How to Migrate from Any Notes App to Another: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2026

Why Switch? The Real Triggers Behind the Great Note Migration of 2026

The note-taking app market grew from $11.02 billion in 2025 to $13.3 billion in 2026 — a compound annual growth rate of 20.6%, according to The Business Research Company. That kind of expansion means more users are entering the space, but it also means the tools they rely on are changing faster than ever. Pricing overhauls, feature limits, and shifting ownership models are pushing even loyal users to reconsider their setup.

Three triggers account for the majority of migration decisions today:

• Pricing shocks. Evernote's free plan now limits you to 50 notes and a single device, and its paid plans start at $14.99 per month. For users who once paid $69.99 per year, the jump has been a dealbreaker.
• Feature ceilings. Apple Notes caps your free storage at 5GB of iCloud space. Notion's offline mode remains unreliable for many workflows. Google Keep is excellent for quick capture but lacks the organizational depth of a full PKM system.
• Vendor lock-in anxiety. As the Creativerly piece on choosing a note-taking app puts it, users need to be able to export notes in various formats so they can leave if the app lacks updates, changes focus, or is acquired and abandoned.

The good news: modern conversion tools have matured to the point where a weekend is enough to move even a decade-old vault. The documented case of an 18,750-note Evernote archive migrated to Obsidian in a single weekend is not an outlier — it is a sign of how far the ecosystem has come.

Pre-Migration Audit: What You Have and What Might Break

Before you export a single file, take inventory. A migration is only as smooth as your understanding of what you are moving. Walk through these five checks:

• Count your total notes. Most apps show this in settings or the sidebar. Knowing the scale helps you choose the right conversion tool and estimate time.
• Identify note types. Do you have mostly plain text? Embedded images? PDF attachments? Audio recordings? Complex tables with merged cells? Each type has a different survival rate during conversion.
• Check your tag and notebook structure. Some apps (Evernote, OneNote) use notebooks and tags; others (Apple Notes) use folders; Google Keep uses labels. Hierarchies often flatten during migration.
• Look for orphan formats. Old Evernote .enex files with embedded objects, Apple Notes with sketch attachments, or Notion databases with linked views — these are the items most likely to require manual rework.
• Audit your most-used notes. Identify the 20 to 50 notes you access weekly. After migration, these are the ones you should verify first.

Export from Your Source App: Step-by-Step

Each source app has its own export format and quirks. Below are the cleanest paths for the five most common source apps. Run these exports before you do anything else — and keep the original files untouched until the migration is verified.

Google Keep → Google Takeout

Google Keep does not offer a one-click export. You must use Google Takeout. Select only Keep from the product list, choose .html format, and request the archive. Google will email you a download link when it is ready — typically within minutes for small accounts. The resulting archive contains individual .html files for each note and a separate .json file with metadata. Google Keep offers 15GB of free storage shared across all Google services.

Evernote → .enex

Evernote's native export format is .enex, an XML-based file that preserves note content, tags, attachments, and creation/modification timestamps. On the desktop app, select the notebooks you want to export, choose File → Export Notes, and pick .enex format. Export one notebook at a time for large vaults — a single .enex file with thousands of notes can become unwieldy. Note that Evernote's free plan, which limits you to 50 notes and one device, may prevent bulk export unless you upgrade temporarily.

Notion → Markdown & CSV

Notion offers a built-in export under Settings → Settings & Members → Export. You can export all content as Markdown & CSV, which produces a folder of .md files for each page and a .csv for database tables. Notion's export preserves basic Markdown formatting, but it does not preserve database views, linked databases, or complex relational structures. If you rely heavily on Notion databases, expect to rebuild those views manually in the destination app.

Apple Notes → .enex (via Mac)

Apple Notes does not have a native export feature on iOS. On a Mac, you can select notes in the Notes app and drag them to the Finder, which creates .rtf files — but this loses metadata. A better approach is to use a third-party tool that converts Apple Notes to .enex format, which is then readable by most conversion tools. The Obsidian Importer plugin, for example, supports direct import from Apple Notes on macOS.

OneNote → .zip (via Desktop App)

OneNote's desktop app (Windows or Mac) allows you to export notebooks as .zip packages containing .html files and embedded attachments. Go to File → Export → Notebook, choose the format, and save. OneNote's free plan includes 5GB of storage; additional storage costs $1.99 per month for 100GB, or you can subscribe to Microsoft 365 starting at $7.20 per month.

