Hello, I'm trying to merge my Samsung notes over and hit a road block when it comes to importing them as txt files, I can only select one at a time. Please let me import in bulk on the app, importing in pdf or straight from .sdocx would be a huge welcome! I have over 300 
Thank you.
You can use the desktop app instead to bulk import
If I use the desktop version of Joplin to import multiple Samsung Notes notes converted to *.md files, how do I then import those multiple notes fro. the desktop version into Joplin on an Android phone?
Either use the sync, or if you don't intend to use sync, after importing your notes in the desktop app, export the notes from there as a jex, then import the jex in the mobile app.
Don't use both sync and import on multiple devices though, otherwise you'll end up creating duplicates.
Thank you. I am new to Joplin. I do not know how to do either of these options - the sync, or exporting the notes from the desktop as a jex, and then importing the jex into the mobile app.
Can you explain in simple steps how I do each of these two options - the sync, or the jex export?
Hi,
Use the Samsung Notes application for Windows to export everything into Word files which preserves pictures and things and formatting.
The utility I have in mind is Pandoc. It is free and open-source, and it directly converts Word .docx â Markdown .md.
[Pandoc official website]( Pandoc - index )
For a Samsung Notes migration, the particularly useful feature is that Pandoc can extract the pictures embedded in the Word document while converting it and automatically put references to those pictures into the Markdown.
For example:
pandoc "My Note.docx" -t markdown --extract-media=media -o "My Note.md"
That produces approximately:
My Note.md
media/
image1.png
image2.jpg
with the images referenced from inside My Note.md.
Then Joplin Desktop can import the Markdown using File â Import â MD - Markdown (directory). Joplin specifically supports importing an entire Markdown directory and preserving its folder structure.
But there's an even easier possibility
Pandoc now has an official browser-based interface, so the person doesn't necessarily have to use command lines. It accepts .docx, lets you choose Markdown as the output, and has an Extract media option.
[Pandoc online converter]( pandoc for the people )
For a few notes, I'd use that. For dozens or hundreds of Samsung Notes, installing Pandoc on Windows and doing them in bulk would be much more practical.
Setting up synchronization is not difficult but a little bit more so then just saving the data to a file.
On the desktop use file export as .jex.
Then on android go into configuration and then choose the import export option and import the file that you've exported from the desktop. You can do the same in reverse.
I would suggest synchronization to replace this manual effort over and over again.
Hi,
I have 100s of Samsung Notes to import to Joplin on Android, so I followed your suggestions. I installed Windows Samsung Notes on a PC, synchronized it with my Android Samsung Notes to populate it with the notes, and saved the notes as Word documents in a folder.
I then installed Windows Pandoc on the PC using the file, pandoc-3.11-windows-x86_64.msi. But that only seemed to install the user manual. So I then copied and extracted the zipped file, pandoc-3.11-windows-x86_64.zip, to my PC, and ran pandoc.exe. It opens to a black window with a cursor, I guess I can issue a Word to md bulk (or folder) files conversion command?
Can you tell me what command to use to convert the word documents to md files in bulk?
And would you tell me more about synchronization? Do I import the md files that Pandoc created, into Joplin on the PC, and then export them from PC Joplin as jex? And then somehow synchromize those jex files with the Android Joplin? Or ?
Thank you,
Steven
Hi Steven,
I will try to write a script to bulk convert Word documents into markdown files.
I'm pretty sure I can do it in Powershell.
Synchronization...
Personally, I use Joplin cloud primarily because I really want the function of being able to publish notes to the web.
If you have or create a GitHub account you can publish notes to the web using Gist. This requires an optional Community plugin that will work with the desktop version of joplin .
Joplin has several free synchronization choices. Joplin itself supports OneDrive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, WebDAV, S3, and local filesystem synchronization, in addition to the paid Joplin Cloud service.
For someone who wants the simplest free setup, I'd narrow it down to:
OneDrive â probably the easiest if they already have a Microsoft account. Joplin creates /Apps/Joplin in OneDrive and only needs access to that area.
Dropbox â similarly easy. Joplin creates /Apps/Joplin in Dropbox.
WebDAV â free if they already have a service providing WebDAV storage. Joplin officially supports it, including services such as Nextcloud, ownCloud, Synology and others.
Nextcloud â good if they already have access to a Nextcloud server.
S3-compatible storage â possible, although it's more technical to configure.
Local filesystem â Joplin can synchronize to an ordinary directory. You can then potentially synchronize that directory by another mechanism, although that's more complicated, particularly with phones.
And importantly, Joplin's end-to-end encryption works with these third-party sync targets, so notes can be encrypted before they're uploaded.
Thanks Leo. I'm happy to try your bulk convert script. I'll then try Dropbox to synchronize the desktop and Android Joplin versions to move notes to my phone. My goal is just to move my Samsung Notes on my old phone to a simple no-ads no-tracking local-storage notes app on my phone.
OK here is the script. I have tested it and it works with documents that both have and don't have pictures .
The script is designed to run in the same directory as you have pandoc.exe. It might also run if you have it installed in the path.
Put all of your docx files and one directory along with this powershell script.
Here is the complete PowerShell script, written with the assumption that all of these are in the same folder:
pandoc.exe- the PowerShell script
- all the exported
.docxfiles
It will create a Joplin_Import folder automatically and convert every Word document into Markdown with extracted images.
Convert-To-Joplin.ps1
============================================================
Samsung Notes DOCX -> Joplin Markdown Converter
Put these in the SAME folder:
- This PowerShell script
- pandoc.exe
- All exported .docx files
The script creates:
Joplin_Import\
Inside that folder it creates Markdown files and
extracted image folders ready for Joplin import.
