Apple Notes Migration Deep Dive

Apple Notes Migration Deep Dive

Overview

Migrating to or from Apple Notes requires understanding that Notes stores content as proprietary HTML with no REST API for bulk operations. All automation goes through JXA/osascript on a local Mac. This guide covers the four most common migration paths with production-tested scripts. Key challenges include: HTML-to-Markdown conversion fidelity, attachment extraction limitations (JXA cannot export binary attachment data directly), and iCloud sync delays that affect timing of bulk imports.

Prerequisites

• Written scope, migration owner, encrypted backup, rollback decision, and retention policy for both source and destination.
• A synthetic pilot corpus that includes formatting and attachment edge cases but contains no production data.
• A durable manifest keyed by source identifier and a target environment/folder that has been explicitly approved.

Instructions

1. Run export, conversion, and import as separate, inspectable phases; do not stream unreviewed note bodies into a destination.
2. Sanitize HTML/Markdown and filenames, encrypt intermediate artifacts, and keep content out of shell arguments and logs.
3. Pilot a small batch, reconcile source and destination manifests, then obtain owner approval before each larger batch.
4. Make imports idempotent and stop on a timeout, conflict, or attachment-fidelity gap; do not retry blindly.

Migration Paths

Step 1: Pre-Migration Backup

#!/bin/bash
# Always back up before migration
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/notes-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const data = Notes.defaultAccount.notes().map(n => ({
    id: n.id(), title: n.name(), body: n.body(),
    folder: n.container().name(),
    created: n.creationDate().toISOString(),
    modified: n.modificationDate().toISOString(),
    attachments: n.attachments().length
  }));
  JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);
' > "$BACKUP_DIR/full-export.json"
echo "Backed up $(jq length "$BACKUP_DIR/full-export.json") notes to $BACKUP_DIR"

Step 2: Apple Notes to Obsidian

#!/bin/bash
VAULT_DIR="$HOME/obsidian-vault/Apple Notes Import"
mkdir -p "$VAULT_DIR"

osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  Notes.defaultAccount.notes().map(n => JSON.stringify({
    title: n.name(), body: n.body(),
    folder: n.container().name(),
    created: n.creationDate().toISOString(),
  })).join("\n===NOTESEP===\n");
' | while IFS= read -r line; do
  [ "$line" = "===NOTESEP===" ] && continue
  title=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.title' 2>/dev/null) || continue
  body=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.body' 2>/dev/null)
  folder=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.folder' 2>/dev/null)
  created=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.created' 2>/dev/null)

  # Convert Apple Notes HTML to Markdown
  md=$(echo "$body" | sed 's/<h1>/# /g; s/<\/h1>//g; s/<h2>/## /g; s/<\/h2>//g' \
    | sed 's/<li class="done">/- [x] /g; s/<li>/- /g; s/<\/li>//g' \
    | sed 's/<br[^>]*>/\n/g; s/<[^>]*>//g' | sed '/^$/N;/^\n$/d')

  safe_title=$(echo "$title" | tr '/:*?"<>|' '-' | head -c 80)
  mkdir -p "$VAULT_DIR/$folder"
  printf "---\ncreated: %s\nsource: apple-notes\n---\n\n%s\n" "$created" "$md" \
    > "$VAULT_DIR/$folder/$safe_title.md"
done
echo "Migration complete: $(find "$VAULT_DIR" -name '*.md' | wc -l) files in $VAULT_DIR"

Step 3: Obsidian to Apple Notes

#!/bin/bash
# Import Markdown files into Apple Notes
VAULT_DIR="${1:-$HOME/obsidian-vault}"
COUNT=0
find "$VAULT_DIR" -name '*.md' -type f | while read -r md_file; do
  title=$(head -20 "$md_file" | grep -m1 '^# ' | sed 's/^# //')
  [ -z "$title" ] && title=$(basename "$md_file" .md)
  # Convert Markdown to Apple Notes HTML
  body=$(cat "$md_file" | sed 's/^# \(.*\)/<h1>\1<\/h1>/; s/^## \(.*\)/<h2>\1<\/h2>/' \
    | sed 's/\*\*\([^*]*\)\*\*/<b>\1<\/b>/g; s/\*\([^*]*\)\*/<i>\1<\/i>/g' \
    | sed 's/$/<br>/g' | tr -d '\n')
  osascript -l JavaScript -e "
    const Notes = Application('Notes');
    const note = Notes.Note({name: '$title', body: '$body'});
    Notes.defaultAccount.folders[0].notes.push(note);
  "
  COUNT=$((COUNT + 1))
  sleep 1  # Throttle for iCloud sync
done
echo "Imported $COUNT notes"

Error Handling

Output

A migration produces a protected source receipt, conversion exception report, destination manifest, reconciliation result, and rollback decision. The routine receipt uses opaque identifiers and counts; note titles, bodies, and attachment names remain in controlled artifacts only.

Examples

Migrate a five-note synthetic pilot into a dedicated test folder, compare every manifest key and expected formatting exception, then delete the pilot destination under the test policy. For a production migration, move in bounded approved batches and pause immediately if the reconciliation count or attachment handling differs from the signed plan.

Resources

• Mac Automation Scripting Guide
• Obsidian URI Protocol
• Notion Import API

Next Steps

For data format details and HTML conversion, see apple-notes-data-handling. For macOS version compatibility during migration, see apple-notes-upgrade-migration.