I’ve made the decision to leave Evernote for reasons you all know. The export feature in version 10.86.8 crashes after trying to migrate 900, then 400 notes. With 15,000, It’ll take forever. Half these notes were created in DRAFTS and now in my Drafts archive.
I would like to use Obsidian as my new repository. Is there a way to export Drafts PRO inbox and archive directly to Obsidian? None are tagged.
This won’t rescue the attachments, Notes created in Evernote, encrypted notes, web clips, etc… I don’t see another way and I refuse to be chained to this company any longer. Yes, Its a drastic option. Evernote and Reddit forums all say use Evernote Legacy version (no longer works) or Evernote-backup from Github (couldn’t figure it out since I’m not familiar with the Terminal).
I should have taking the hint when bendSpoon purchased and folks here, reddit, podcasts, etc…all said get out now.
Would appreciate any recommendations on how to get mass numbers of Drafts to Obsidian. I saw @agiletortoise@sylumer ACTION in the DIRECTORY to push notes I create moving forward into Obsidian. Just gotta get the old ones out.
Have you looked at batch running the export action of your choice? Drafts allows you to select multiple drafts and then select to run an action against each one. You could setup a workspace to mak sure you have jutlst the Drafts you want and then run your exporting action against that.
Fundamentally any action that saves to a Markdown file will suffice, but you could tailor the output to include additional meta data in YAML/Frontmatter for each file.
Your post caught my eye having escaped the tyranny of Evernote many years ago and moved to Devonthink (which I love). Where are you going to store all your non markdown files?
Thanks for the recommendation to run an ACTION against multiple Drafts. I didn’t know that was capable. I see the function now and just tested it on two DRAFTS to get a feel for the process and it works. I’ll start testing for large scale use of this feature to as an alternative to pulling from Evernote. It will come in handy for other reasons I can think of also. Thanks for adding it to my tool kit!
Meantime, I’ve started finding hints from the web suggesting I may be able to pull my other documents, and items NOT created in Drafts. I’ll continue to pursue that as well.
@sgbirch , I heard a lot about both DEVONthink and CRAFT but haven’t made a decision. I’m new to Obsidian, but it looks like it’s possible to store attachments as a file locally and link to that app so that it functions essentially like Evernote did for me. After the deep scar from Evernote, I want to be careful which apps might lock me in moving forward.
I haven’t figured out why others are storing docs using one of the apps above if Obsidian is their note app of choice. Seems like you’d want to store it there.
If I may ask, why Devonthink and any concerns over getting your stuff out if you decide to leave in the future?
FWIW I use DEVONthink (DT) and Obsidian. Obsidian is cross platform and is for my notes. Drafts is my inbox for information.
DT handles my reference content. It can index a wide variety of files and has fantastic search and filing capabilities. But it is Apple platforms only (Web office version hosted on a Mac access not withstanding) and does not have the plugin architecture. I also sync to my NAS and the volume is a little large for native Obsidian sync. DT has no lock-in as the files are held directly in the file system and the indexing applied over the top - similar to the Obsidian and Markdown files approach.
Many people do something similar with working notes In Obsidian and reference materials elsewhere. They can be cross referenced with hyperlinks.
TL;DR. Notion for “Lift and Shift”. It works on attachments and tags. Tasks failed.
Awesome Evernote import/migration tool. Do your note imports in batches so you can keep track. I did one or a few notebooks at a time.
i just went through the same process a few weeks ago after 3 years of promising “by next year” i’d be out of evernote. After this year’s doubling of price, I decided to finish my migration. 25k notes since 2007, most with PDF attachments. Export tools often failed, not reliable. So i set out to get stuff manually. I got most of the important stuff, but with a significant batch still in Evernote jail.
NOTION I tried Notion import, and the results were spectacular. I bulk imported all my notebooks and tags came through as did attachments, beautifully.
Free version suffices for now. And I’m out of Evernote.
Evernote offered a 40% discount as i was about to click YES DO ACTUALLY CANCEL, I MEAN IT, LIKE REALLY, YES. But by this time, I was so pissed, I clicked. #youaretheweakestlinkgoodbye
DRAFTS ROCKS
I am also now in DRAFTS, and it is now my inbox for everything. I paid in to be able to create and modify my own actions. But the free set includes an export to Obsidian.
OBSIDIAN
Also new to Obsidian, and I’ve chosen it as my repository. I have the Notion database as well, as a backup, but so far am not using it, sticking with Obsidian for now.
Obsidian using iCloud+ sync is kludgey. My Vault uses an alias directory inside iCloud folder which is somehow hidden, so quite some trickery to be able to select the directory for a DRAFTS action via a bookmark.
Also, I don’t like that anything pasted in Obsidian also appears as a file in your vault. What a mess.
@umbras, Yes, that does help a great deal! I’ve heard lots about NOTION. Sounds like you are using both NOTION and OBSIDIAN. The fact that you’ve begun using Obsidian more so suggests to me that (for you at least) it was the better choice. I’m starting with OB and see where it takes me. I’ll likely need to break mine into multiple vaults to speed up the main vault (synched across, MAC, Windows, IPAD, and iPhone [last two seem to be choking on 32,000 files, 4900 folders]).
I have been on the DRAFTS bandwagon since early 2010s. I start from drafts on everything. Between Shortcuts to create call log and meeting templates to TextExpander, I can ROCK in drafts. I just transitioned into DraftsPro last year so there’s a lot to learn there.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! Much appreciated!
I switched from Evenote to Obsidian, and still use Drafts for other needs.
From Evernote you can export notes in ENEX files, then import ENEX file in Obsidian importer.
You can also use Yarle-evernote standalone importer (free).
From Drafts, an action can send a Draft note to Obsidian.
All works fine until now.
@JCDichant , Thanks for the response. The challenge for me was getting my notes exported out. I was able to come up with a solution that worked. Once out, it was a breeze getting into Obsidian. Now, I’m updating my DRAFTS actions to map to specific folders. Currently stuck on getting tags created by the ACTION to populate the tags property in OB. I may ask the group another question if I can’t figure out the tag part.
Delete first - thousands of notes no longer had value and I’m normally a packrat
Some items, I found again internet and clipped into DevonThink
Downloaded an older version of Evernote → Direct Important into DevonThink
I’ve got over 32GB of data in DevonThink, so I’m committed. However, if you were determined, you might get the job done and re-exported in the trial period.
I won’ try to sell you on DT. I will just say, I’m a happy user.
How is your escape from tyrannical Evernote progressing?
Devonthink doesn’t lock you in, the files can easily be exported or even accessed directly on the disk where they are stored. But, it dies lock you in with love! I can’t escape DT because it is so incredibly useful.
Well heck @sgbirch ! Now you’ve got me interested in looking again!
I’m out of Evernote finally! Cancelled my plan, deactivated my account and in about 60 days I’ll go and delete the account. Holding on in case I need something that didn’t make the trip (though I’m pretty confident I’ve got it all).
I’m setting up my project dashboard(s) with dataviews, establishing my system and overall getting settled with Obsidian. I launch text from drafts exclusively, not a lot of document uploads to obsidian yet so that’s still new territory.
The DT satisfaction rate seems high, giving me serious FOMO. Gonna ride the pine a bit longer to get more comfortable with obsidian before I explore again. Thanks for the note.