Conversion Tools: Which One Should You Use?

Once you have your export files, you need a conversion tool to translate them into a format your destination app can read. Three options dominate the landscape in 2026, each with different strengths.

The Obsidian Importer plugin is the most comprehensive single-tool option if your destination is Obsidian. It supports one-step migration from eight or more source apps, including Apple Notes, Bear, Craft, Evernote, Google Keep, OneNote, Notion, and Roam. For users migrating to Obsidian, this is the path of least resistance.

NotesMigrator is a free, browser-based tool that runs entirely on the client side — your files never leave your machine. It supports conversion between Google Keep (.html), Evernote (.enex), and Markdown (Notion/Obsidian exports), and can output to Apple Notes (.enex), Evernote (.enex), Markdown, and JSON. It preserves creation and modification dates using a two-tier strategy and gracefully skips corrupted files. If you are not moving to Obsidian, this is your best bet for a privacy-safe conversion.

Import into Your Destination App with Formatting Preservation

With your converted files ready, the import step is usually the simplest — but it is also where expectations need to be realistic. Here is what typically survives and what does not, along with destination-specific guidance.

What Survives (Mostly)

• Plain text and basic Markdown formatting (bold, italic, headings, lists, links)
• Creation and modification timestamps (when using NotesMigrator or Obsidian Importer)
• Tags and labels (though hierarchies may flatten)
• Inline images (usually embedded as base64 or referenced as attachments)

What Often Breaks

• Complex tables with merged cells or nested formatting
• Embedded files and audio recordings (may become broken links)
• Notebook or folder hierarchies (most destination apps flatten into a single folder or tag structure)
• Database views and linked databases from Notion
• Hand-drawn sketches from Apple Notes or OneNote

Destination-Specific Import Steps

• Obsidian: Use the Obsidian Importer plugin. Point it to your export folder, and it will create a new vault with all notes, tags, and attachments. Obsidian stores all notes locally as plain Markdown files, giving you full data sovereignty — Atlas Workspace scores Obsidian 10/10 on Data Sovereignty.
• Notion: Use the Import feature under Settings → Import. Notion supports .csv, .html, and Markdown imports. Note that Notion's Data Sovereignty score is 5/10 in the Atlas Workspace framework, meaning your data is stored on Notion's servers and export is possible but not as straightforward as with local-first tools.
• OneNote: Use the desktop app's Import feature. OneNote can import .enex files directly, making it a natural destination for Evernote refugees. OneNote's free plan includes 5GB of storage.
• Joplin: Import Markdown files directly. Joplin is free and open-source, stores notes locally, and supports syncing via Dropbox, NextCloud, or OneDrive. Joplin Cloud syncing starts at €2.99 per month.

Post-Migration Checklist: Verify Everything Before You Delete the Source

The golden rule of note migration: never delete the source until you have verified the destination. Run through this checklist after your import completes:

• Verify timestamps. Spot-check 10 to 20 notes to confirm that creation and modification dates survived the conversion. If they did not, note it — some workflows depend on chronological sorting.
• Test search. Search for five keywords you know appear in your notes. If the destination app's search misses them, there may be an indexing issue or a formatting problem.
• Reconcile tags and notebooks. Compare your tag list in the source app against the destination. Flattened hierarchies are common — decide whether to reorganize or accept the flat structure.
• Check attachments and images. Open a handful of notes that contained images, PDFs, or audio files. If attachments are missing or broken, you may need to re-embed them manually.
• Confirm critical notes. Open the 20 to 50 notes you identified in the pre-migration audit. If they look correct, the rest of your vault is almost certainly fine.
• Run a full-text export test. Export a small subset of notes from the destination app and verify that the exported files are readable and complete.

For a deeper look at why data portability matters beyond the migration itself — including the hidden costs of switching and how to evaluate a tool's long-term viability — read our analysis of Note-Taking Applications in 2026: AI Features, Data Portability, and the Real Cost of Switching.

Appendices: Format Compatibility Matrix & Tool Comparison Table

The two tables below serve as quick-reference guides. The first shows which export formats each source and destination app supports. The second consolidates the conversion tool comparison from Section 4 for easy scanning.

Format Compatibility Matrix

Consolidated Tool Comparison

For a broader feature comparison of note-taking software — including AI features, collaboration tools, and platform support — see our Best Note-Taking Software 2026 roundup, which covers 10+ apps compared by use case, price, and platform.