Why not just use the built-in Shortcuts to export to your preferred format?
You should absolutely just do this. 100% the better option. I wanted to learn more about how Apple Notes stores its data and see how I could interact with it.
Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
61–70 of 107 posts
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#62I don't understand what value this tool adds over the library it uses under the hood (which includes a command line tool for exporting your notes; I've been using it for years). What is it for?
Literally 0 added value here over the other library. In fact, my tool is a net value subtraction from the other library. The other library has way more features and works great! This was mostly a project for my own learning of how Apple Notes stores its data. I honestly didn't expect it do get any attention!
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#63I wish someone did this for Whatsapp without having to jailbreak my phone.
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#64I built something similar a while back. But instead of pulling the data out of Notes, I took it from SMTP mail. I don't know if it still works this way, but when I did it, if you used a non-iCloud email address to sync Notes, it saved the data as pain text in email messages that could be easily parsed.
Wow that is so cool! I had no idea Notes.app worked with IMAP!
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#65instead of extracting notes data as JSON my simple tool allows you to liberate your notes by publishing them to the web. https://montaigne.io/ I use the same amazing library linked in the blog post.
Okay this is awesome! 100% cooler than my project!!
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#66A 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…
Wow! this is so cool! I had no idea about this!
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#67I have published an app [Exporter]( https://apps.apple.com/us/app/exporter/id1099120373?mt=12 ) that does something similar - exports Apple Notes to HTML and markdown with the attachments. Give it a try, let me know if it solves your issue. Also, why did you select JSON as the output format?
This is so cool and way cooler than my tool!! I chose JSON because it was the easiest option. And also because it is the format I wanted to support first, but mostly because it was the easiest.
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
A notes app that only works with one 2-trillion-dollar company's hardware and does not have builtin functionality to export notes (e.g. a menu option to do so) cannot reasonably be described as good. One's expectations have to be through the floor for that to be an honest appraisal. Compare it to Obsidian, which just stores data in a bunch of markdown files on disk.
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.
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're commenting on the website for a project called "Apple Notes Liberator". Obsidian does not need a "liberator".
You're moving the goalposts. Your first comment: > and does not have builtin functionality to export notes (e.g. a menu option to do so) That's incorrect: you can export to PDF. Certainly not as handy as Markdown, but it's there. Additionally, Apple offers AppleScript as a way to do even more. No, this isn't an open source piece of software. If that's your sole criteria for "good" then you're right, it's bad.
OK, pretend that I edited my comment to say "batch export notes with full fidelity". Happy?
Re: Show HN: Apple Notes Liberator – Extract Notes.app Data and Save It as JSON
#70Thanks for creating this. I must say that I don't find things written in Java on HN very often.