Importing Evernote .enex file with 46 thousand notes

[esmonde]

I'm a newbie and not a techie but would like to move from 15 years of Evernote and 46 thousand notes to a better option. Joplin sounds like that but I have some queries.

1. I exported my Evernote notes to an .enex file which is about 23GB in size. I'm not sure which option to choose when importing into Joplin. I've heard of Markdown, but I just want to be able to see my saved notes and add new notes or modify them in a way that I did in Evernote. Is HTML the better option for me?

2. How long should I expect the import of that .enex file with 46,000 notes into Joplin take?

3. I'm using MacOS Ventura and have downloaded the latest version of Joplin. I always use Safari for web clipping but there is not a clipper for Safari. Will one be added?

4. I'm not interested in collaboration, calendars, tasks or stuff like that. I use Evernote as a research database mostly for personal documents, scanned information, and web clippings I need to keep.

5. I've been using the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500s scanner since I began using Evernote. Can I integrate a similar scanning workflow into Joplin?

Thanks in advance.

[esmonde]

I should have added that I mostly use Evernote on a 2013 iMac 27" with a 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 and on an M1 Mac mini with 16GB RAM. The iMac is patched with OpenCore Legacy Patcher to allow it to run MacOS Ventura.

Thanks!

[laurent]

@esmonde

• I exported my Evernote notes to an .enex file which is about 23GB in size. I'm not sure which option to choose when importing into Joplin. I've heard of Markdown, but I just want to be able to see my saved notes and add new notes or modify them in a way that I did in Evernote. Is HTML the better option for me?

It really depends on your notes. If they are relatively simple notes without too complex formatting, Markdown is better. Otherwise HTML would help keeping the notes very similar to the way they were in Evernote. I'd recommend trying with HTML first and see if that works for you.

@esmonde

• How long should I expect the import of that .enex file with 46,000 notes into Joplin take?

The only way to know is to try!

I've been using the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500s scanner since I began using Evernote. Can I integrate a similar scanning workflow into Joplin?

Have a look at this post:

File Uploader and OCR

I built a command line companion application to supplement Joplin. The app monitors a directory you specify; when new files are created in the directory, it automatically uploads the file as text or an attachment (depending on file type) to a new note in Joplin. The app performs OCR on images and PDFs, and the text is dropped into the note as a comment. An image preview is also created for PDFs. The app requires Python 3.7 and is available on Github and PyPI. Hope you like it! Original post bel…

[esmonde]

Thanks very much for that info.

[esmonde]

I'm afraid I keep adding things. I stopped using Notebooks in Evernote many years ago and rely totally on Tags. I tag all my notes and between the Tags and Search Terms I can find anything I've saved without the need for Notebooks. Anyone know if Tags work as effectively for searching in Joplin?

[laurent]

There are ways to search using tags - Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities

But how many tags do you have? The app performances can go down when there are many tags

[esmonde]

Hello Laurent, and thank you very much for creating Joplin.

There is no Tag counter on Evernote and I must have thousands. I never worry about the amount of tags I add. I just add them as I need them and many are likely close duplicates of ones I've added already. But maybe as you suggest about Joplin that's contributing to how sluggish Evernote has become over the recent years.

I’m afraid I kinda jumped into Joplin without checking in detail. The more I read about Joplin the more it seems aimed at people who create notes from scratch using Markdown or maybe RTF docs.

I don’t do that. Most of what I currently use Evernote for is to bring in scanned documents or add PDFs or other files that are already created. I might also add links to videos on e.g. YouTube. I do sometimes add some extra text to the saved notes, but it’s really just some extra info for myself.

I’m still checking out YouTube videos about Joplin and anything I can find about moving from Evernote to Joplin. But so much of what I see is quite nerdy and not the simple document database that Evernote was when I first subscribed, and what I still use Evernote for.

[ajay]

Just a thought, esmonde,
I am using between 1000 and 2000 notes with Joplin, and over and over again I realize that I barely use (or need !) more than 10 % of them. The rest is just left overs .... and history.
May be it's time (cause you are moving from EN to Joplin) to get rid of a few thousand notes in the process, tug them away in a pretty archive (for that one-in-a-million case where you need to dig one old note out in 3 years), and be very happy with a fresh, streamlined, fast and furious collection of notes under Joplin.

[esmonde]

Thanks ajay.

You're right - there's a lot of dead wood in my 15 years of Evernote notes. But there's a lot of work editing them down too. I'll take a look anyway.

[former_evernotist]

@ajay

and over and over again I realize that I barely use (or need !) more than 10 % of them. The rest is just left overs .... and history.

That's true for my use case as well. The hard thing is to determine which notes you probably will never ever need again (and which files in your file system ). If OCR for embedded pictures or PDFs could be a core feature in Joplin, I think more Evernote users make the decision to migrate.

[ajay]

You don't have to do the hard thing. Import everything into Joplin, make a backup and tug it away safely somewhere. Next .... generously delete from trom the profile. My target was 80 going by the eternal 80/20 rule: with 20% of the work you can almost always cover 80% of the ground.

[esmonde]

Decisions, decisions ... I'm even considering Apple Notes but it does not have any integration with my Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 and I use that a lot for scanning in personal documents, receipts etc.

[former_evernotist]

@esmonde

I'm even considering Apple Notes

When I left Evernote for good I was surprised that Apple Notes can import ENEX quite well. Its web app is terrible, though: IMHO everything you can see on iCloud on the web is telling you "don't use it like this - get yourself a Mac". I'm quite satisfied with using iOS and iPadOs, and Apple Notes is a decent app, but one of the great advantages of Joplin is the fact that it's truly cross-platform.

If Joplin's apps for Android and Apple devices could perform better (background sync being first on my list) even more users would decide for end-to-end-encrypted notes using FOSS tools and against Apple Notes, Evernote, OneNote and the like.

edit: With Advanced Data Protection turned on, Apple Notes is indeed E2EE, but still (as any Apple software) a far cry from cross-platform and interoperable.

[bgoodmansf]

I am tackling a similar project for a friend--70000 notes in a 62GB ENEX file. Like your case, these have a lot of scanned files and web clippings. These notes also have MANY tags.

Two things I am seeing. First, the ENEX file seems to have quite a few invalid notes--something like 1 in 1500 for my example. (This seems to be a failing in Evernote or the Evernote web clipper, not Joplin)

Second, the import speed slowed down dramatically as it progressed. I don't know the cause of that. I suspect it could be due to the large number of tags, but it may just be the number of notes. My import speed started at about 80 notes/min, but about 1/3 of the way through, it was down to 3 notes/min. This is running a recent, fast machine with SSD storage and lots of RAM.

Obviously your import speed could be quite different.