Apple Notes Core Workflow B — Export & Conversion

Overview

Export Apple Notes to portable formats: Markdown, JSON, HTML files, and SQLite databases. Apple Notes stores content as HTML internally — these workflows convert it to developer-friendly formats.

Prerequisites

• Authorization for exact folders and fields, an encrypted owner-only destination, and a retention/deletion policy.
• A test export of synthetic notes and a checksum/reconciliation method.
• A decision on attachment handling; do not infer that content or attachment export is complete from JXA metadata.

Instructions

1. Export one named scope at a time, minimize fields, and keep note content out of command history and console output.
2. Create the destination with restrictive permissions before export; sanitize filenames and HTML before writing derived files.
3. Verify record count and checksum, then encrypt or move the artifact according to the approved handling policy.
4. Keep SQLite or search indexes private and time-bounded; they replicate sensitive note data.

Procedure

Step 1: Export All Notes to JSON

osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const allNotes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const exported = allNotes.map(n => ({
    id: n.id(),
    title: n.name(),
    body: n.body(),
    folder: n.container().name(),
    created: n.creationDate().toISOString(),
    modified: n.modificationDate().toISOString(),
  }));
  JSON.stringify(exported, null, 2);
' > apple-notes-export.json

echo "Exported $(jq length apple-notes-export.json) notes to apple-notes-export.json"

Step 2: Export Notes as Markdown Files

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/notes-to-markdown.sh
OUTPUT_DIR="${1:-./notes-export}"
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

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

  # Convert HTML to basic Markdown
  md_body=$(echo "$body" | sed 's/<h1>/# /g; s/<\/h1>//g; s/<h2>/## /g; s/<\/h2>//g; s/<p>//g; s/<\/p>/\n/g; s/<br>/\n/g; s/<li>/- /g; s/<\/li>//g; s/<[^>]*>//g')

  safe_title=$(echo "$title" | tr '/:' '-' | head -c 100)
  mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR/$folder"
  echo -e "# $title\n\n$md_body" > "$OUTPUT_DIR/$folder/$safe_title.md"
done

echo "Export complete: $OUTPUT_DIR"

Step 3: Export to SQLite Database

# Using apple-notes-to-sqlite (pip install apple-notes-to-sqlite)
pip install apple-notes-to-sqlite
apple-notes-to-sqlite export notes.db

# Or build your own with JXA + sqlite3
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const rows = notes.map(n =>
    `INSERT INTO notes (title, body, folder, created) VALUES (${JSON.stringify(n.name())}, ${JSON.stringify(n.body())}, ${JSON.stringify(n.container().name())}, ${JSON.stringify(n.creationDate().toISOString())});`
  ).join("\n");
  rows;
' > /tmp/notes-inserts.sql

sqlite3 notes.db << 'SQL'
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notes (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, title TEXT, body TEXT, folder TEXT, created TEXT);
.read /tmp/notes-inserts.sql
SELECT COUNT(*) || ' notes imported' FROM notes;
SQL

Step 4: Full-Text Search on Exported Notes

# Search across all exported notes
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const query = "project plan";
  const results = Notes.defaultAccount.notes().filter(n => {
    const body = n.body().toLowerCase();
    const name = n.name().toLowerCase();
    return body.includes(query) || name.includes(query);
  });
  results.map(n => `${n.name()} (${n.container().name()})`).join("\n");
'

Output

• JSON export of all notes with metadata
• Markdown files organized by folder
• SQLite database with full note content
• Full-text search across notes

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Slow export	Thousands of notes	Export in batches by folder
HTML artifacts in Markdown	Complex formatting	Use a proper HTML-to-MD library (turndown)
Missing attachments	Images not exported	Attachments need separate export path
Encoding issues	Unicode in note titles	Use safe filename sanitization

Examples

For a rehearsal, export a synthetic folder to a temporary encrypted workspace, compare the expected count and checksum, then remove it. For a live backup, send only the resulting record count and artifact checksum to monitoring; never publish titles, folders, or full-text search results in the job log.

Resources

• apple-notes-to-sqlite
• AppleNotesExport

Next Steps

For common errors, see apple-notes-common-errors.