross-platform

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. Installable as a PWA (Add to Home Screen on mobile, install on desktop). Offline support via service worker - once loaded, it runs without a connection. Tested on real devices eg old iPad 2 running iOS 9, plus modern Android and iOS.

PWA features

Self-updating: checks for new versions and prompts to reload. File association and share-sheet integration so .itmz files open straight into the app.

What is coming soon

Native app via Tauri - A Tauri 2.0 wrapper around the same web app, giving native file open/save dialogs on desktop and Android. On mobile browsers, every save currently triggers a download. Tauri should fix that with native file dialogs

What is not included (yet)

• Canvas-style layout - Layout is currently an auto-layout tree, more like an outline than a true "Map". I'd like to get it working, but my first goal was getting you access to your data. Open to encouragement here.
• Cloud sync - No direct access to clouds, everthing is local, but you may be able to browse to your DropBox, iCloud etc via the file picker. (mine is working even for Resilio Sync)
• Rich text formatting - No bold, italic, colours, or per-node styling in the editor. The parser preserves these attributes on round-trip, but the UI doesn't expose them yet.
• Icons and images - Not rendered or editable. Preserved on round-trip if your file has them.
• Notes - Parsed and stored, but not displayed (I never used these much, but if you did let me know and I'll add)
• Export - No PDF, PNG, OPML, or Markdown. You can only save back to .itmz.
• Search and replace - Search is built; replace isn't planned for the near term.
• Undo/redo - Not yet implemented. Be careful with delete - there's no rollback.
• Import from other formats - Only .itmz. No Freemind, XMind, or OPML import.
• Themes - The app uses a single visual style. The original iThoughtsX had 16 themes; none are ported yet.

Try it

Go to ithoughtsx.com/beta, open an .itmz file, and have a go.

If you've got an .itmz file, test the full round-trip: open, make some edits, save, and reopen.

On mobile, install it as a PWA (Add to Home Screen) for the best experience this gives you file association (if you share the file from your filer app) and offline mode so you are not depending on the website.

Feedback

I want to hear about:

• Bugs - anything that breaks, especially on mobile or older devices
• Mobile usability - the touch toolbar is built, so you can create, edit, fold, and search on touch devices (delete is menu-only on touch, since there's no undo yet). Tell me what still feels missing or awkward.
• File compatibility - if you have complex maps (nested folds, links, notes, colours), open them and let me know if anything renders incorrectly or gets lost on save (it shouldn't)
• Feature priorities - let me know what you want next.

Message me or leave a comment below or on my blog. If you want to be notified when the Tauri native app lands, pm me and I'll add you to the list.

This is a solo project. The original iThoughtsX is by Toketaware; this is an independent browser-based implementation that reads and writes the same .itmz file format.