Importing notes from other notebook applications

Daeraxa · 2021-12-16T13:04:56.123Z

Importing notes from other notebook applications

There is a concise topic for this located in the official documentation but I think a wiki post here will allow for others to add to this document as and when they learn about a new tool or trick for importing.
Please edit this wiki post as required (in the top right of this post) to add or change information as you deem necessary.
This post does not mean the main document cannot be updated with new info but with the current documentation format it is better to keep that section concise whereas this post can be as long and verbose as it needs to be and can be edited "on the fly" without requirement of PRs and reviews.

This first section covers the generic import methods supported natively by Joplin.
The second section covers information about specific applications by way of information and links to tools or related forum topics.

Evernote `.enex`

This is the standard import method using Evernote's own export format .enex.

For information and instructions see the official documentation.

This also applies to any other application capable of exporting its notes into .enex format or the end goal of various conversion scripts.

Markdown

Joplin supports import of both markdown files and markdown directories.

For information and instructions see the official documentation.

Many applications are capable of either exporting to markdown or simply work off of a markdown directory on the filesystem (e.g. Obsidian, Zettlr, QOwnNotes).

Other generic formats

There are a number of other generic formats that may be used as a target for exporting from certain applications that are not supported by the importer but plenty of tools can be found out there to support the conversion into a recognised format - most commonly markdown. This also includes importing from file types stored on the filesystem outside of a specific notebook application.

Pandoc is the perfect example of such a tool. Common export formats for conversion that are compatible:

HTML
Emacs Org-Mode
Textile
reStructuredText
MS Word (.docx)
Rich text (.rtf)

Example of use would be something like (using html as an example):

For .html files within a directory


for f in *.html ; do pandoc ${f} -f html -t markdown -s -o ${f}.md ; done

or

For recursive directory conversion with subfolders


find . -name "*.ht*" | while read i; do pandoc -f html -t markdown "$i" -o "${i%.*}.md"; done

Once converted you can remove the .html files and import to Joplin. You may find you need to play with and tweak the exact markdown format you export to (e.g. markdown, markdown_strict, markdown_mmd) as well as using flags such as raw_html/tex options to maintain certain tags without conversion.

@Marph's Jimmy Import Tool

Jimmy: A Joplin Import Tool Apps

jimmy is a tool to import notes in various formats to Joplin. Which formats are supported? Every format that is supported by pandoc. Additionally txt and asciidoc. Bear, Google Keep, Notion, Obsidian, Simplenote, Standard Notes, Synology Note Station, Zoho Notebook and more. See the readme. For formats like Evernote or Onenote, Joplins built-in import should be used. What is converted (in most cases)? Note content Metadata Tags / Labels Resources / Attachments Images External links and …

Specific notebook formats

Some applications simply don't play nicely with generic and open formats and instead need specialised tools and scripts often supplied by the community in order for them to give up their secrets.

OneNote

One of the most common targets for conversion, there are a number of methods that can work here.

@alxnbl's OneNote export to Joplin
@ben's Onenote to markdown script
Import to Evernote before exporting. However it seems this is no longer well supported and only works in the legacy versions for which support is not guaranteed.

Colornote

@ratchek's Importing from colornote script

Zoho Notebook

Export to HTML then follow the guide above for HTML importing
@use's html to markdown + frontmatter converter

Apple Notes

Exporter app on the app store can export to a markdown directory, then just follow the generic markdown instructions above
Notes exporter
Apple notes export
@jswetzen's python script
Apple Notes Liberator

Google Keep

See this thread for details
Python script not requiring takeout

Standard Notes

Migrate notes from Standard Notes to Joplin (programadorwebvalencia) exports to .enex

Tomboy Notes

A number of methods (convert to HTML, convert from internal XML, export scripts) can be found here

Nixnote

It seems notes can be imported from the old version but the new format for Nixnote2 is not supported

Nimbus Note

Python script and corresponding thread

Trilium

Right click the >> root and press export, select this note and all its descendants and Markdown

Notion

@adamfoerster's script for importing Notion notes
Supports export to a combination of markdown + CSV due to the structure of the application
@tanrax's python script

Bear

Supports export of notes to markdown

Tiddlywiki

@FloatingBoater's python script to convert TiddlyWiki export CSV file to a Joplin JEX file

Toodledo

@Bene's toodledo2joplin import script

Turtl

@krystalwolf's python script

Wiznote

Updated functional fork of original python script by zrong

Xiaomi Notes / Mi Cloud

Xiaomi Note Exporter will export to a single Markdown file that would then need to be split (various methods described here).

Evernote version 2

Importing notes from evernote version 2 (.enx format)

Obsidian with attachments

Convert Obsidian vault to Joplin - #5 by mke21

Simple Note

@rafap's JSON to Enex Python Script
Effilicious import script

Daeraxa · 2021-12-16T13:05:28.920Z