jeremylongshore Apple Notes Migration Deep Dive
Migration Paths
| From | To | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Notes | Obsidian | Export HTML → convert to Markdown → copy to vault |
| Apple Notes | Notion | Export JSON → Notion API import |
| Obsidian | Apple Notes | Read .md → convert to HTML → JXA create |
| Evernote | Apple Notes | File > Import from Evernote (built-in) |
Apple Notes → Obsidian Migration
#!/bin/bash
# Export all Apple Notes to Obsidian vault
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---SEP---\\n\");
" | while IFS= read -r line; do
[ "$line" = "---SEP---" ] && continue
title=$(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 "$line" | jq -r ".created" 2>/dev/null)
# Convert HTML to Markdown (basic)
md=$(echo "$body" | sed "s/<h1>/# /g; s/<\/h1>//g; s/<h2>/## /g; s/<\/h2>//g; s/<br>/\\n/g; s/<[^>]*>//g")
safe_title=$(echo "$title" | tr "/:*?\"<>|" "-" | head -c 100)
mkdir -p "$VAULT_DIR/$folder"
echo -e "---\ncreated: $created\nsource: apple-notes\n---\n\n# $title\n\n$md" > "$VAULT_DIR/$folder/$safe_title.md"
done
echo "Migration complete: $VAULT_DIR"
Obsidian → Apple Notes Import
#!/bin/bash
for md_file in "$VAULT_DIR"/*.md; do
title=$(head -1 "$md_file" | sed "s/^#\s*//")
body=$(cat "$md_file" | sed "s/^# /<h1>/;s/$/<\/h1>/" | sed "s/\n/<br>/g")
osascript -l JavaScript -e "
const Notes = Application(\"Notes\");
const note = Notes.Note({name: \"$title\", body: \"$body\"});
Notes.defaultAccount.folders[0].notes.push(note);
"
sleep 1
done