Apple Notes Migration Deep Dive

Overview

Migrating to or from Apple Notes requires understanding that Notes stores content as proprietary HTML with no REST API for bulk operations. All automation goes through JXA/osascript on a local Mac. This guide covers the four most common migration paths with production-tested scripts. Key challenges include: HTML-to-Markdown conversion fidelity, attachment extraction limitations (JXA cannot export binary attachment data directly), and iCloud sync delays that affect timing of bulk imports.

Migration Paths

Step 1: Pre-Migration Backup

#!/bin/bash
# Always back up before migration
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/notes-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const data = Notes.defaultAccount.notes().map(n => ({
    id: n.id(), title: n.name(), body: n.body(),
    folder: n.container().name(),
    created: n.creationDate().toISOString(),
    modified: n.modificationDate().toISOString(),
    attachments: n.attachments().length
  }));
  JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);
' > "$BACKUP_DIR/full-export.json"
echo "Backed up $(jq length "$BACKUP_DIR/full-export.json") notes to $BACKUP_DIR"

Step 2: Apple Notes to Obsidian

#!/bin/bash
VAULT_DIR="$HOME/obsidian-vault/Apple Notes Import"
mkdir -p "$VAULT_DIR"

osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  Notes.defaultAccount.notes().map(n => JSON.stringify({
    title: n.name(), body: n.body(),
    folder: n.container().name(),
    created: n.creationDate().toISOString(),
  })).join("\n===NOTESEP===\n");
' | while IFS= read -r line; do
  [ "$line" = "===NOTESEP===" ] && continue
  title=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.title' 2>/dev/null) || continue
  body=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.body' 2>/dev/null)
  folder=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.folder' 2>/dev/null)
  created=$(echo "$line" | jq -r '.created' 2>/dev/null)

  # Convert Apple Notes HTML to Markdown
  md=$(echo "$body" | sed 's/<h1>/# /g; s/<\/h1>//g; s/<h2>/## /g; s/<\/h2>//g' \
    | sed 's/<li class="done">/- [x] /g; s/<li>/- /g; s/<\/li>//g' \
    | sed 's/<br[^>]*>/\n/g; s/<[^>]*>//g' | sed '/^$/N;/^\n$/d')

  safe_title=$(echo "$title" | tr '/:*?"<>|' '-' | head -c 80)
  mkdir -p "$VAULT_DIR/$folder"
  printf "---\ncreated: %s\nsource: apple-notes\n---\n\n%s\n" "$created" "$md" \
    > "$VAULT_DIR/$folder/$safe_title.md"
done
echo "Migration complete: $(find "$VAULT_DIR" -name '*.md' | wc -l) files in $VAULT_DIR"

Step 3: Obsidian to Apple Notes

#!/bin/bash
# Import Markdown files into Apple Notes
VAULT_DIR="${1:-$HOME/obsidian-vault}"
COUNT=0
find "$VAULT_DIR" -name '*.md' -type f | while read -r md_file; do
  title=$(head -20 "$md_file" | grep -m1 '^# ' | sed 's/^# //')
  [ -z "$title" ] && title=$(basename "$md_file" .md)
  # Convert Markdown to Apple Notes HTML
  body=$(cat "$md_file" | sed 's/^# \(.*\)/<h1>\1<\/h1>/; s/^## \(.*\)/<h2>\1<\/h2>/' \
    | sed 's/\*\*\([^*]*\)\*\*/<b>\1<\/b>/g; s/\*\([^*]*\)\*/<i>\1<\/i>/g' \
    | sed 's/$/<br>/g' | tr -d '\n')
  osascript -l JavaScript -e "
    const Notes = Application('Notes');
    const note = Notes.Note({name: '$title', body: '$body'});
    Notes.defaultAccount.folders[0].notes.push(note);
  "
  COUNT=$((COUNT + 1))
  sleep 1  # Throttle for iCloud sync
done
echo "Imported $COUNT notes"

Error Handling

Resources

• Mac Automation Scripting Guide
• Obsidian URI Protocol
• Notion Import API

Next Steps

For data format details and HTML conversion, see apple-notes-data-handling. For macOS version compatibility during migration, see apple-notes-upgrade-migration.