============================================================
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"
------------------------------------------------------------
Determine the folder where this PowerShell script is located
------------------------------------------------------------
$ScriptFolder = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
------------------------------------------------------------
Locate pandoc.exe in the SAME folder as this script
------------------------------------------------------------
$Pandoc = Join-Path $ScriptFolder "pandoc.exe"
if (!(Test-Path $Pandoc)) {
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "ERROR: pandoc.exe was not found." -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "pandoc.exe must be in the same folder as this script."
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Expected location:"
Write-Host $Pandoc
Write-Host ""
Read-Host "Press Enter to close"
exit
}
------------------------------------------------------------
Create the Joplin output folder
------------------------------------------------------------
$OutputFolder = Join-Path $ScriptFolder "Joplin_Import"
if (!(Test-Path $OutputFolder)) {
New-Item `
-ItemType Directory `
-Path $OutputFolder | Out-Null
}
------------------------------------------------------------
Find all DOCX files in the same folder as the script
------------------------------------------------------------
$WordFiles = Get-ChildItem -Path $ScriptFolder
-Filter "*.docx" `
-File
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "===================================================="
Write-Host " Samsung Notes -> Joplin Markdown Converter"
Write-Host "===================================================="
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Working folder:"
Write-Host $ScriptFolder
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Pandoc:"
Write-Host $Pandoc
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Output folder:"
Write-Host $OutputFolder
Write-Host ""
if ($WordFiles.Count -eq 0) {
Write-Host "No .docx files were found." -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Put the exported Word documents in:"
Write-Host $ScriptFolder
Write-Host ""
Read-Host "Press Enter to close"
exit
}
Write-Host "Found $($WordFiles.Count) Word document(s)."
Write-Host ""
$Converted = 0
$Failed = 0
------------------------------------------------------------
Convert each Word document
------------------------------------------------------------
foreach ($File in $WordFiles) {
$BaseName = $File.BaseName
# Make a safe filename for output
$SafeBaseName = $BaseName `
-replace '[<>:"/\\|?*]', '_'
$MarkdownFileName = $SafeBaseName + ".md"
$MediaFolderName = $SafeBaseName + "_media"
Write-Host "----------------------------------------------------"
Write-Host "Converting:"
Write-Host $File.Name
Write-Host ""
try {
Push-Location $OutputFolder
# Run the local copy of Pandoc
& $Pandoc `
"$($File.FullName)" `
--from=docx `
--to=gfm `
--wrap=none `
--extract-media="$MediaFolderName" `
--output="$MarkdownFileName"
$ExitCode = $LASTEXITCODE
Pop-Location
if ($ExitCode -eq 0) {
Write-Host "SUCCESS" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "Created:"
Write-Host $MarkdownFileName
$Converted++
}
else {
Write-Host "FAILED" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host "Pandoc returned exit code $ExitCode"
$Failed++
}
}
catch {
try {
Pop-Location
}
catch {
}
Write-Host "ERROR" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host $_.Exception.Message
$Failed++
}
Write-Host ""
}
------------------------------------------------------------
Finished
------------------------------------------------------------
Write-Host "===================================================="
Write-Host " Conversion Complete"
Write-Host "===================================================="
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Converted successfully: $Converted"
Write-Host "Failed: $Failed"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Your Joplin files are in:"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host $OutputFolder
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "To import them into Joplin:"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "File -> Import -> MD - Markdown (Directory)"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Then select the Joplin_Import folder."
Write-Host ""
Read-Host "Press Enter to close"
END OF SCRIPT PREVIOUS LINE.
It worked for me perfectly.
Here is the powershell script in a script file. Run with .\Convert-To-Joplin.ps1
Convert-To-Joplin.ps1 (5.0 KB)
Thank you!
I guess I need more help! I put the PowerShell script Convert-To-Joplin.ps1, pandoc.exe, and the exported .docx files in one folder. Then what do I do to run it so that the .docx files are converted to .md files?
Easy part.
In Windows you need to open a Powershell prompt preferably one that's version 7.x. if you don't have Powershell version 7 you'll need to install that first probably from Microsoft.
Once you have Powershell 7 open the Powershell window and run this command.
.\Convert-To-Joplin.ps1
Hi,
I installed Powershell 7.x. But I get an error when I run that command. I have pandoc.exe, the docx files and Convert-To-Joplin.ps1 in the same folder. I click pandoc.exe, which opens a window, I click the down arrow at the top to open Power Shell, then I run .\Convert-To-Joplin.ps1 from the command prompt. Attached is a screenshot of the error.
Thanks,
Steven
Hi,
Don't click on pandoc.exe and run it and then open powershell. I think you're ending up in the wrong directory which is your home directory. You need to go to the start menu and open Powershell 7.
It should be alphabetically listed in the P section. Open Powershell which should open into your home directory which is probably not where you put all your files you need to navigate from there into the folder where you put all of the files including the Powershell script. That error message is suggesting that it can't find the script file in the current directory.
Cd into wordtojoplin or whatever you called the directory where all the files are located.
Then run the command I gave you to run the script. The .\script.ps1 is expecting the script file to be in the current directory and it probably isn't.
After the script is done running you should have a new folder in that directory called Joplin-Import
In that directory will be a list of markdown files and a media folder with all of the pictures that were inside the word files.
Once you have that directory with all of the markdown files in it you can launch Joplin and do a file import and choose markdown directory or if you want to experiment first choose markdown file and just select one of them and it should import the file into your Joplin in the correct location based on it's name.
This should work for you.
If you're still having trouble afterwards we can if you would like to do a video call and I can walk you through it step by step.
