I wish there's tool to extract Apple Books' notes too
Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
71–80 of 107 posts
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#72I wish there's tool to extract Apple Books' notes too
Readwise (https://readwise.io) has a browser extension + website that will do this, a bit finicky but it gets the job done!
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#73A feature that a lot of Apple apps have that doesn't seem talked about much is they can use standard protocols and not require iCloud. Mail.app/Reminders.app/Notes.app can use IMAP, Cal.app with CalDAV, and Contacts.app with CardDAV [1]. It doesn't offer a lot of the features iCloud has like advanced formatting or collaboration, but is a useful for simple standards based syncing and portability. I've done this with m…
Yes, the IMAP sync protocol was one of my discoveries when trying to turn Apple Notes into a CMS[0]. But like you said, many features are missing. I could do without the collaboration features, but I found that tables didn't work either. A lot of the unsupported features just disappeared from the IMAP-synced note, so you can't recover them later if you move the note back to an iCloud account.
[0]: https://ricardoanderegg.com/posts/apple-notes-blog-cms/
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#74I am excited to see more solutions that work with Apple Notes database directly. This is my go-to application to capture unstructured memos while researching various topics. Last year I got carried away and built a simple site generator for Notes [0]. As a fun exercise I implemented ORM models to query Sqlite database in Ruby: User::Account.server(database: "tmp/test.sqlite").first. folders_dataset.offset(1).first no…
Hey! I remember reading your blog post a few months ago, and it inspired me to try to create a CMS using Apple Notes + the IMAP syncing features[0]. But everything felt like a hack all the time. Many features are not supported when syncing over IMAP. I wanted to have access to the SQLite database, so I can't have a non-macOS VM syncing and processing notes continuously (or at least I couldn't find a tool that can do that). Parsing the data seems like a lot of work, I was also a bit worried that Apple could introduce a change in the format that would break the current tools. Linking between notes is not well-supported, etc.
At some point, I also had some issues syncing notes between different iCloud accounts when the folder had 100s of notes, and that was probably the tipping point. As I was struggling to make it work, I kept thinking that if I just had a bunch of Markdown files I could move around, the whole process would have been easier.
I eventually realized I didn't need most features of Apple Notes, and moved to Obsidian[1]. It feels quite snappy too, and now I can easily publish some of my notes. It can also use iCloud Drive for syncing between Apple devices. It's missing some collaborative features, but I also didn't need those.
[0]: https://ricardoanderegg.com/posts/apple-notes-blog-cms/ [1]: https://ricardoanderegg.com/posts/apple-notes-to-obsidian/
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#75I am excited to see more solutions that work with Apple Notes database directly. This is my go-to application to capture unstructured memos while researching various topics. Last year I got carried away and built a simple site generator for Notes [0]. As a fun exercise I implemented ORM models to query Sqlite database in Ruby: User::Account.server(database: "tmp/test.sqlite").first. folders_dataset.offset(1).first no…
I would love to have a tool to retrieve the hyperlink of the current note so you can organize the information as a wiki. I know it uses URIs.
Hookmark app.
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't actually care about getting some data dump out of Notes. I use it as a way to quickly store temporary information. Any note older than a month is most likely useless. The most important feature is that it effortlessly syncs between my phone, work laptop, and home laptop. And that it does. Unlike a bunch of markdown files on disk where you have to create some janky syncing setup yourself which has no conflict…
Obsidian Sync works great.
I agree, but at USD $120/year it is expensive.
(It's worth it to me, but I'd still prefer something equally easy-to-use, standards-based, but self-hosted with rounds-to-zero running costs.)
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#77I am excited to see more solutions that work with Apple Notes database directly. This is my go-to application to capture unstructured memos while researching various topics. Last year I got carried away and built a simple site generator for Notes [0]. As a fun exercise I implemented ORM models to query Sqlite database in Ruby: User::Account.server(database: "tmp/test.sqlite").first. folders_dataset.offset(1).first no…
I’m trying to consolidate my note taking with Obsidian but I’m with you about Notes being a go-to tool… it’s just so much better integrated into all the apple devices, I can scribble quick notes with the pencil, ask Siri and all sorts of shortcuts can easily make or add to notes… but I’m absolutely sick of being held hostage by my software and for me my notes are too important not to protect. I’m glad to see anyone w…
For what it's worth, I am working on a tool that syncs files from a ReMarkable drawing tablet to Obsidian.
I was planning on looking into support Samsung notes and Apple notes next. An open-source project like in the OP will help a lot here!
You can subscribe to a newsletter here if you're interested (in the top right of the page)
https://streamsoft.gumroad.com/l/remarkable-to-obsidian?layo...
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#78A feature that a lot of Apple apps have that doesn't seem talked about much is they can use standard protocols and not require iCloud. Mail.app/Reminders.app/Notes.app can use IMAP, Cal.app with CalDAV, and Contacts.app with CardDAV [1]. It doesn't offer a lot of the features iCloud has like advanced formatting or collaboration, but is a useful for simple standards based syncing and portability. I've done this with m…
Hmm… I wonder how hard it would be to throw together a little IMAP server just for personal note synchronization.
Is note handling a standard part of the protocol or an extension?
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m trying to consolidate my note taking with Obsidian but I’m with you about Notes being a go-to tool… it’s just so much better integrated into all the apple devices, I can scribble quick notes with the pencil, ask Siri and all sorts of shortcuts can easily make or add to notes… but I’m absolutely sick of being held hostage by my software and for me my notes are too important not to protect. I’m glad to see anyone w…
For what it's worth, I am working on a tool that syncs files from a ReMarkable drawing tablet to Obsidian. I was planning on looking into support Samsung notes and Apple notes next. An open-source project like in the OP will help a lot here! You can subscribe to a newsletter here if you're interested (in the top right of the page) https://streamsoft.gumroad.com/l/remarkable-to-obsidian?layo...
Is this an alternative to needing Remarkable’s Connect service subscription?… Because needing Connect to sync notes off my tablet pretty much killed any desire to buy a remarkable 2 … and I voted with my wallet on it too… I bought a PineNote eink tablet instead (I hope this will eventually be a useful tablet… but I’m not holding much hope given my experience with various Linux distros on the first generation PineTab…)
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#80This is cool. I wanted to provide notes export for people using a note taking service I built and landed on a ios shortcut.
I think you can accomplish something close or the same? using shortcuts.
One obvious benefit is the interface is going to be more approachable than the jar to most people.
Shortcuts are also cool because you can build one and package it for others and even define user specific parameters that get filled on install.