Unable to import my notes back to Joplin

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T08:54:21.495Z

@laurent @foxmask
I am thankful to you guys for building such a great tool. But think it’s a bug that Joplin allows to export in a format that it doesn’t accept back. I would very thankful for your attention and response.

betternote · 2020-08-30T09:32:04.631Z

Hi,
you could read this from documentation. Also this mentioned tutorial, which explain how to convert JSON files to ENEX format.
I agree with you on the lack of warning on the export formats that don’t allow the import.

laurent · 2020-08-30T09:55:30.090Z

There’s nothing wrong in not importing a format that can be exported, however I agree that in this particular case (JSON) it might be confusing because it’s more like a machine-readable format.

It was added by a user at some point and I think I’m actually going to remove it. There’s no good reason for it to exist since as a machine readable format we already have JEX, which is not hard to parse.

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T09:57:27.062Z

Hi,
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately it’s not working.

image843×85 13.2 KB

And what inline images? how this type tool would help in importing them back?

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T10:04:24.798Z

Hi Laurent,

Thank you for your response. Yes so nobody get into this situation in future. Can you please help me to recover from it? There are many important notes that I cannot afford to lose.

Regards,

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T10:06:57.843Z

In the discussion after the tutorial there is a post from the author that states:

You've followed the steps correctly, and along the way you've learned. I suspect you're running python3 but it's still running python2.

(My emphasis)

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T10:10:59.885Z

dpoulton:

(My emphasis)

Hi,
This is the version of python I'm using. Let me know if it's not correct.

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T10:12:01.663Z

The bit that says "Python 3.6.9" kind of tells you that it's not Python 2.

Edit: and the command you used was "python3"

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T10:15:10.930Z

On the command line just type “python” and see what you get…

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T11:15:23.040Z

@dpoulton
It says Python 2.7.17

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T11:31:41.746Z

Does the script work using Python2?

As in:

python standard-notes-to-enex.py notes.txt

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T11:34:37.192Z

Tried with Python 2:

image1000×89 13.8 KB

EDIT-1: No luck

EDIT-2: Fixed some minor syntax related to the print line. Now python 2 error is same as python 3.

image834×91 13.8 KB

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T11:44:54.585Z

I thought it may have been a bit of a long shot as I could not see why a Standard Notes JSON export would be the same structure as a Joplin JSON export.

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T12:20:51.212Z

@furusiyya

Did you ever sync your notes with a server and, if you did, do you have Joplin on any other computer and how did you delete your notes after the JSON export? Did you delete all notes and allow Joplin to sync or did you just delete the .config/joplin-desktop folder?

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T12:29:17.556Z

I have Joplin at my Mobile but I allowed Joplin to sync after delete.

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T12:54:34.416Z

I do not have the knowledge to figure out a way to convert a JSON export to something Joplin can import. Therefore I am trying to think of other ways.

When you sync and that sync deletes files, does your online storage place those files in a “Recycle Bin” like Nextcloud does?

I am wondering if it would be possible to:

delete the ~/.config/joplin-deskop folder on your deskop computer, which reverts Joplin to being like a new install,
restore everything from the online storage “Recycle Bin” back into its original positions on the online storage (which hopefully it does automatically) and,
then reconnect the desktop Joplin to your sync target.

I am just trying to think of a way of getting notes back for long enough to make a JEX Export. Then the online storage / Joplin can be tided up again and the JEX Export imported.

If you do try this make sure that Joplin is not active on your mobile in case it detects any restored files as old and deleted and deletes them again. The mobile device can be sorted out afterwards by deleting the app’s cache / storage before running it again.

You may want to wait to see if any others see any flaws in the above before you start or whether they have any better suggestions…

furusiyya · 2020-08-30T15:20:04.141Z

I decided to write a python script to convert JSON into MD. After running this script, I successfully imported my notes back to Joplin.

for filename in os.listdir(os.getcwd()):
final_file = ''
try:
    data = json.load(open(filename))
    for key, item in enumerate(data):
        if item == 'title':
            final_file+=data[item]
            final_file+="\n\n"
        if item == 'body':
            final_file+=data[item]
        title = data['title']+'.md'
        with open(title, "w") as text_file:
            text_file.write(final_file)
except:
    print("\n\n\n"+filename+"\n\n\n")
    continue

dpoulton · 2020-08-30T19:51:24.217Z

Just had a try of that script.

I noticed that for it to work you need to import a couple of modules (import os, json) and modify some indents.

Also (unless I have broken your script somehow):

Any JSON files that were actually Joplin metadata (tags, notebook names, records of attached files) are lost as they get turned into notes,
You have to attach any resources again. They are all in the previously exported resources folder but do not get imported (because of item 1?),
On some notes extra carriage returns are generated which can break up tables,
The note title is also now the first line of any imported note even it it wasn’t originally (very minor point).

I am not a Python programmer so I must ask you if I have missed out any important stage / module? This is just so that I can try to learn a bit more about Python from what you have done…

BUT REGARDLESS

If anyone was ever in such a fix as yourself, it would save a huge amount of typing just to get all the note text back. Pretty impressive for just a few lines of Python!!

furusiyya · 2020-08-31T14:42:29.254Z

Yes, you are correct about import part. I didn't copied them.

Any JSON files that were actually Joplin metadata (tags, notebook names, records of attached files) are lost as they get turned into notes,

Yes they were lost. I was only aiming for Titles and Body.

you have to attach any resources again. They are all in the previously exported resources folder but do not get imported (because of item 2?),

There were very few resources so I decided not to spend time on them.

On some notes extra carriage returns are generated which can break up tables,

If you are talking about the except part. I did it handle to some non JSON files in directory. I never used tables in Joplin. But now I know about them so I will try.

The note title is also now the first line of any imported note even it it wasn’t originally (very minor point).

Yes, this is something that I wouldn't do if I have to do this again.

I am not a Python programmer so I must ask you if I have missed out any important stage / module? This is just so that I can try to learn a bit more about Python from what you have done…

Same here. I tried to understand the syntax of the script shared by betternote and updated with the help of google. No extra module. I was running out of time so python impressed me too.

dpoulton · 2020-08-31T19:35:51.201Z

furusiyya:

Same here. I tried to understand the syntax of the script shared by betternote and updated with the help of google.

Thanks for the update. I am even more impressed that as a non-Python user you were able to take the original script and, with just a bit of Googling, turn it into something that got your notes back. Seeing you do this has encouraged me to finally try to learn more about Python. It seems too useful to ignore.